40 winners from India and across the globe, 18 partners and over 250 attendees-Here's more on the 16th CONSTRUCTION WORLD Global Awards!

A matter of honour
Despite 2016-17 being a year of landmark decisions and upheavals with demonetisation, RERA, GST and more, there were companies that rode the wave successfully in 2017-18, adapting to change and emerging winners - many of these were honoured at the awards. What's more, this year took on a more global flavour with CW associating with New York-based Engineering News-Record, popularly known as ENR, the world's oldest and largest circulated engineering magazine, to recognise top international design and contracting firms.

Another highlight of the evening was the launch of the CW 22nd Anniversary edition, a blockbuster issue with the theme 'Strategy Paradox'. In this edition, 20 industry captains have written on how they adapt and align their chosen strategies with unexpected changes in the business and political environment to achieve success.

Indeed, success was the buzzword of the evening and optimism ran high. As Pratap Padode, Founder & President, FIRST Construction Council, said in his inaugural address, 'The global construction industry will reach $12.7 trillion in 2022, up from $10.6 trillion in 2017, with India being one of its largest contributors by 2030. Further, India's construction industry is poised to become the larges employer by 2022, employing over 75 million people.'

He added that $650 billion worth of investments in urban infrastructure are estimated over the next 20 years and India is set to be the world's third largest construction market by 2025.

The winners take it all! The names of India's Fastest Growing Construction Companies were unveiled at the event. Elaborating upon the selection methodology, Padode said, 'FIRST Construction Council is a non-profit infrastructure think-tank, focused on providing the latest updates on the construction industry in India, and dedicated to promoting its causes and needs.

The FIRST methodology uses financial data of the past six years; companies are categorised and ranked as large, medium and small.' He went on to add that the jury is then given the authority to refuse voting for a company that, in their view, does not observe corporate governance, business ethics and other best practices. 'So, the companies winning today are those who have not only scaled the financial model but have been filtered through the eyes of the jury.'(See jury meet on page 90.) Along with the fastest growing companies (turn to page 78 for more), the jury also selected the CONSTRUCTION WORLD Person of the Year from a list of nominations put forth by the CW editorial team.

FIRST Construction Council created another model for 'Top Challengers' (see winners on page 82). This takes into consideration promising companies, having studied their ability to grow over the previous year despite challenging circumstances. Companies under this category, including infrastructure developers, building materials and construction equipment manufacturers, were also awarded.

Further, as mentioned above, the team from ENR, through its internal methodology (explained on page 92), recognised the Top International Design and Contracting Firms.

To cap off the evening, the winners of all the categories took centre stage to rousing applause by the construction fraternity!

The stars speak
Vinayak Deshpande, Managing Director, Tata Projects, was honoured as the CONSTRUCTION WORLD Person of the Year 2018. In his address, he said, 'CW has been at the forefront of disseminating new developments and worldwide happenings in construction. While the magazine is a must read for companies wanting to grow and stay ahead in India, the awards recognise effort, which motivates the industry to contribute to the country better. I am grateful to CW for this honour and recognition.' (read more on page 76)

With Larsen & Toubro receiving the award for Largest Construction Company, MV Satish, Whole-Time Director and Sr Executive Vice President (Buildings, Minerals & Metals), said, 'It is the L&Tiites that have enabled the company to sustain its leadership position over the years. Technology is important for us. We are India's most digitised company. We also have a good risk review in place, and focus on large delivery. This has helped us grow big.'

Dilip Buildcon acknowledged the applause for Fastest Growing Construction Company in the Large Category. Dilip Suryavanshi, the company's Chairman & Managing Director, said, 'The key to my success is my team, and those 35,000 people all over the country working for 24 hours and 365 days. This award motivates us to move forward. My two sons are working under the leadership of our CEO Devendra Jain. His office starts from 5:30 am, with which connectivity throughout the country starts.' Vinod Agarwal, Managing Director, GR Infraprojects, received the trophy for being the Fastest Growing Construction Company in the Medium Category. He said, 'For a company of our size, HAM is a good opportunity. In the future, we want to focus on EPC as well as HAM projects. Being EPC players, we plan to transfer the project to a good investor after it is completed.

And there, too, we plan to make some margin on equity.' For his part, Sandeep Garg, Managing Director & CEO, Welspun Enterprises, who received the trophy for the Fastest Growing Construction Company in the Small Category, said, 'We believe HAM is a developer's model and we want to stay as a developer.

Construction should be left to the people who are best equipped to do it. That's what has led to our growth.'

In fact, it was a double celebration for companies like Dilip Buildcon, Welspun Enterprises and KNR Constructions that received the award for Fastest Growing Companies as well as India's Top Challengers!

The support structure!
The 16th CONSTRUCTION WORLD Global Awards was presented by Title Partner: Apollo Tyres; State Partner: Andhra Pradesh Economic Development Board; Platinum Partner:

Dilip Buildcon; Gold Partners: Tata Projects, Shapoorji Pallonji Engineering & Construction, and L&T Construction; Official Cement Partner: Wonder Cement; and Associate Partners: Sany Heavy Industry India, Action Construction Equipment, Wirtgen Group, KNR Construction, Hyundai Construction Equipment India, GR Infraprojects, Chetak Enterprises, CASE Construction Equipment, PSP Projects, Godavari Paints, and Patel Infrastructure.

'We all have a huge opportunity ahead of us,' said Dominic Martin, Head-Marketing, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, Apollo Tyres, 'The tyre industry is over 150-years-old, compared to which Apollo Tyres is about 42 years young. We have an ambitious team and are among the fastest growing tyre companies in the world.' In the off-highway segment, Apollo Tyres started business with backhoe loader tyres about eight years ago. Martin added, 'We have decided to expand our construction business and have introduced a portfolio of premium tyres.'

CW thanks all its partners for their support and congratulate our winners once again. Read on to learn more about the winners and jury, and experience the magic of the evening!

Partners
State Partner: Andhra Pradesh Economic Development Board
Title Partner: Apollo Tyres
Platinum Partner: Dilip Buildcon
Official Cement Partner: Wonder Cement

Gold Partners:
Tata Projects
Shapoorji & Pallonji Engineering and Construction
L&T Construction

Associate Partners:
KNR Constructions
Writgen Group
GR Infraprojects
PSP Projects
Sany Heavy Industry India
Action Construction Equipment
Hyundai Construction Equipment
Chetak Enterprises
Godavari Paints
Patel Infrastructure
CASE Construction Equipment

Growth requires many more companies to build the India we want.

Pratap Padode, Founder & President, FIRST Construction Council

'What is the idea behind India Construction Festival? The engineering process outsourcing opportunity was one we spotted. And, India has a great claim to that opportunity because it is shifting to Asia - 25 per cent of the $680 billion spent on engineering and R&D worldwide will come from Asia in upcoming years. A lot of companies here are already using India as a back office for engineering processes for their activities all around the world. But the question was, why not so many others? A certain policy lacuna was discouraging them from taking that step. India has the engineering, talent pool; it needs foreign exchange, it has software capability...then, why are we not taking that bold step forward and welcoming these companies? I hope this festival is one such opportunity, one such big step forward in making this happen. We always come up with ideas and pointers. But then who is taking the idea to its logical conclusion? FIRST Construction Council is doing that. There are two words that are really lacking: 'Follow-up'. The follow-up is not strong enough and, therefore, all these ideas just hibernate.

The global construction industry is in fast-forward mode. It will reach $12.7 trillion in 2022, up from $10.6 trillion in 2017. While India is to be the world's third largest construction market by 2025, it, of course, needs a lot of funds to rebuild itself. India is both building and rebuilding itself. If 100 smart cities have a development plan now, it is a good step forward. Many good steps have come out of urban rejuvenation from the smart cities and AMRUT missions, and then we have Digital India and many other missions.

In the global construction industry, India will play a strong role in the time to come. Meanwhile, several new initiatives have come forth, enabling much more activity and interactivity in the construction sector. FDI has opened up, there are many regulatory reforms, and we see the will to make construction permits convenient.

This is the opportunity coming to Asia and what India needs to pitch for. And, this is why we need to facilitate engineering companies from overseas to set up base here, because the advantages are manifold.

There are challenges, of course: Shortage of skilled labour and capacity building system; non-availability of urban land; alleviated cost of materials; technology adoption. But things are beginning to improve as we see the construction equipment industry grow.

Growth requires many more companies to build the India we want. We have seen that the revenue growth for construction companies in India in 2016-17 has been 9 per cent, but in 2017-18 is 14 per cent. So there's a top-line growth indicative of a better time ahead. Our GDP from construction has been steadily growing.'

... WINNERS ...
CW Person of the Year
Vinayak Deshpande
Managing Director, Tata Projects

Largest Construction Company
Larsen & Toubro

Fastest Growing Construction Companies (Large)
1st - Dilip Buildcon
2nd - Tata Projects
3rd - NCC

Fastest Growing Construction Companies (Medium)
1st - GR Infraprojects
2nd - KNR Constructions

Fastest Growing Construction Companies (Small)
1st -Welspun Enterprises
2nd -GHV Group

TOP CHALLENGERS
(In Alphabetical Order)
Action Construction Equipment
BEML
Dilip Buildcon
Everest Industries
Gallant Ispat
Kamdhenu
KNR Constructions
Kolte Patil Developers
PSP Projects
Steel Authority of India
Tata Steel
Welspun Enterprises

ENR Top International Design Firms and Top International Contractors Recognition Ceremony
(In Alphabetical Order)
Arcadis
Bechtel
Black & Veatch
ENKA
Hatch
Hyundai Engineering & Construction
Jacobs
Khatib & Alami
Larsen & Tubro
Mott MacDonald
Ramboll Gruppen A/S
Rizzani de Eccher
Shapoorji Pallonji Engineering and Construction
Strabag
TBEA Co