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That is a terrible thing to tell you at the end of an issue that is twice the size of regular Dataquest issues in terms of number of pages. And most of those pages are packed with tables, pies and bar graphs filled with numbers, occasionally disturbed by some text, which again is generously sprinkled with more numbers.

To tell you to not give too much importance to numbers at the end of such an issue may look like those time management exercises, where the last sentence tells you to ignore all the above instructions.

The only problem is: it is not a time management exercise. All those numbers are compiled by us and analyzed by us for sure. But they are not generated by us. They are generated by you, working through out the year. If you are part of the industry, that is a scorecard of your performance. If you are a user of IT, it is the money that you invest in IT that adds up to those numbers.

You know DQ Top 20; many of you know it for a far longer period than I do. It is a one-of-a-kind exercise, available anywhere in the world, primarily because India is base to a huge export services industry that is part of this study.

Yet, DQ Top 20 does not contain much information about companies that did innovative work, grew rapidly but have revenues that are below Rs 36 crore (the cut-off for DQ 200).

DQ Top 20 does not provide you the details at the level you want in many of the segments. In some cases, because we do not have access to information at that level, but in most cases, we do not have enough number of pages. Some of my colleagues get so excited about the segments that they come to me asking for more pages. I myself felt like doing that for my analysis on engineering services, as I felt four pages do not do justice to such a booming industry segment. Most of the Indian IT industry is growing and is passing through a very exciting period.

Shyamanuja Das

DQ Top 20, despite having more than 30 different segments (new segments get added almost every year) and sub-segments, still misses some, as is pointed out passionately by players in those segments. Many of them feel those are the most interesting segments to analyze. And I fully understand the passion involved.

DQ Top 20 does not give an idea of the depth of IT services work that happen in India; it does not give you an analysis of the level of research and development that is happening out of India, except some passing mentions in some cases.

DQ Top 20 does not give you a report card on the pioneering efforts in corporate social responsibly by IT companies.

DQ Top 20 does not give you many such things that you want us to include.

Most of those stories cannot be captured through numbers. Does it mean that they are not important? Of course, all of us know the answer.

Yes, we do stories and reports on many of these throughout the year. But many of you argue non-inclusion in DQ Top 20 means we do not give enough importance to those areas.

I was touched by a comment from an industry executive who said entering a particular ranking bracket by the company that he works for has been his personal dream for close to a decade. The ranking is a number. The sense of achievement that people like him derive out of that number is the value behind it.

And many of you will agree with me that often appraisals depend on those numbers; customers shortlists depend on those numbers; and investment decisions depend on those numbers.

So, while it is true that theres life beyond numbers and one should not overestimate their value, dont underestimate them either.

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