Nine industry experts came together in Mumbai on August 29, 2019, to deliberate upon India's Fastest Growing Companies and the CW Person of the Year. For the 17th year in a row, the CONSTRUCTION WORLD Global Awards will once again recognise and award India’s Fastest Growing Construction Companies, India’s Top Challengers and, of course, the CW Person of the Year. Yes! The CONSTRUCTION WORLD Global Awards 2019 is here, hosted once again as part of the India Construction Festival. In an industry striving for excellence, arriving at the list of winners is never an easy task. Like every year, industry experts came together in Mumbai to discuss, deliberate upon and select our honour roll. This year, the jury panel comprised nine members. The jury meet was initiated by pulling out a list of nominations for the CW Person of the Year 2019 in the public and private sectors.Compiled by the CW editorial team, the nominations included construction heroes who have enjoyed remarkable achievements this year and, through their efforts, propelled the organisation and industry forward. Further, a report with a quantitative analysis of construction companies – data sourced from published annual reports and results published by companies – was presented to the panel to allow them to assess the companies in each category (Fastest Growing – Large, Medium and Small). This was followed by a quantitative analysis of companies in the segments of Paints; Steel; Cement; and Tiles, Ceramic and Sanitaryware. Even in the case of non-listed firms, such data was sourced from the company directly by seeking audited figures. To ensure authenticity of data during compilation, various checks and balances were put into place. The jury was informed that the data was further audited selectively to ensure it was error-free. This data was collated and compiled by FIRST Construction Council, a non-profit trust set up in 2003 to empower and enable the construction community through information and policy advocacy, and achieve sustainable worldclass standards in construction. The council also engages in researching information and ranking construction and infrastructure companies. As a prelude to the discussion of selecting India’s fastest growing companies, a presentation on the parameters of the model was made by Pratap Padode, President, FIRST ConstructionCouncil. This included the definition of large, medium and small companies, and the rationale for the choice of companies along with criteria such as cut-off levels for selecting companies in various categories. Companies not considered for the awards were those with insufficient data available; those that suffered losses in FY2019; and those whose figures were derived mainly from ‘in-house performance’. In the ‘Fastest Growing Construction Company – Large’ category, capital management, safety and ethical construction were considered important factors. Other factors discussed included the company’s focus on providing on-site training and transparency in activities. On account of these, the panel unanimously decided to select two companies for the third position. In the ‘Fastest Growing Construction Company – Medium’ category, construction companies that were becoming controversial in recent times and in the news for negative reasons were eliminated. Also, companies that faced losses on existing projects moved down the ranks. Further, companies were studied for their consistent track record, safety record and internal processes. In the ‘Fastest Growing Construction Company – Small’ category, while some companies lost out on being ranked owing to the project-awarding developer facing bankruptcy (which impacted their operations), some companies on the list were entirely new with not many background details apart from the financial data received. Thus, the jury unanimously prioritised companies on the list with a stronger track record. What’s more, in the other categories – for instance, cement – companies that did not have an impressive base and not much growth in profits were pushed down the ranks. It was also observed that all companies in the steel sector (small category) recorded positive growth in profit. Furthermore, along with the financial data and rankings, the jury also discussed the track record of various construction companies, which included quality of work and industry happenings as well as softer issues and business factors. In all, the panel focused on top-line and bottom-line growth; they discussed all-round performance and shared their perceptions and findings on areas of concern of some companies during the period under review. This certainly had an overall impact on the final results. Eventually, it was well worth the wait when the panel arrived at its definitive list of the winning companies for 2019: India’s Fastest Growing Companies.