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Azim Premji, Wipro chairman
Position: 31 Last year: Not ranked
Why? The Bangalore tiger roars
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Azim Premji took over Wipro - a $2m hydrogenated cooking fat company - in 1966 at the tender age of 21.
Since then he has build the company into a $3bn IT and business process outsourcing giant that has given the major Western IT service providers something to worry about - and made Premji one of the richest men in India. He is worth $17bn according to Forbes.
Premji has previously predicted that there will be at least two Indian companies in the top 10 global services providers in the next five years - and it is already commonplace for companies to have an offshoring element to most major contracts.
Indian suppliers are also keen to move away from low-value work into high-end consultancy. They are also expanding outwards from their Indian base to build operations around the world - Wipro recently revealed plans to open a software development centre in Atlanta.
As one Agenda Setters panellist pointed out: "The Indian firms are incredibly impressive." But the trick for executives such as Premji will be to manage the fast growth of the Indian IT industry - and make sure it doesn't run out of fuel.
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Azim Premji, chairman of Bangalore-based IT company Wipro, recently warned the Western world is "seriously underestimating" the scale of the tech skills shortage it faces. The UK's high tech sector will need tens of thousands extra skilled migrant...
Azim Premji, chairman of Wipro, speaking at the company's global media event in Bangalore this week, said: "What we are looking for is a centre which has good education facilities. Premji said: "Our objective would be to have our people force in...
Azim Premji, chairman of Bangalore-based Wipro, said poor maths education from primary school onwards is one of the fundamental causes of the shortage of science and engineering graduates in Western countries.
He's up from 40 in last year's poll and for the first time seems to have put some distance between himself and the well-known leaders of TCS and Wipro, the other two big Indian players, led by S Ramadorai and Azim Premji respectively.
This means the Indian model will have to adapt, as Wipro chairman Azim Premji pointed out: "We have to move away from the concept that we are a low-cost destination to a destination that gives huge value at a cost effective price.
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