The Indian IT industry never had a better time, nor did the groups on the DQ Top 20 list. While the industry marched ahead at an astounding speed of 50.3%, romping home with overall revenue figures of Rs 49,677 crore in financial year 2000-01, the Top 20 players went ahead to garner Rs 31,298 crore-63% of the total industry revenues. Interestingly, the magical figure achieved by them is 94.7% of the total industry revenues of Rs 33,052 crore in 1999-2000.

The Giants

As for the DQ Giants of 2000-01, there were few surprises-it was HCL, Tatas and Wipro in the top three slots, same as the previous year. Compaq jumped three rungs to finish at No 4 this time, while Infosys steamed in at No 5, pushing HP and IBM out the Top 5. While HCL raked in a massive Rs 4,413 crore, the Tatas showed total IT revenues of Rs 4,032 crore (of this, TCS alone had a lion's share of Rs 3,142 crore). Wipro showed revenues of Rs 3,007 crore. Compaq with Rs 1,945 crore (including Digital India's first full-year revenues of Rs 184 crore) and Infosys, the only software-only company in the Top 5, recorded Rs 1,901-crore revenues at a growth rate of 115%.

Overall, the giants cornered 30.8% of the industry revenue while contributing 48.9% to the Top 20 kitty.

There were other interesting numbers. Only two of the 20 players that made it to the elite club registered growth of less than 40%. There was the downside too-HP, for instance, had capped off its measly growth of 3% in 1998-99 with an outstanding run in FY 1999-00, when it showed a growth of 101%. In 2000-01, however, it grew by only 26%, much below the industry average, and was relegated to seventh position. CMC was the worst performer of the lot, managing only to increase revenues from Rs 601 crore to Rs 672 crore, a growth of 12%, It was no surprise then that the group slipped from No 12 last year to No 20 this time around. While five of the remaining 18 members-Tatas, Wipro, Tech Pacific, IBM and Pentafour-registered 40-50% growth, 13 of the Top 20 groups were well ahead of the industry growth rate.

There was shuffling within the pack too. The Tandon entities entered the club after their bad run in 1998-99, jumping straight into 14th position. Their growth rate was the highest at 132%. It was a year of consolidation for this new member, which merged two of its group companies, Advanced Technology Devices and flagship Tancom Electronics, to form Celetron. Software giant Microsoft, with revenues of Rs 660 crore, was the only one from last year's Top 20 list to make an exit, slipping from 17 to 21.

HCL Group

After two consecutive years of restructuring, the Shiv Nadar-led HCL Group went ahead to reap the benefits-growing from a Rs 2,922 crore last year to Rs 4,413 crore this time, posting a growth rate of 51%, against 21% in the last fiscal. But while the restructuring at the group level helped the companies create more synergy, the real growth came from juggling within each company.

While HCL Technologies, the only company under the direct stewardship of Nadar, has been shifting focus to high-end value-added services and offshore-centric development in the areas of Internet, e-commerce, networking and embedded systems, HCL Infosystems too has changed its business mix. From a company that used to sell plain vanilla boxes, HCLI has emerged as a top systems integrator selling solutions, while also offering IT services and consultancy services.

With NIIT always a services company, Nadar has been able to drive the group seamlessly through a paradigm shift-from a primarily hardware-oriented focus to being a software and services giant. NIIT, meanwhile, went ahead full steam to consolidate on its leadership position in the IT training segment, capitalizing on the slowdown, as aspirants started rushing to big brands for assurance on placements. Q4 also saw NIIT investing more to create a brand pull and get aggressive with promotions.

Tatas

There's nothing like putting your money where your mouth is-and no one proved this maxim better than the Tatas. Despite a slow takeoff last year, the Indian monolith slapped shut all detractors who had questioned the group's IT interests by clocking a revenue growth of 43% to scream across the Rs 4,000-crore mark. This was a huge achievement for a group that posted a meager 10% growth in the previous year. The group also ventured into new areas like broadband and Internet access. Ratan Tata also capitalized on group muscle power, getting Tata Industries, Tata Steel and Tata Power to bid for acquisition of the government's stake in VSNL.

The IT companies in the stable-Tata Consultancy Services (TCS is still a division of Tata Sons), Tata Infotech, Tata Liebert and Tata Elxsi-together accounted for 10% of the total group revenue of over Rs 40,000 crore. The APAC push continued and TCS set up shop in Singapore, while added 4,000 more to its list of employees worldwide. Tata Infotech also doubled its growth from 11% in 1999-00 to 21% this fiscal, improving revenues from Rs 432 crore last year to Rs 524 crore this time. Power supply systems major Tata Liebert, meanwhile, jumped by 39%, against 28% previously. The group's Bangalore-based technical computing arm, Tata Elxsi revenues jumped from Rs 146 crore to Rs 179 crore.

Wipro

For Azim Premji and Wipro, it was another year of steady growth. The group posted a 48% jump in revenues (41% last year) to cross the Rs 3,000-crore mark. Wipro has a reputation for being a giant that moves slowly but steadily and surely. No 100% growth rates for this company, just a slow and steady increase. Not contended with last year's reorganization, when the company realigned and recreated its IT division by merging and consolidating its line of businesses, the group went in for further change. Wipro Infotech's peripherals division was hived off to create Wipro e-peripherals. Also, the global support division was taken over by Wipro Technologies. The year-end also saw the board recommending the merger of Wipro Net into Wipro Infotech in financial year 2001-02. Meanwhile, Wipro Infotech president Arun Thiagarajan retired and Wipro01markets' CEO Suresh Vaswani took the helm.

Wipro Technologies had been trying to target the Japanese market for some time, and July of 2000 saw it setting up an offshore development center in Hyderabad for Bussan Systems Integration Co, a Japanese telecom firm. The company also set up offices in Germany and France and its first European development center at Reading, UK, with 50 application specialists.

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