CIO Association of India & Dell hosts CIO Awards

New Delhi, India, January 28, 2014: Dell India, leading end-to-end solutions provider, in partnership with The CIO Association of India (CAI) announced the winners of “India’s Best CIOs”. The awards were presented at a ceremony hosted by Dell and CAI in Mumbai, to felicitate some of the country’s brightest minds. Launched six months ago with a peer based nomination process, the initiative aimed at identifying and promoting the role played by CIOs as leaders in business and technology and to acknowledge their contribution to the industry.

The Grand Finale of the 2014 edition of the awards at The Trident Oberoi in Mumbai consisted of a felicitation for India’s top 50 best CIOs. Vijay Sethi, Vice President and CIO, Hero MotoCorp Ltd, was awarded as India’s Best CIO for FY 2013 – 2014. Rajesh Uppal, Executive officer (IT) and CIO, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. came a close second, followed by Arun Gupta, Cipla, CIO and T. G. Dhandapani, CIO, TVS Motors who came third . A jury of renowned CIOs and technology evangelists were a part of the panel that determined the individuals worthy of the ‘Best CIO’ title. The jury panel was prudently selected to include some of the brightest minds in the industry comprising of:

• C.N.Ram( Former Group CIO, Essar Group),
• Atul Jayawant (Senior President Group IT & Group CIO, Aditya Birla Group)
• Lalit Sawhney (Former SVP, Reliance Communications)
• Sandeep Phanasgaonkar ( Former President and CTO, Reliance Capital).
• Lalit Sawhney: Former Head, Information Systems at Hindustan Lever and Former SVP, Reliance Communications

President and Managing Director of Dell IndiaAlok Ohrie said, “In a dynamic environment like India, the CIOs need to keep up with evolving trends to ensure their organizations continue to grow. At Dell, we recognize that this is a huge responsibility and understand the complexities they face when balancing budgets with business imperatives. India’s Best CIO, is a great developing platform which aims to recognize India’s top CIOs who have shown exemplary performance evaluated by their peers. I would like to congratulate the winners and wish them the very best in their roles as leaders of the industry.”

Founder and CEO of CIO Association of India Tapan ‘Ananta’ Garg said “We are happy to have collaborated with Dell on this unique awards initiative. “India’s Best CIOs Awards” are India’s most significant community-driven CIO awards because More than 300 CIOs from all over the country have voted for their peers. We hope that the winners are able to inspire the larger community to excel and share experiences and ideas. A hearty congratulations to all the winners”.