A Toast to Achievement

The Dataquest Awards recognize achievement in the infotech industry. In my
mind, the 2007 awards are especially significant.

For the first time in this decade (and millennium) the Dataquest Person of
the Year is someone associated so completely with the domestic IT industry and
market.

For over a decade, Indias infotech industry pie, and its mindshare in the
public and the media, have been dominated by the services exports stars. And as
I have maintained, the foundation of future growth of not just the overall IT
pie, but of the economy and GDP, has to be the local market and industry.

Ajai Chowdhry and his company have stayed focused on the domestic market
through three decades, setting benchmarks in areas such as HR for others to try
and match. HCL Infosystems competed with global brands, changed the rules of the
distribution game, played a key role in Indias mobile explosion, and rapidly
adapted and changedmore than oncewhen the going got tough.

Prasanto K Roy

The Pathbreaker award has gone, for the third year running, to an
e-Governance project or person. E-governance is now inching out of its pilot
project infancy. The projects awardedBhoomi this year, and MCA-21 last
yeardemonstrate the great impact that technology, properly used, can have on a
nation on the move desperately seeking good governance. And shown what can be
achieved in government, despite the challenges.

And finally, the Lifetime Achievement Award has gone to someone who is
strongly identified as an icon of Indias software and services brand. Yet
another award may not mean a lot to Narayana Murthyhe has been more awarded
than most people in Indian IT historybut the recognition of this icon who
co-founded Infosys and helped make so many of us proud to be Indian, was
important for Dataquest. Five people associated with the software and services
exports industry have received the IT Lifetime Achievement Award in the latters
14-year history, underlining the age, impact and maturity of this sector. The
Awards also paint for us a quick sketch of the year gone by.

The domestic market is healthy, growing at a consistent 26-28% across most
segments and verticals. Much of the growth is moving beyond the metros.
E-governance is the growth driver for the domestic market, today. Tomorrow: the
economy.

Services exports continue to grow even under the twin pressures of the rising
cost of a declining talent pool, and the declining dollar, both hitting margins.

And common across all these areas is that growth is defined and limited not
by available business or opportunity, but the ability to deliver, and on the HR
pool.

That will be the refrain for 2008.