Indian CIOs On Global CIO 50 Celebrated At Interop Mumbai

A few months ago, we created a list of 50 of the world's top CIOs for our Global CIO 50 project. Our list included 10 CIOs from India, and their achievements were celebrated by 300 members of the Indian IT community at a special event at this week's Interop Mumbai. The gathering also celebrated the extraordinary progress of India's IT industry in the past decade.My colleague Lenny Heymann, who leads our company's Interop events around the world, was attending the celebration for the Indian CIOs and was sending email snippets of what was being said. I asked Lenny to write a quick overview of highlights from this recognition of CIO excellence, and here's what Lenny sent:

"India's in-country IT prowess has long been overshadowed by the country's strength in outsourcing. But the internal market and its leaders were front and center this week at the first edition of Interop Mumbai. At the Bombay Exhibition Center-a former textile mill-75 exhibitors and several thousand attendees shared a coming out regarding their joint accomplishments in business technology.

"That sense of pride really came alive at an awards ceremony Thursday night that celebrated the Indian IT leaders who were recently recognized in InformationWeek's Global CIO 50. There was tremendous appreciation that on that list of 50 of the top CIOs in the world, India came in second only to the U.S. with 10 winners.

"But India should strive to be No. 1, said Askash Saraf, CEO of Zenith Infotech, and others echoed his sentiments. In fact, Saraf said that just three years from now, India should have more CIOs on the Global CIO 50 than the U.S. does.

"You get the sense that even IT leaders are surprised at how much they've accomplished in a short time that mirrors the recent sharp growth of Indian consumers. Pravir Vohra of ICICI Bank noted that it was just a little more than a decade ago that he returned to India and had difficulty ordering a dial-up line. He had no way of imagining then that today he'd be offering mobile banking services to people who are illiterate. That comment speaks volumes about the different challenges and opportunities in IT in India.

"While the crowd of over 300 India IT leaders enjoyed their moment in the spotlight, the CIOs recognized on the Global CIO 50 list spoke quite humbly of their accomplishments. There was no chest-thumping and no high-fives.

"One recipient, though, did declare that he "was proud to be an Indian CIO." That winner, though, wasn't an Indian, but American David Briskman, CIO of Ranbaxy, India's largest pharmaceutical company. His declaration drew the loudest applause of a very exuberant night."

So thanks, Lenny, for a glimpse into how some world-class CIO achievements are being celebrated in India as part of the Interop Mumbai experience.