17 years is a long time no matter how you look at it. It is enough time to change the course of a generation. This year, siliconindia turned 17 but we are still strongly aligned with our vision as we were 17 years ago to play the role of a platform to bring together the entrepreneurs of the yesteryears and today's. We do believe in change as much as our newly appointed Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi. India's growth was in a dormant stage for a while, but with the recent change in our government and with the initiatives it has undertaken to turn India from just a services provider country to a manufacturing country, things seem positive for every individual. Mr. Modi's slogan of 'Make in India' will surely churn out the great hidden potential of our entrepreneurs and the ecosystem will boom, thus providing enhanced employment opportunity along with increased FDI in sectors including electronic manufacturing, automobile and others. This will put India prominently on the global manufacturing map and facilitate the inflow of new technology.

These initiatives have augmented the entrepreneurial ecosystem from the grass root level and not just the biggies but SMEs and the wannabe entrepreneurs too have folded their sleeves for the bright future to make a difference for the country. The entrepreneur spirits are flying high and recent acquisition of some of the Indian founded startups by giant global MNCs are testament to it. The game has become more potent that needs every move to be crisp and pivotal which will eventually change the ball game and position India among the first world countries.

Saluting this entrepreneurial spirit of entrepreneurs, we bring to you our annual edition of 'Company of the Year'. In this special edition, we have tried to bring the stories of success, struggle and offerings of such companies who are the element of change in this dynamic game. We hope that these stories will help ignite the subliminal entrepreneurial spirits of many such would-be history creators. We also bring to you the story Sridhar Pinnpureddy, CEO & Founder of CtrlS, one of the first Tier IV Data Center in India in our 'Entrepreneur of the Year' column. The column focuses on his secret sauces to success. Nonetheless, we also bring to you the anecdote of Xebia, an IT services company and how it turned out to be one of the leading players in the agile software development methodology.

We promise to continue this legacy and bring to you more such stories each year. Do let us know what you think.

Anamika Sahu