Salil Parekh, Harish Mehta, Tejas Networks & NPCI win at the 30th Dataquest ICT Awards

Dataquest has announced the prestigious list of its annual ICT award winners in its 30th Edition. Salil Parekh, CEO and MD of Infosys, won the IT Person of Year.

The Lifetime Achievement Award went to Harish Mehta, who was the first elected Chairman of NASSCOM. The Pathbreaker of the Year Award was won by Tejas Networks, while National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), was declared the AatmaNirbhar Bharat Champion.

Dataquest was India’s first IT industry magazine. Launched in 1982, it has played an influential and pivotal role in the growth and development of the ICT industry since then. #DQ40Years is part of a year-long celebration in 2023 which will feature special sections, special issues, conferences and campaigns celebrating the last 40 years of ICT and a look at the road to the future right up to India2047.

The awards will be presented at the #DQLeadershipConclave2023 on Friday, 9 June 2023, at the conference titled “India2047: The road to becoming a Tech Superpower”. This will feature exciting keynotes, exhaustive panel discussions and fireside chats featuring the Who’s Who of the IT industry. Prime Minister Narendra Modi (then Gujarat Chief Minister) was the Chief Guest in the 2014 edition. Past winners include NR Narayana Murthy, Azim Premji, Nandan Nilekani, Chandrababu Naidu, Pramod Mahajan etc.

Salil Parekh was recognized for his outstanding work at the helm of Infosys and his contribution to India’s IT industry. The Jury further recognized his services in guiding Infosys to emerge through the pandemic, all the while ensuring digital transformation, client satisfaction along with growth, profitability and innovation.

Harish Mehta has been furthering the cause of Indian IT since the 1970s. The Jury recognized his services, mentorship and innovations in multiple companies and associations like NASSCOM of which he was the first elected Chairman.

Tejas Networks broke new ground through the pandemic and beyond to emerge as India’s largest telecom products company, augmenting the BharatNet Project and helping India upgrade to 5G.

The NPCI did outstanding work and contributed greatly to Digital India and its brand and image over recent years. NPCI services grew along with high-capacity cashless platforms and innovative large-scale payment processing technologies. The growth and success of UPI from the rural, urban and national to the global scale was much appreciated.

Ashank Desai, Vice-Chairman and Manging Director of Mastek chaired the jury which deliberated and picked the award winners. Ajay Sawhney, former Secretary, MeiTY, was Jury Co-Chair. Ashank Desai, Jury Chair, was the winner of last year’s Lifetime Achievement Award (2021) and Ajay Sawhney, Co-Chair was IT Person of the Year 2021. 

Other members of the jury were Aalok Kumar, Chairman, President & CEO, NEC; Arun Seth, Independent Board Member, Narayan Hrudalaya; Prativa Mohapatra, VP & MD, Adobe India; Prof. Ranjan Bose, Director, IIIT-Delhi; Saurabh Srivastava, Co-Founder, NASSCOM; Shashank Srivastava, Executive Director, Maruti Suzuki and Vikas Bhonsle, CEO, Crayon Software. Pradeep Gupta, Chairman, CyberMedia Group was in the Jury Co-Chair.