Leading the Way, Always

Communications industry waits almost 12-months to know their
ranking in India based on financial performance through V&D100 Volume
1&2, the most coveted industry survey, and later sweeps the V&D100
awards for their accomplishments. Telecom Person of the Year 2007, Emerging
Company of the Year and Technovator of the Year nominated by the industry and
finalized by a Jury meet, and communication companies, who have done
tremendously well in their specific segments, were recognized at the V&D100
Awards ceremony that was thronged by the who's who of the industry.

Anil Dhirubhai Ambani, chairman, Reliance Communications, is the
VOICE&DATA Telecom Person of the Year 2007.

Nripendra Misra, chairman of TRAI, handed over the award to AN
Sethuraman, group president, corporate affairs, Reliance ADA Group, as Anil
Ambani was not able to attend the ceremony in the national capital.

Anil Ambani was presented the award in recognition of his
leadership, vision, and entrepreneurial skills, with which he made Reliance
Communications one of the country's top mobile service companies. His
leadership qualities steered Reliance Communications into the top
telecommunication player in the CDMA technology with around 28 mn users.
Reliance Communications owns and operates the world's largest next generation,
IP-enabled connectivity infrastructure, comprising over 150,000 km of fiber
optic cable systems in India, the US, Europe, the Middle East, and the Asia
Pacific region. He designed the Falcon project for solving India's bandwidth
problem. He also led his team in planning and launching unprecedented innovative
schemes such as '1-day recharge' and 'one world one number roaming'.

 The VOICE&DATA "Telecom Person of the Year"
award is presented every year to a personality who has played a key role for the
growth of the Indian telecom industry, taking it to greater heights. The
selection process, which took more than two months, started with nominations
from the industry. The eight-member jury for selecting the winners comprised of
eminent professionals led by DPS Seth, ex-CMD of BSNL, and ex-member TRAI. The
other members of the jury were SD Saxena, director, Finance, BSNL; CS Rao,
chairman, Communications Convergence Committee, Assocham; Mukund Rajan,
director, Tata Teleservices;  SC Khanna, secretary general, AUSPI; Sunil
Gujral, EVP & CTO, Quatrro BPO Solutions; Amitabh Singhal, director general,
ISPAI; and Prasanto K Roy, chief editor, CyberMedia.

AN Sethuraman, group president, corporate affairs, Reliance ADA Group, receiving the award for "Telecom Person of the Year" on behalf of Anil Ambani, chairman, Reliance Communications, from Nripendra Misra, chairman, TRAI	    Â	Nripendra Misra, chairman, TRAI giving the keynote address Â
  Â
Pradeep Gupta, CMD, CyberMedia welcoming the gathering		Swami Krishnan, chief marketing officer, Sasken, receiving the award for "Technovator of the Year" on behalf of Rajiv C Mody, CEO & chairman, Sasken, from Nripendra Misra, chairman, TRAI
Sanjay Nayak, CEO & co-founder, Kumar N Sivaranjan, CTO & co-founder and Arnob Roy, VP, engineering & co-founder, Tejas Networks, receiving the award for "Emerging Company of the Year" from Nripendra Misra, chairman, TRAI
AK Sinha, CMD, BSNL receiving the award "Top Telecom Services Company" from Nripendra Misra, chairman, TRAI
Ambrish Bakaya, director, corporate affairs, Nokia, receiving the award for "Telecom Equipment Company" from Nripendra Misra, chairman, TRAI

Speaking on the occasion Misra said, "Awards that were
given in thirty-two categories picked up all the components from A-Z and
recognized the contribution of each one of them in building the module of
telecom industry a success story." Sharing his view on the communication
industry infrastructure, he said, "Sharing of active and passive
infrastructure, and backhaul is not the complete story. Sharing has to come in
many ways; it can be in the form of bandwidth and domestic leased circuit.
Models for this can vary, as I don't want to take away the USPs of the
companies-but they have to evolve commercially modern by which they share
their resources with others."

Pradeep Gupta, CMD, CyberMedia, while welcoming distinguished
guests and august audience, said, "We want to create a positive influence
on the communities we serve. We do it by promoting, surveying, and by doing
different things to ensure that growth of the industry happens."

This year two new categories-the "Emerging Company of the
Year" and the "Technovator of the Year"-were also added to
V&D100 awards. Tejas Networks was awarded the "Emerging Company of the
Year". The company has been awarded for their contribution in the optical
transmission space. Rajiv C Mody, chairman and CEO, Sasken Communication
Technologies, was awarded the "Technovator of the Year". Sasken is one
of the leading software technology providers for imaging video and music
industry globally. More than 50 mn phones carry Sasken's intellectual
property. These two awards have been announced for the first time.

Prithipal Singh, former CMD, BSNL; and SK Gupta, former CMD,
VSNL were the guest of honor for V&D100 awards.

  Also during the event, a number top telecom companies
were given the V&D100 awards for excellence in business performance in FY
2006-07. The long list includes Polycom, UTStarcom, Bharti Teletech, LG
Electronics, Nokia, Atrie Technology, Wipro Infotech, EMC, HCL Comnet, Tyco
Electronics, Agilent Technologies, Sterlite Optical, ITI, ECI Telecom, TCS,
Avaya GlobalConnect, Bharti Airtel, VSNL, Hughes, Arvind Mills, GIL, OnMobile,
Aperto, Ericsson, Cisco, Nokia and BSNL.

We are presenting the best moments of the award function held in
New Delhi in a number of photographs. Cheers to winners and the audience!