40 YEARS AT THE TOP

We are back with the annual Dataquest Top 20 rankings. While the list continues to be dominated by the IT services industry, 2022 has been a really good year after the virtual collapse of the Indian economy in 2020 and the recovery of 2021. Overall, the list offers great hope for the future and India’s role in the global digital economy

It’s been a long 40-year journey for both Dataquest and Indian IT. During this period, we have seen the National Computer Policy of 1984, the first software policy of 1986 and the Liberalization of 1991. The initial policies were not a grand success and had to be tweaked from time to time. Liberalization itself was brought on by India’s biggest financial crisis till then.

The 1990s were momentous and had their share of policies and multiple tweaks. The National Telecom Policies of 1994 & 1999. The coming of the commercial Internet that led to all the powerful work devices that followed. The y2K crisis led to a new era of IT services giants.

The 2000s saw one revolution coming after another: Laptops really spread, the Wi-Fi became essential, smartphones could do everything, India became the broadband mobile capital of the world, followed by the era of startups and apps… Both large enterprises and SMBs started digitally transforming themselves with greater and greater pace with each passing year.

One way to chronicle all this is by the annual DQ Top 20 ranking. The focus was not on just the Top 20. DQ in fact covered hundreds of IT companies every year. We have chronicled the rise and fall of all the players of note. The Top 20 is a fascinating annual list. Some companies have survived while some have perished. Some have revived themselves while new ones have come and left the oldies way behind.

PROBLEMS AND CRISES HAVE BEEN A CONSTANT