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Padam Shri 1.2

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DQI Bureau
New Update

India should increase awards quota for ICT leaders

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I was a

little surprised when a leading columnist in a financial daily came down

scathingly on why the number of people getting various Padma awards is

increasing, while the credentials of many of them is questionable. While I agree

that many of the winners may not be the most deserving, I have no doubt about

the fact that the number of people doing great work in India and making the

nation proud, is increasing.

Let me at the very

outset state that besides various other sectors including bio-technology, the

field of IT, communications, and BPO will produce people who will be worthy of

Padma awards. They will be industry captains, who would be recognized the world

over for their great strategies to capture global markets; HR chiefs, who from

the learnings of rapidly growing BPO and software services industry, will come

out with revolutionary HR management practices; software engineers, who will

make their mark with path breaking processes and patents; and bureaucrats who

will be e-Champions of e-Governance projects that will have far reaching impact.

They will be people who would have the courage and vision to venture

successfully into domains that were known to be impossible before.

 Hats off to S Ramadorai whose vision helped India become a

global IT power, and to Nandan Nilekani whose leadership made Infosys a role

model for IT and non-IT companies world over. I would even go to the extent of

saying that the Government of India took rather long to recognize the

contributions of these people. They have got recognition for themselves, their

company, as well as for their country like very few business leaders before

them. My contention is that we will have more Ramadorais and Nilekanis in the

years to come.

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ICT leaders are today being much

more closely watched and tracked. Give them more Padams, and the awards

will become much more awaited  for

 While I believe that the number of Indians who will be

deserving the Padam award will only go up in the days to come, what I propose is

that there should not be fixed categories where awards have to be given if there

are not highly deserving people. This way, more deserving people in emerging

sectors will get a chance to be honored. I know that there are two other people

in IT, three people in communications, and two in the BPO space, who should have

been considered for some Padam award or the other. 

 I would even advocate that emerging and high growth sectors

should perhaps be given a higher quota. I do not need to educate people on how

much IT, BPO, Biotech, and Communications sectors are contributing to employment

generation, economy, and global image. And these are some of the crucial factors

that will determine India's status at the time of global competitiveness. The

Government must go all out to promote- nationally to begin with-a sector

that is contributing so much, and will continue to grow in terms of its

strategic value in the years to come.

 Another observation I have about these prestigious Padam

awards is that they are loosing their excitement. Most people are really not

bothered as to who is getting this award. It is actually because most of the

winners are people who are not being closely watched by the Indian public. But I

strongly believe that ICT leaders are today being much more closely watched and

tracked because of a variety of reasons. If we start recognizing them for their

contribution, the awards will become more glamorous. And much more awaited.

 For the last

several years, the Government of India is almost reluctantly giving awards to

only one or two ICT stalwarts. It is important that more young people should be

encouraged-people who still have a long way to go. We must not forget that the

average age of people in the ICT space is much less than all other sectors.

The Government must break out of its old style of thinking and think of

some new and more exciting award categories.

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