The DQ Awards Panel 1999

Selection parameters for nominations

• The nominee should have been associated with the IT industry
  
  for a reasonable period of time.
• The nominee should have been the head of an organization
  
  or the leader of an organization.
• The nominee should have contributed directly or indirectly
  
  to the general growth and development of the Indian IT industry.
• The nominee should have ensured beneficial growth of his
  
  or her organization.
• If the nominee belongs to the corporate sector (Private
  
  or Public), then the organization should have accrued profits
  
  during the period in question. 
• The nominee should not have an ambiguous legal position
  
  with any court of law in the country.
• If the nominee has already been awarded IT Man of the
  
  Year, the nominee cannot be considered for the award for
  
  the next three years.

Similar to the last six years, DQ Awards

1999 was selected by a distinguished panel chaired by Rajendra Pawar,

Chairman, NIIT and last year’s IT Man of the Year. The other members

of the panel included Bhaskar Pramanik, MD, Sun Microsystems; RH

Patil, MD, National Stock Exchange; Suresh Rajpal, President and

CEO, Ecapital Solutions; RR Jain, MD, RS Software; Pradeep Gupta,

MD, Cyber Media India Ltd and Shyam Malhotra, Editor-In-Chief, Cyber

Publications.

This year the first round of deliberations

on nominations for the DQ Awards was done through email. The next

step was a meeting at Cyber House, Gurgaon, Haryana. At Cyber House,

the final list was discussed using supporting data provided by the

DQ research team. After the first round of discussions and coffee,

six out of the total number of thirteen names were shortlisted as

contenders for the IT Man of the Year award. The next round of discussions

dwelt on the achievement of the concerned individual, track record

in the last twelve months, contributions to the company’s stakeholders

and to society. This round produced two names for the IT Man of

the Year award and three for the Lifetime Contribution to IT award.

After three hours of discussions and deliberations, the panel unanimously

named Azim Premji as the DQ IT Man of the Year 1999.

For the Lifetime Contribution to IT

award, additional research was called for from the DQ research team

and the decision was temporarily deferred. The decision to award

Major General (Retd) A Balasubramanian with the DQ Lifetime Contribution

to IT award was made by the panel a fortnight later. As recognition

of special achievement in the last twelve months the panel shortlisted

Infosys Technologies from a list of three contenders for the DQ

IT Path Breaker award.