The time is nigh - the time to honour the heroes of the construction and infrastructure firmament, to laud achievement and applaud grit, success and commitment. This year's CONSTRUCTION WORLD Annual Awards, now in its 16th edition, will be presented on October 24 at Taj Palace, New Delhi. In addition, FIRST Construction Council has chosen its 'Top Challengers', companies including infrastructure developers, building materials and equipment companies who have thrived over the past year despite challenging circumstances - they will also be awarded at the event. Finally, we will crown the 'CONSTRUCTION WORLD Person of the Year' chosen by the jury. Past winners include stalwarts such as  Dr E Sreedharan, Dr GVK Reddy, SN Subrahmanyan and Vinayak Deshpande. The methodology Foundation of Infrastructure Research Studies Training (FIRST) is a non-profit body engaged in research and information on national development since 2003. Tracking infrastructure projects in India, from conception to commissioning FIRST Construction Council has developed a statistical model to analyse and present India's fastest growing construction companies for the past 15 years. 'Construction' is taken to include civil engineering and construction contracting; 'revenue' indicates 'consolidated revenue' and includes sales revenue, other income and revenue of subsidiaries; and 'profit' is taken as net profit where the company has only one segment. In case a company has multiple segments, we take segment-wise profits. Also, wherever consolidated net profit numbers are available, we consider the consolidated net profit for the past six years. To qualify, the company should be a legal entity created in any one of the three modes: Registered as a public or private limited company under the Indian Companies Act, 1956; registered as a partnership firm under the Indian Partnership Act, 1932; or a public-sector undertaking created under an Act of the Parliament or State Legislature. The annual statement of accounts, balance sheet and profit and loss account should be audited by an accredited firm of chartered accountants, and the same submitted annually to the body of share or stakeholders. Foreign companies working in India but not incorporated in India are excluded, as are proprietary firms. Revenue should be above Rs 2 billion for construction companies and Rs 1 billion for other construction-related companies in the immediate last financial year and the company should have been incorporated at least six years ago. The mainline business of the company should primarily be civil works, construction and contracting, registered as a public or private limited company. In case of diversified companies, the contribution of construction to the gross annual revenue should not be less than 50 per cent in each accounting year if segment-wise reporting is not available. Companies that do not report annual revenues separately by segments (for construction) do not qualify for inclusion. A construction company servicing the in-house requirements of the group that does not cater to the open market is excluded from the scope of this study Two prime indicators are considered for the ranking: Total revenue and PAT as reported in the annual results. YoY percentage change was computed for each of the years, for revenue and PAT. For companies who posted a turnaround in this financial year, its performance from the year before is averaged taking five years performance to normalise the ranking calculation. In the case of net loss for two or more consecutive years, values are treated in absolute terms while computing YoY. For example, a net loss of Rs 100 million rising to Rs 150 million in the next year is negative growth; if the same comes down to Rs 50 million, it is treated as positive growth. The companies were ranked in terms of descending order of YoY change (revenue and profit) for each of the years. (Fastest growth was ranked one and slowest, the last). The rank of each year was then multiplied by the weight assigned to that year - this was done separately for revenue and PAT and the results were totalled for each company to form the index for both revenue and profit. Companies were sorted in ascending order of the composite index to arrive at the fastest growing companies. Thus, the company with the lowest composite index was ranked first and as the topper. Companies reporting losses in the last financial year are not considered for the CW Awards. Construction companies have been categorised as under: 'Large' with revenue > Rs 30 billion 'Medium' with revenue > Rs 15 billion to < Rs 30 billion 'Small' with revenue < Rs 15 billion but > Rs 2 billion. The jury's role The analysis derived from the methodology explained above is presented to an eminent jury.  The jury applies parameters of good governance, macro assessment, and such other qualitative factors to finalise the set of winners from among the shortlisted companies. After being provided the financial figures, the jury makes observations and decides whether the companies qualifying in the financial model are appropriate and worthy as winners. In fact, the jury members have the right to veto a company securing a top position if they feel that it is not a worthy contender. While the quantitative performance is placed before the jury, it is up to them to evaluate the qualitative aspects of the companies, which include quality of management, corporate ethics, governance, credibility and reputation. Once the jury passes its verdict, the winners are published in India's largest circulated construction magazine CONSTRUCTION WORLD and the findings are presented at the CONSTRUCTION WORLD Annual Awards. The jury also unanimously chooses a worthy CONSTRUCTION WORLD Person of the Year from a list of nominations provided. Read on to meet our nominees, who have persevered, beaten the odds and come out shining. In our book, they are all winners! NomineeS AFCONS INFRASTRUCTURE APCO INFRATECH ASHOKA BUILDCON CERA SANITARYWARE DILIP BUILDCON GHV GROUP GR INFRAPROJECTS IRON TRIANGLE JSW STEEL KANSAI NEROLAC KNR CONSTRUCTIONS LARSEN &; TOUBRO MONTECARLO NBCC NCC TATA PROJECTS TATA STEEL WELSPUN ENTERPRISES