BW Communities

The Winners Take It All

BW Online Bureau Nov 08, 2014

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><root available-locales="en_US," default-locale="en_US"><static-content language-id="en_US"><![CDATA[The Businessworld INFOCOM ICT Awards were presented at a glittering ceremony at the Taj Mahal Hotel, New Delhi on 23 March 2012. D.D. Purkayastha, managing director and CEO of ABP Group, and chairman Infocom, gave the welcome speech. This was followed by the chief guest, Minister of State for Communications & Information Technology Sachin Pilot's address to the audience. He remarked that despite the Indian IT & ITeS industry facing its biggest challenge (the slowdown in its largest markets, the US and Europe) companies in the sector have grown. He said that in future telecom companies need to join hands with content companies to ensure that  rising data demands of consumers are met. Emphasising the value of the ICT industry, Kenji Urai, managing director of Toshiba India, said that the sector served to empower people. Prosenjit Datta, editor, Businessworld, explained the process and parameters for selecting the winners. In each of the three verticals, IT, telecommunications, media & entertainment, there were three awards: for growth, for profits & profitability and for innovation. There was also a Lifetime Achievement Award. The winners were selected by an eminent jury comprising Nripendra Misra, former chairman, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India; Sanjeev Aggarwal, senior managing director, Helion Advisors;  Smita Jha, consulting head, entertainment & media, PricewaterhouseCoopers India and Arun Arora, chairman, Edvance Pre-schools. The awards were given by Sachin Pilot, Aveek Sarkar, editor-in-chief of the ABP Group and Kenji Urai, MD, Toshiba India. The Lifetime Achievement Award was conferred on N.R. Narayana Murthy, chairman emeritus, Infosys. Tata Consultancy Services won in both revenue growth and profitability categories in the IT sector. Bharti Airtel won the award for revenue growth in the telecommunications sector.  The award for revenue growth in the media & entertainment sector was shared by the Zee Group and the Network18 Group. In profitability, the award in the media & entertainment sector went to UTV Software Communications. The jury decided not to give any award in the telecom profitability category. In innovation in IT category, TCS again emerged a winner because of its mKrishi application that provides information to farmers on their mobile handsets. The telecom innovation award went to Stay In Touch (SINT) Mobile and Tata DOCOMO for their Offers Near Me service which is offered to subscribers in Andhra Pradesh. The presenting sponsor for the event was Toshiba India and the associate sponsor was Sify. The registration desk was sponsored by Kingston, while Chivas was the beverage partner. Exchange4media was the online partner and NDTV Profit was the television partner for the event. (This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 16-04-2012)