The DQ Awards Panel 2007

The Jury: Top (from L-R) Shyam Malhotra, executive director, CyberMedia;

Sanjeev Bikhchandani, CEO, Naukri.com; Rahul Bhasin, managing partner, Baring

Equity Partners India; Alok Ohrie, MD, AMD India; Ganesh Natarajan, executive

council member of Nasscom



Sitting: Jai Menon, group CIO, Bharti Airtel; Nandan Nilekani, co-chairman,
Infosys Technologies; Revathi Kasturi, ex-MD, Novell India/West Asia; Pradeep

Gupta, CMD, CyberMedia

A series of discussions and debates by a distinguished Panel preceded the

selection of this years Dataquest awardees. True to tradition, last years man

of the year, Nandan Nilekani, chaired the Panel meeting held on October 29, 2007

at New Delhi.

The Panel included Pradeep Gupta, CMD, CyberMedia; Alok Ohrie, MD, AMD India;

Ganesh Natarajan, deputy chairman and MD, Zensar Technologies; Jai Menon, group

CIO, Bharti Airtel; Revathi Kasturi, MD, Novell India/West Asia; Sanjeev

Bikhchandani, CEO, Naukri.com; Shyam Malhotra, CEO, CyberMedia; and Rahul Bhasin,

managing partner, Baring Equity Partners India.

Nominations were sought from panelists, editors and industry persons. The

first round of deliberations on the nominations happened over email, followed by

the Panel meet. The Panel was supported by research from the Dataquest editorial

team.

A discussion and elimination process helped shortlist around a dozen

probables. New names were added and debated upon as per the jury process. The

next round dwelt on the achievements of each contender, track record in the past

few years, and contributions to the company and to the society.

After much deliberation, the panel unanimously named Ajai Chowdhry, chairman,

HCL Infosystems as the IT Person of the Year 2007. NR Narayana Murthy,

co-founder, Infosys was conferred the Lifetime Achievement Award, and Project

Bhoomi, implemented to computerize the enormous rural land records, was awarded

the Pathbreaker Award.