No Padma award to IT honchos raises eyebrows

BANGALORE, INDIA: At a time Indian IT is performing well weathering the uncertain global outlook, it came as a bit of surprise that no personality from the industry has been recognized at the Padma awards for 2012.

The awards list, announced on Wednesday, had some big names from other industries, including Murugappa Vellayan Subbiah (Murugappa Group), Dr Swati A. Piramal (Piramal Healthcare) and Balasubramanian Muthuraman (Tata Steel), under the Trade and Industry category.

Not that the past had been well rewarding for IT honchos. Padma recognitions have always come intermittently their way.

Last year, Wipro Limited chairman Azim Hasham Premji was conferred with Padma Vibhushan. His business empire is spread over a gamut of products and services, but the brand Wipro is today synonymous with its IT arm, Wipro Technologies. So, it served as a recognition of his contribution to the sector in a way.

Wipro Technologies's major competitor Infosys Limited, then Infosys Technologies, also had a winner in then chief executive officer Kris S. Gopalakrishnan, who was the recepient of Padma Bhushan in 2011.

The industry drew a blank two consecutive years before that.

In 2008, it was Infosys co-founder N.R. Narayana Murthy to get Padma Vibhushan and HCL Technologies chairman Shiv Nadar, who was conferred the Padma Bhushan award.

Though the IT revolution was heralded in the early '90s, it was the Noughties that made most of the local players internationally-respected names.

Back then, it was understandable that not many won the Padma honour. Over the last decade, many of the industry stalwarts were recognized.

It is only natural to expect more such awards to IT personalities, who have driven one of the country's recent revolutions, not just to recognize their achievements, but also to serve as an inspiration to the coming generations.