Ramadorai named 'IT Man of the Year'

NEW DELHI: Tata Consultancy Services CEO, Subramaniam Ramadorai was conferred the Dataquest 'IT Man of the Year' for 2004 at a glittering ceremony in New Delhi. The annual Dataquest awards recognizes corporate and individual achievements and is the most sought after event that brings together the cream of the Indian IT industry.

"Ram took the reins over from the legendary and formidable FC Kohli, the grandsire of the Indian technology industry. He built and maintained TCS' leadership position in the Indian IT industry at large. He has rallied over 20,000 employees around the vision of being among the global Top 10 consulting companies by 2010," said the special Dataquest panel that announced the awards.

Year 2004, also, belonged to Ramadorai for another achievement-he was responsible for the largest IPO in Indian history. The IPO which hit the market in August 2004 was oversubscribed by over 7 times and the size of the offer amounted to Rs 5420 crore and made TCS one of the largest companies in India in terms of market capital.

The year's Path Breaker Award was conferred on the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corp(IRCTC) for revolutionizing the railway ticketing business in the country and scripting an e-commerce success story in the process.

The panel said, "Apart from building a successful eCommerce model, the company (IRCTC) has made Internet usage a reality in cities ranging from Anand to Benaras to Guntur to Shimla to Shillong."

The Lifetime Achievement Award 2004 was awarded to N Vittal for his role in driving key policies in the IT and telecom space that enabled both the consolidation of India's telecom revolution, and the consequent flourishing of IT in the country.

Announcing the unanimous choice of ex CVC and the ex DoE secretary N Vittal for the Lifetime Achievement award, the panel noted, "As Secretary of the DoE in 1990 to 1993, Vittal pushed through a series of initiatives that set the tone for the IT industry in India for the decade ahead; software technology parks, the electronics hardware technology parks scheme, and other policies that had a direct bearing on FDI in the 1990s."

The highlights of the evening included a keynote address by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar of the Art of Living Foundation, and the Dataquest Top 20 Corporate Awards and the Individual Achievement Awards.

The special Dataquest panel comprised Deepak Puri, chairman and managing director, Moser Baer, (the chairman of the panel), Intel India president Ketan Sampat, Nasscom president Kiran Karnik, Zenith head Raj Saraf, CEO of NIIT Vijay Thadani, PNB head of IT KS Bajwa, CyberMedia managing director, Pradeep Gupta and CyberMedia Publications' editor-in-chief, Shyam Malhotra.