FIRST Construction Council completes 20 years in 2023 and has been monitoring and researching the construction sector for the last 20 years. Our spending on infrastructure which was around `10 trillion per annum between 2008 and 2018 now needs to grow by double to meet the needs of the National Infrastructure Pipeline. We have seen that the capacity of contractors and construction companies has expanded from the operating revenue of Rs.160 billion in 2003, twenty years ago to over Rs.3 trillion! Nearly up by 18 times over twenty years.Here is a sample of the changes that have occurred: On April 30 2003, the market capitalisation of L&T was $ 1.09 billion and today it is $ 510 billion. The Construction Equipment market was around 7,000 units or Rs.45 billion and today it is 1,07,776 units. JCB had a turnover of Rs.5.5 billion then and now has crossed Rs.120 billion L&T was planning to target international revenues of Rs.10 billion in fiscal 2002. In FY 2023, L&T had reached `686.87 billion; that’s roughly 60 times in 20 yearsEngineering News-Record, the New-York based magazine is over 106 years old and publishes annually a list of top international contractors and design engineering firms. In the latest list of design engineering firms three companies have featured from India while five companies have featured among the 250 international contractors list. However, China has over 80 companies and Turkey has over 40 companies on that list. Why are Indian companies not of that scale? How can Indian companies scale up? Unfortunately, there are no easy answers nor any easy solutions. With margins of 5% at net levels, the contracting company has a sword hanging on its head and any delay in the project can push it towards arbitration or a long process of recovery of money. The risk undertaken by the enterprise does not provide any premium to it. L&T is of a balance sheet size that can withstand shocks and manage risks. In order to nurture companies to grow to a size where risks can be managed better, the government needs to allow a margin of grace on the basis of difficulty factor in project.execution. Contractors refuse to participate in the North east region because they cannot manage the expenses and hardship during project execution. For projects with inherent difficulties, better margins need to be provided. The loss of not undertaking projects due to lack of participation in any case raises the cost of the project due to the delay. Firms which are well capitalised and have expensive experts on board do not bid for projects where there is a bidding war among multiple competitors as they like to enter projects which have better margins. During the 2009-2012 period several contracting companies defied the sustainability norms and bid aggressively and finally are not even getting any white knights to rescue them from insolvency.Our PERGRO model which we use to deduce the fastest growing construction companies evaluates annual performance of the companies across five previous annual periods in order to compare growth across operating revenue and profits after tax. The winners that you will see in this issue are companies that have become growth champions by beating all others on these parameters. The final parameters of governance, ethics and quality are judged by the jury on a qualitative basis. Therefore the PERGRO model tests the true mettle of these companies. We are happy to see the tribe of winners growing with companies standing out as ‘Most Admired Brands’ or ‘Top Challengers’ or being one of the fastest. This issue is dedicated to the winners of the ‘Oscars of the construction industry’.The 14th Cement EXPO and Indian Cement Review Conference & Awards is scheduled on December 14-15, 2023 in Delhi. Do participate by scanning the QR code provide here.