NEW DELHI, INDIA: IT Industry body NASSCOM today announced the winners of the NASSCOM Innovation Awards 2010. From the 24 companies shortlisted, 9 winners will be felicitated for their outstanding contribution to the Indian IT sector, at the forthcoming NASSCOM India Leadership Forum 2010, scheduled in Mumbai on 10 February, 2010, NASSCOM said in a press release.

The winners are: 1. AirTight Networks, 2. ComViva, 3. Eka Software Solutions, 4. IBM Daksh Business Process Services Pvt Ltd, 5. RuralShores Business Services Pvt. Ltd, 6.Tejas Networks, 7. Tringme, 8. Wipro Technologies, and 9. Zoho Corporation.

The winners were selected after a rigorous three stage process culminating in road shows at Chennai, Bangalore, Delhi and Pune.

NASSCOM’s Innovation Awards seeks to recognize the companies that have set the highest benchmark in innovation and at the same time, promote the culture of innovation in the Indian IT-BPO Industry, according to the release.

Innovation has been identified as a key driver for the Indian IT-BPO industry to sustain its competitive edge by the NASSCOM Boston Consulting Group (BCG) innovation report. In addition, the NASSCOM-McKinsey Perspective 2020 report estimates that the Indian IT-BPO industry can tap additional revenue streams worth $75 billion by the year 2020 through innovation.

Congratulating the winners, Som Mittal, president, NASSCOM, said, “The Indian IT-BPO industry has been a source of innovation, not only in terms of new solutions but also new processes and business models. This is the seventh year of these awards, and we are excited with the ever increasing number of nominations by companies hungry to make a mark on the global stage.”

Mittal further added that apart from the global opportunity, there was a huge unfulfilled market in India's billion plus population for several unique product and services innovations in fields that include healthcare, education, financial services, retail, e-governance etc.

“To realize this huge opportunity, it is important that innovation becomes an essential part of our culture as we move into the next decade,” he further said.