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Follow UsBANGALORE,INDIA: Lakshmi Narayanan, vice chairman of Cognizant Technology Solutions, was presented with corporate India’s prestigious ‘Dataquest IT Person of the Year’ award 2008, for his stellar role in leading and growing Cognizant Technologies.
The award was presented to Lakshmi Narayanan by Ajai K Chowdhry - chairman and CEO of HCL Infosystems and Dataquest IT Person of the Year 2007 - and Dataquest publisher and CyberMedia group chairman Pradeep Gupta at New Delhi on Wednesday night.
Leaders from all sections of the IT industry were present in the award ceremony. The awards jury also acknowledged the leadership provided by Narayanan to Nasscom, India’s largest IT industry body.
He was the chairman of Nasscom in 2007 where he played an important role in bridging the gap between industry and academia and worked towards forging closer ties between them. Cognizant, the first IT services company to be inducted in NASDAQ 100 is a Fortune 1000 company.
The ‘Best e-Governed State of India’ award went to the NCT of Delhi. Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit received the award from Wajahat Habibullah, chief information commissioner, and Pradeep Gupta. Delhi got the award for setting up a series of citizen centric services.
Delhites were the most satisfied with e-governance initiatives as Delhi topped nine of the fourteen parameters in this category, according to a survey conducted IDC India for Dataquest. Delhi spent Rs 10,982 for every citizen on building its IT infrastructure and maintaining citizen-centric IT applications.
The ‘Pathbreaker of the Year 2008’ award was presented to Sanjeev Bikhchandani of Naukri.com. The young entrepreneur was recognized for establishing a successful online business model and creating an unmatched mindshare among web users looking for jobs. The 10-year-old company’s new properties include jeevansaathi.com and 99acres.com.
IIT Bombay's Dr. D. B. Phatak got the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ for making an indelible mark on the Indian IT industry by inspiring a whole generation of young students, who have in turn transformed into big thought leaders.
Speaking on the impact of global meltdown on India's information technology industry Pradeep Gupta said, "The current financial crisis presents an opportunity for Indian services providers to grow their market share across sectors and geographies.”
He expressed confidence that “the entrepreneurs will use this opportunity to sharpen their offerings by leveraging technological strengths and abundant manpower pool”.
The winners were chosen by a panel of experts like Ajai K Chowdhry; Deep Kalra, founder, Makemytrip.com; Krishan Dhawan, chairman, Oracle India; Akshaya Bhargava, CEO of UK-based Butterfield Fulcrum Group; Ajay Dhir, CIO, Jindal Steel; Padma Ravichander of Mercer; Pradeep Gupta, chairman, CyberMedia and Shyam Malhotra, editor in chief of CyberMedia Publications.
Speaking on the occasion, Dataquest chief editor Prasanto K. Roy said, “The awards reflect the highlight of the year gone by, a trend that continues in 2008-09: the rise of the domestic market and technology industry.”
He added that “Indian market growth overtook exports growth for the first time in a decade, and with the global recession, the home market is going to be even more interesting for every technology player.” There is also this large untapped market for services companies, both in India and abroad, Prasanto K. Roy added.
A dozen other awards were given to the top manufacturers and service providers in the industry. These awards are as follows:
Top Systems Company Award: Hewlett-Packard
Top Networking Company Award: Cisco Systems
Top Training Company Award: NIIT
Top Growth Company: SAP India
Top IT Company & Top Exporter: TCS
Top Services Company (India Market) Award: IBM India
Top BPO Company: Genpact
Top Distribution Company: Ingram Micro,
Top Software Company Award: Microsoft,
Top T-School Award: IIT Kharagpur,
Top Imaging and Printing: Hewlett-Packard,
Top IT Employer: iGATE
Top BPO Employer: vCustomer.
The Dataquest annual award, instituted by CyberMedia, South Asia's first and largest specialty media house, is now in its 16th year.
IT leaders like N Vittal, Ashok Soota, Azim Premji, Shiv Nadar, Rajendra Pawar, Kiran Karnik and S. Ramadorai over the years were honoured with this prestigious award over the years.