Have you voted for CIOL Person of the Year?

BANGALORE, INDIA: They aren't overnight sensations. They have earned name and fame through one of the most conventional ways: Hard work and dedication. They didn't set out to change the world. They just utilised a slew of opportunities that came their way and turned them into extraordinary successes in this year.

Meet the 10 candidates for CIOL's Person of the Year-2012 award. They are a rare combination of success and supreme intelligence. They emerged as successful leaders by epitomizing the spirit of dynamism. Now, it is your responsibility to choose one among them as CIOL's Person of the Year. Cast your vote for the person you think has influenced the technology scene the most this year. You can vote in the poll (on the right) or write the name in the comments tag.

The personality getting the highest readers' vote will be named the CIOL Person of the Year-2012 on December 28, 2012. The votes on the CIOL website as well as social media networks will be counted. The 10 candidates (in alphabetical order) for CIOL PERSON OF THE YEAR are:

1. Aamir Khan, Bollywood actor

2. Ajaypal Singh Banga, CEO, MasterCard

3. Francisco D'Souza, 43, CEO, Cognizant

4. Girish Ramdas, founder, Magzter

5. N Chandrasekaran, CEO Tata Consultancy Services

6. Nandan Nilekani, Chairman, UIDAI

7. Ratan Tata, Tata Group

8. Sunil Bharti Mittal, group CEO, Bharti Enterprises

9. Gul Panag, Bollywood actor and social media enthusiast

10. Kirthiga Reddy, head of India, Facebook1. Aamir Khan, Bollywood actor

Know more about them here

1.Aamir Khan, Bollywood actor

Renowned widely as a 'thinking' actor, Aamir Khan took a technology leap in 2012. He has used them all - analytics, social media, Windows 8, website, tweeting and blogging. He engaged with audience through his television show, Satyamev Jayate - the videos of its episodes went viral on the Web and drove some policy rethinking at the government level - and he has been promoting his latest flick, Talaash, on Windows 8.

2. Ajaypal Singh Banga, CEO, MasterCard

He is the president and chief executive officer of MasterCard, a technology company and payments industry leader across the globe. Banga was ranked eighth on Fortune's list of 'Businesspersons of the Year', an annual ranking of 50 global leaders. Ever since Banga took over the reins two years ago, MasterCard's stock has more than doubled, outperforming archrival, Visa. Banga is chairman of the U.S.-India Business Council. He also serves as a member of the Executive Committee of the Business Roundtable and chairs its Information and Technology Initiative.

 

 

3. Francisco D'Souza, 43, CEO, Cognizant Technology Solutions

Young and dynamic D'Souza is steadily taking Cognizant up the success ladder. This year, Cognizant overtook Infosys to become the second largest software exporter from India. While Infosys ruled the IT world for over a decade-and-a-half, down the line after its establishment in 1981, Cognizant was founded in 1994. Now, D'Souza has set his sights higher and is eyeing to take the top slot from TCS soon. In November, CTS for the second consecutive quarter has overtaken TCS and Infosys in quarterly revenues, probably an indicator for what is in store for future.

4. Girish Ramdas, founder, Magzter

The digital magazine store was the No. 1 grosser in India on Apple App Store in November 2012. Magzter has overtaken international favorites and long-standing grossers like Angry Birds, New York Times for iPad, Clash of Clans, Frontline Commando, Quick Office Pro HD, Paradise Cove, FIFA 13, Need for Speed, Temple Run, Documents To Go, Poker by Zynga and Zinio. Its total number of global users is 4.5 million, an impressive achievement in a brief span of one-and-a-half years of its existence. Ramdas plans to add novels and other books soon on the revolutionary app.

5. Gul Panag, Bollywood actor and social media enthusiast

Not just glamorous, but the most tech-savvy personality. Not to forget her prolific blogging and tweeting. In 2009, she became the first Bollywood star to be the ‘Twitter Face' for the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week (WLIFW). During this process, she was responsible for posting live event updates in the form of tweets. Be it a phone launch or earthquake, she will be one among the first to Tweet about it. By building this strong online presence, the actor has also managed to create a lot of awareness about her social work projects.

6. Kirthiga Reddy, head of India at Facebook

From being the first employee at Facebook India in 2010 to head its online operations in India, the 40-year-old Reddy has come a long way, helping the social network establish a firm foothold in a market that not so long ago went gaga over Orkut. During her tenure, Facebook's user base in India has grown from 8 million in 2010 to over 60 million now, a colossal figure that, next only to the number of users in the United States.

7. N Chandrasekaran, CEO Tata Consultancy Services

TCS has overtaken Infosys this year to become the most profitable IT company. Under Chandrasekaran's leadership, TCS has pioneered the creation of its unique Global Network Delivery Model (GNDM) across five continents and ventured into new markets, including Europe, China and Latin America. It added new business lines like BPO, Infrastructure and Assurance services. Chandrasekaran has also driven the domain diversification drive, which has seen the company foray into new verticals like media and information services as well as hi-tech. 

8. Nandan Nilekani, Chairman, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI)

 

His vision to give identity to every Indian using technology and making the Aadhaar (UID) card as one of the sound channels to cut down red-tapism and corruption certainly proves his plans are to chart a bright future for India. Right from his early years as the founding members of Infosys, Nilekani has been a visionary leader. From the data collection methods and technological planning to its laborious execution and distribution of Aadhaar cards to millions of Indian citizens, Nilekani has been instrumental in every phase of this ambitious and mega project the world has ever seen.

9. Ratan Tata

Ratan Naval Tata, who will pass the Tata Group's baton to Cyrus Mistry this month, is credited with making the salt-to-software conglomerate, Tata Group, the country's first business house to attain $100 billion revenues in 2012. His dream, Tata Nano, one of the world's path-breaking, cheapest car models, had a revamped version this year and it did help boost its sales. He is not just leaving the office, but leaving behind a huge legacy, something which his successors would better strive to live up to.

10. Sunil Bharti Mittal, group CEO, Bharti Enterprises

Mittal's Bharti Airtel was the first company to roll out 4G LTE services in India this year. The US$8.3 billion turnover company runs India's largest GSM-based mobile phone service and world's fifth largest wireless company. Bharti Airtel has over 190 million customers across 19 countries in Asia and Africa, the latter market is where it has been growing exponentially in 2012. The company ranks amongst the top-5 mobile service providers globally in terms of subscribers.

Dear readers, feel free to register your views and opinions on the comments box below, but don't forget to vote in our poll sections as well.