ICT Industry honours dignified peers

Chennai, Sep18: The ICT Industry honoured some of its most distinguished peers at the second edition of the ICICI Venture-CII Connect 2007 Entrepreneurship Awards on September 17.

The award for an entrepreneur from Tamil Nadu, who has succeeded in the State was given to Mr R Srinivasan, Managing Director, Redington India, one of India's leading IT distribution companies.

Accel India Chairman N R Panicker won the award for an entrepreneur, who succeeded in Tamil Nadu, despite hailing from another State, while Mr Ashok Narasimhan, Chairman and Co-Founder of July Systems, received the award for an entrepreneur from the State, who has made it big on the global stage.

SRM University Chancellor T R Pachamuthu won the award for an entrepreneur, who has fostered the resources that make ICT ecosystem successful, and the Lifetime Achievement was conferred on former Central Vigilance Commissioner N Vittal for leading a crusade against Corruption, which he described as one of "the most flourishing industry in India." The awards were presented by The Hindu Editor in Chief N Ram.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Ram pointed to the digital divide as a challenge for ICT entrepreneurs to tackle. "Lessons can be learnt from the growth of mobile telephony," he said and added that the IT industry should leverage the rapidly growing mobile-user base to increase Internet penetration.

''This will be possible only if the industry instituted independent scientific surveys to collect accurate data on Internet usage,'' he said.

UNI