• Axis Bank
• Canara Bank
• Union Bank of India

• IIFL Finance Ltd.
• Nuvama Wealth Management
• SBI Card

• Suryoday Small Finance Bank
• TJSB Sahakari Bank Limited
• Ujjivan Small Finance Bank

• Adani Electricity Mumbai Ltd.
• Adani Power Ltd.
• GAIL India Ltd.

• Bharat Electronics Ltd.
• Goods & Services Tax Network (GSTN)
• Vodafone Idea Ltd.

• Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL)
• Nestle India
• SERUM Institute of India Pvt. Ltd.

• Birlasoft
• EXL Service
• Tata Consultancy Services Ltd.

• Barclays Global Service Centre Pvt. Ltd.
• Carrier Corporation
• Target India Pvt. Ltd.

• DSP Asset Managers
• IIFL Securities Ltd.
• Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd.

BFSI

• Rajesh Thapar, Axis Bank Ltd.
• Ramesh Gurram, Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd.
• Steve Dsouza, ICICI Lombard GIC Ltd

IT-ITeS

• Rajesh Kumar, EXL Service
• Rishi Rajpal, Concentrix
• Mohit Saxena, Infinity Labs Ltd.

Manufacturing & Energy

• Jnana Ranjan, HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd.
• Pradipta Kumar, KEC International Ltd.
• Sanjeev Lamba, Uno Minda Ltd.

Healthcare & Pharma

• Dattatraya Khatavkar, Serum Institute of India Pvt. Ltd.
• Pushkal Mishra, Dr. Lal PathLabs Ltd.
• Suriyanarayanan Maharajan, Navitas Life Sciences

GCC

• Nitin Kathuria, KPMG Global Services
• Rajesh Bhasin, Societe Generale Global Solutions Centre Pvt. Ltd.
• Sourav Chanda, Providence

• Nity Singh, Concentrix Corporation
• Ranjini Sethupathy, Sony India Software Center Pvt. Ltd.
• Vidya Jayaraman, AGS Health

• Alok Arora, Seamex HR SSC, BMCSPL
• Jagannath Pakala, LTI Mindtree Ltd.
• Ramakanta Mohapatra, EdgeVerve Systems Ltd.
• Vijaya Rajeswari Veldurthy, Trianz Digital Consulting Pvt. Ltd.

• HDFC Bank
• Karkinos Healthcare Pvt. Ltd.
• Novartis Healthcare Pvt. Ltd.

• eClerx Services Ltd.
• Leena AI India Pvt. Ltd.
• Tata Consultancy Services Ltd.

• Aujas Cybersecurity
• Payatu Security Consulting Pvt. Ltd.
• Tata Communications Ltd.

• Hindustan Institute of Technology
• IIT Kanpur
• PES University

• Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
• Dept. of CSE, IIT Kanpur
• Dept of CSE, NIT Warangal
• PES University

• Best Security Practices in Insurance Sector
• Best Security Practices in Government Sector
• Best Security Practices in Digital Plus Organizations

Eligibility Criteria:

• Applicant must be a banking company operating in India and should be a Private Sector Bank or Public Sector Banks or Payments Banks (PB) as declared by RBI.
• Application would be eligible for evaluation only if this award category receives 3 or more nominations.
• Applicant must have been operating for a minimum of one year in India.

Eligibility Criteria:

• Applicant must be a Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) as declared by RBI and should be operating in India.
• Application would be eligible for evaluation only if this award category receives 3 or more nominations.
• Applicant must have been operating for a minimum of one year in India.

Eligibility Criteria:

• Applicant must be a Small Finance Bank (SFB)/ Regional Rural Bank (RRB)/ Local Area Bank (LAB)/ State Cooperative Banks (StCBs)/ District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs) declared by RBI/ NABARD and should be operating in India.
• Application would be eligible for evaluation only if this award category receives 3 or more nominations.
• Applicant must have been operating for a minimum of one year in India.

Eligibility Criteria:

• Applicant must be an energy sector organization operating in India (Petroleum, Oil & Gas, Power - Coal, Nuclear, Renewable sources of energy (Hydro, Solar, wind, etc.)), and directly working in generation, transmission, or distribution of energy.
• Application would be eligible for evaluation only if this award category receives 3 or more nominations.
• Applicant must have been operating for a minimum of one year in India.

Not Eligible for this category

• Organizations which may act as the supplier for the companies working in this sector or may indirectly work to enable the companies working in this sector are not eligible in this category.

Eligibility Criteria:

• Applicant must be an organization providing services in the following sectors from the critical infrastructure sectors identified by National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC) –
  • Telecom
  • Transport
  • Strategic & Public Enterprises
• Application would be eligible for evaluation only if this award category receives 3 or more nominations.
• Applicant must have been operating for a minimum of one year in India.

Not Eligible for this category

• Applicants belonging to the below mentioned sectors are not eligible for this category and must apply in their respective categories (separate categories have been defined for these as part of the Awards). Duplicate submission is not allowed.
  1. Banking
  2. Government Institutions
  3. Insurance
  4. Power & Energy sector
  5. Financial Services (NBFCs)

Eligibility Criteria:

• Applicant must be an insurance company (Private or Public Sector) operating in India, providing insurance services and registered with Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDAI).
• Application would be eligible for evaluation only if this award category receives 3 or more nominations.
• Applicant must have been operating for a minimum of one year in India.

Not Eligible for this category

• Companies which are not providing insurance policies and are only supporting the companies that provide insurance policies are not eligible.

Eligibility Criteria:

• Applicant must be a Manufacturing sector public/private organization in India.
• Application would be eligible for evaluation only if this award category receives 3 or more nominations.
• Applicant must have been operating for a minimum of five years in India.
• Applicant should have the manufacturing facilities based in India.
• The products manufactured by the applicant should be consumed at least in the Indian Market.

Eligibility Criteria:

• Applicant must be a registered organization in India providing aggregator/platform services for delivery, e-commerce, online shopping etc.
• Application would be eligible for evaluation only if this award category receives 3 or more nominations.
• Applicant must have been providing services in India for a minimum of five years.

Eligibility Criteria:

• Applicant must be an organization from IT-ITeS sector operating in India.
• Applicant would be eligible for evaluation only if this award category receives 3 or more nominations.
• Applicant must have been operating for a minimum of one year in India.

Eligibility Criteria:

• Applicant must be a Ministry or Department of Central or State government, a Central Government entity, a State Government entity or a statutory body set up by the Government of India.
• Application would be eligible for evaluation only if this award category receives 3 or more nominations.
• Applicant must have been operating for a minimum of one year in India.

Eligibility Criteria:

• Applicant must be a Global Capability Centre operating in India.
• Application would be eligible for evaluation only if this award category receives 3 or more nominations.
• Applicant must have been operating for a minimum of one year in India.

Eligibility Criteria:

• Applicant must be a capital market company registered in India, providing services such as buying/selling of stocks, bonds, currencies, and other financial assets, regulated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
• Application would be eligible for evaluation only if this award category receives 3 or more nominations.
• Applicant must have been operating for a minimum of one year in India.

Eligibility Criteria:

• Individual must have been performing leadership roles (full-time) in security for an organization as a CISO/ CSO/ VP/ Director/ Security head or equivalent.
• Individuals nominating for ‘Privacy Leader of the Year’ or ‘Women Security Leader of the Year’ category cannot nominate in this category.
• Application would be eligible for evaluation only if this award category receives 3 or more nominations.

Eligibility Criteria:

• Women practitioners in cyber security working for an organization as a CISO/ Security Specialist/CSO/ VP/ Director/ Security head or equivalent.
• Individuals nominating for ‘Privacy Leader of the Year’ or ‘Security Leader of the Year’ category cannot nominate in this category.
• Application would be eligible for evaluation only if this award category receives 3 or more nominations.

Eligibility Criteria:

• Individual must be in a leadership role in privacy.
• Individual should be from private or public sector in India.
• Individual for whom privacy management comprises at least 25% of his / her role.
• Individuals nominating for ‘Security Leader of the Year’ or ‘Women Security Leader of the Year’ category cannot nominate in this category.
• Application would be eligible for evaluation only if this award category receives 3 or more nominations.

Eligibility Criteria:

• The applicant must be an organization or entity that handles and processes personal data of individuals or entities as a part of its core operations.
• The applicant should have been operating as a data fiduciary for a minimum of one year in India.
• Application would be eligible for evaluation only if this award category receives 3 or more nominations.

Eligibility Criteria:

• The applicant must be an organization or entity that processes personal data on behalf of data controllers/data fiduciary as part of its core services.
• The applicant should have been operating as a data processor for a minimum of one year in India.
• Application would be eligible for evaluation only if this award category receives 3 or more nominations.

Eligibility Criteria:

• The applicant must be a cyber security services company operating in India and providing cyber security services to organizations primarily in India.
• Application would be eligible for evaluation only if this award category receives 3 or more nominations.
• Applicant must have been operating for a minimum of one year in India.

Not Eligible for this category

• Applicants with security product as a service are not eligible to apply to this category as separate category is provided for the same.

Eligibility Criteria:

• Applicant must be a recognized university/college/institute and should have been offering cyber security/information security course/degree approved/accredited by any central/state/deemed university in India.
• The course/degree should be functional for-at least two years.
• Your application would be eligible for evaluation only if this award category receives 3 or more different nominations.

Not Eligible for this category

• Organizations providing cyber security training or certifications.

Eligibility Criteria:

• Applicant must be a recognized university/college/institute involved in research and development of cybersecurity technologies in India.
• The cybersecurity research program should be functional forat least two years.
• Your application would be eligible for evaluation only if this award category receives 3 or more different nominations.

Not Eligible for this category

• Private companies involved in R&D of Cybersecurity technologies.

• Mr. K. Srinivas, Police Inspector, Cyber Crime Police Station, Cyberabad, Telangana
• Mr. Ranjit Singh, Police Inspector, Cyber Crime Police Station, Sector-17, Chandigarh
• Ms. S.S. Ray, Police Inspector, Cyber Police Station, Kolkata, West Bengal

• Andhra Pradesh Police
• Special Task Force, Uttarakhand Police
• State Cyber Crime Cell, Gandhinagar, Gujarat

• National Forensics Science University (NFSU), Gujarat
• National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT, New Delhi)
• Rashtriya Raksha University, Gujarat

Eligibility Criteria:

• Each state police organization/investigation agency can send a maximum of five entries (cases). Self-nominations are also accepted provided they are endorsed and sent through the proper channel of the state police/ investigation agency thereby ensuring that not more than five entries are received from a state/agency.
• Only one officer should be nominated for each nomination, i.e., a state /investigation agency can nominate only 5 officers for five different cases.
• Investigation done by any state police organization in the country, including the city police, National Investigation Agency, Central Bureau of Investigation, etc. will be considered.
• Cases should be of importance or sensitive nature:
  • Cases which have the potential to impact the usage of Information Technology strategically by central & state governments, industry/industries, or services availed by citizens (including impact on the adoption of e-governance applications/ E-Commerce/social media by Governments/Organisations/citizens)
  • or those which have caused public concern / created curiosity amongst the common citizen(s)
• The investigating team should have made use of electronic and technology-based tools to solve the case.
• Cases investigated & finalized without invoking IT Act, 2000 (Amended 2008) will NOT be considered for the award evaluation process.
• Cases in which investigation is completed, and Final Report is submitted to the court or those closed for other reasons, during the period - 24th September 2022 to 23rd September 2023 - will be considered, irrespective of the year of registration. However, due weightage will be given for speedy and expeditious investigation. Also, the cases that were investigated effectively within the limits of available resources. Cases ended up with Conviction during the above period may also be nominated.
• No under-investigation cases should be sent for nomination.
• Since investigation is a team effort, organizations must nominate one person representing the team (of and above the rank of Police Inspector), who has participated in the investigation, and who has contributed critically and substantially to the success of the investigation. The entry should clearly bring out the role played by the officer nominated. Officers associated with the investigation in a supervisory or advisory capacity should not be nominated for the Award.

Eligibility Criteria:

• The nomination must only be sent by State / UT Police (e.g.: Karnataka Police, Haryana Police, Chandigarh Police, etc.) or City Commissionerate (e.g., Pune police, Kolkata Police) or Investigation/intelligence Agencies working under State/central government (e.g.: CBI, NIA, Income tax department, etc.) or state/central police training academies.

Eligibility Criteria:

• Any Academia/University/Institution/College include affiliation with recognized higher education accreditation bodies in India, such as NAAC, NBA, BCI, MCI, DCI, PCI, UGC, AICTE and other autonomous bodies under the Government of India (IIT, NIT, etc.)
• Any Academia/University/Institution/College situated in India that offers special courses & organizes programs on Cybercrimes, Cyber Law & Digital Forensics.

• Accops
• Appknox
• Protectt.ai

Shortlisted

• Aurva
• Cyberstanc
• FourCore
• Redinent Innovations Pvt Ltd
• SecurWeave Research Labs Pvt Ltd
• Zaperon
• Zeron

Eligibility Criteria:

• An organization which has developed Information Security/Privacy Product(s) can apply.
• The organization should be incorporated as a private limited company (as defined in the Companies Act, 2013) or registered as a partnership firm (registered under section 59 of the Partnership Act, 1932) or a limited liability partnership (under the Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008) in India.
• Product (mentioned in the nomination form) should be designed and developed in India.
• IPR/Patents, if any, should be owned by the Indian entity.
• An organization that has won this award (DSCI) earlier is not eligible to apply.
• A company nominating any product for ‘DSCI Innovation Box’ category in this year, cannot nominate in this category.

Eligibility Criteria:

• Innovative Security/ Privacy Products which should not have violated/ breached/ copied any idea/ concept/ product already copyright or patent can be nominated.
• The organization should be incorporated as a private limited company (as defined in the Companies Act, 2013) or registered as a partnership firm (registered under section 59 of the Partnership Act, 1932) or a limited liability partnership (under the Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008) in India.
• Organization nominating in Innovation Box should have an annual turnover not exceeding Rs. 25 crores for any of the financial years since its Incorporation
• Organization nominating in Innovation Box should be in existence and operations for less than 5 years from the Date - 20 December 2023.
• The product should have been designed and developed in India.
• For the nominated products if there is any IPR/Patents registered, it should be owned by the Indian entity.
• An organization that has won this award earlier is not eligible to apply.

Corresponding eligibility criteria are mentioned in each category. Applicants are requested to carefully read the eligibility criteria before filling the application for respective category.

Yes, an organization or an individual can send their nominations for this year as well even if participated or won in the previous years. (Except explicitly mention in the particular eligibility criteria)

Yes, the categories have been revised this year. Few categories have been eliminated, few remain same, and few others have been newly introduced. We recommend that you take a few minutes to explore all the categories and their eligibility criteria for this year to understand in which category you may apply.

Applying for all the categories in the corporate segment are online.

Once the nomination window is active, a link on DSCI website can be found where individuals would have to register themselves and select the categories they want to apply for in Awards 2023. After submitting their interest, they will be able to download the nomination forms of the categories they applied for. The downloaded nomination forms can then be filled offline, since they will be in MS Word editable format.

After successfully filling in the nomination forms, the filled forms can be uploaded on a provided link (present on DSCI website) and will then be evaluated. On successful submission, the nominator/ nominee will receive a confirmation email on the email provided in the details asked on submission webpage

Your nomination will be discarded and the details which were provided during registration and downloading of the form would be erased from the database after the submission window is closed. Request you to please submit your filled nomination forms before the last date.

In the downloaded nomination forms, there is a provision for attaching the required documents. Request you to please use the space provided in nomination form itself and don’t attach supporting artefacts during or on the submission link.

Guidelines for attaching the documents, wherever required, is mentioned at the same place. Please read the guidelines carefully before attaching and/or uploading the documents.

We request the respondents to limit their responses to the prescribed word limit. Keeping the answers succinct makes it easier for the evaluators. The evaluators reserve the right to discard any information that stretches beyond word limit.

There would be both objective as well as subjective questions.

No question in the form is mandatory to answer. The nominator has full right and choice to answer or skip any of the questions. Though, during evaluation one can lose on some points if their competitor has given the answer to a particular question and they have not! Some questions in the nomination forms might not carry any weightage and could be for informational purpose only.

The awards are open for all organizations and individuals who are eligible to participate as per the eligibility criteria mentioned for each category. Its not necessary for the Organizations applying for the Awards in the corporate segment to be a DSCI Corporate Member. Contact awards team at awards@dsci.in for more details

Kindly note that there is no fee to apply for any of the Award categories.

Each award category has different parameters for evaluation. These parameters will be used to shortlist the finalist and ultimately, to decide the winner. These parameters have been decided using prior experience and consultation. However, these will not be made public.

Nomination forms for corporate segment can only be submitted online on the submission link provided on DSCI website, whereas for LEA segment one will need to submit the duly filled nomination form through e-mail to awards@dsci.in in either word or pdf format or send hard copies to DSCI office address.

Resubmitting your nomination form is not suggested as if duplicate nomination forms with the same name are received, the form submitted first will be considered for evaluation. It is recommended that organizations separately send updated information and artefacts via email to DSCI at awards@dsci.in, while referring the nominations submitted earlier, or first get their wrong/incomplete submitted nomination form deleted from the database by informing through email at awards@dsci.in and then resubmit their updated nomination form. Individuals may resubmit their completely filled nomination forms till the last date.

Consolidation of all the nomination forms and other information received from various organizations will be done by DSCI Excellence Awards Process partner (PwC). Both DSCI and PwC shall take due care that confidential information is shared only with the designated stakeholders for evaluation purposes only.

Nomination pre-screening will be done by DSCI and PwC to shortlist the finalists in each category after a due diligence. All the shortlisted nominations’ cases would be presented by DSCI and PwC to Jury in a Jury briefing meeting, to justify their shortlisting. An eminent jury panel will then decide the winners in each category.

All the shortlisted organizations and individuals will be contacted and informed that their entries got shortlisted; relevant details would be shared thereof.

Winners will be announced at NASSCOM-DSCI Annual Information Security Summit 2023 on 21st December, 2023. All the shortlisted nominations will be sent an invite to represent their organization / represent themselves at the Awards Ceremony.