Citing innovation in technology as the key behind becoming a super power, Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi urged information and communication technology (ICT) industry to focus more towards innovating indigenous technologies.

While addressing the top brass of country's information technology (IT) and telecom players during the 20th ICT Business Awards held on Friday evening, Modi said, "If India has to make a place for itself in the world then development in science and technology would play a key role towards achieving it. We need to innovate according to the needs of the country, then only we can go hand in hand with the world."

The Gujarat Chief Minister also expressed concerns towards the lack of Government policies which has in a way dented the pace of growth of the ICT industry. Modi referred to the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA Government, under whose tenure multiple initiatives were taken in the ICT field, including the formation of an IT ministry. But commenting on the present regime, he said, "Unfortunately in the last one decade, specifically because of the 2G scam, the industry's pace was slowed down."

The 2G scam was the main reason which not only dented the pace at which ICT was growing but also left a deep mark in the minds of the world, Modi added. Talking about the economy of the country, the BJP's Prime Ministerial nominee said that the Finance Minister P Chidambaram put a curb on gold imports to arrest the current account deficit of the country but that is only leading to increased gold smuggling into the nation.

Rather than restricting public from buying gold, he said that the Government should have focused in reducing imports of electronic goods and urged domestic manufactures to produce them. He further added that growth of the ICT industry should have been the priority of the Government. Making a stern comment on the issue of rural teledensity and the universal service obligation fund (USOF), Modi said, "It is very important to have proper rural telephony. I have heard that Rs 28,000 crore is lying idle in Government coffers. If that money was utilized in rural teledensity, we would have progressed."

He said ICT industry unlike other sectors has the power to uplift the country in global arena and hence it is vital that all necessary steps are taken in ensuring its growth. Modi also said that the "information highway" is the only way to achieve the goal of "one mission, one vision and one nation".

Prior to the award ceremony, Modi had a closed round table with 35-40 ICT honchos, where he asked them about the industry's expectations from the government. According to industry sources, Modi asked them for suggestions to develop the ICT industry and discussed the future prospects of the industry.

Coming out from an extremely challenging year which saw a slowdown in economy, business and also failed spectrum auction, the ICT Business Awards acknowledged the hard work and innovating business strategies of the best performers of 2013.

CP Gurnani, Managing Director and CEO of Tech Mahindra received the award of Dataquest IT Person of the Year 2013. Gurnani was awarded for his exemplary contribution in making Tech Mahindra India's fifth largest IT services company and successfully managing the integration of Mahindra Satyam with Tech Mahindra.

"It feels great to be honoured with the Dataquest IT person of the Year award 2013. This award not only makes a unique difference to me as a business leader but also creates a path that inspires," said CP Gurnani.

Ajai Chowdhry, Founder of HCl  Technologies was conferred lifetime Achievement Award 2013 for the role he played in driving country's IT hardware and electronics industry. It was due to his constant pursuance, the Government of India also took a serious stand towards the IT hardware and electronics industry.

UIDAI and InMobi were given the Pathbreaker of the Year 2013 Awards.  UIDAI was credited for making Aadhaar as the second biggest technology revolution in the country after the telecom revolution. InMobi was credited by the jury for creating mobile-first customer engagement platform and have close to 690 million users across 160+ countries.The Jury for the selection of awards included some of the prominent names from the industry like Vanitha Narayayan, MD of IBM India, Aruna Jayanthi, MD of Capgemini India, Prof Deepak B. Phatak from IIT Bombay, Rajesh Janey, MD of EMC India, Rajiv Srivastava, President of HP India (PSG), PVG Menon, President IESA, Francisco D. D'Souza, CEO of Cognizant Tech Services, and Pradeep Gupta, CMD of CyberMedia.