Seven industry experts met on September 17, 2020, to deliberate upon India's Fastest Growing Companies and the CW Person of the Year.For the 18th year in a row, the CONSTRUCTION WORLD Annual Awards once again recognised and awarded India’s Fastest Growing Construction Companies, India’s Top Challengers and, of course, the CW Person of the Year. Yes! The CONSTRUCTION WORLD Annual Awards 2020 - a part of the India Construction Festival – were hosted virtually for the first time, due to the ongoing pandemic.In an industry striving for excellence, arriving at the list of winners is never an easy task. This year, industry experts came together virtually, to discuss, deliberate upon and select our honour roll. This year, the jury panel comprised seven members.The esteemed Jury Advisory Panel for the 18th CONSTRUCTION WORLD ANNUAL AWARDS met on 17th September and included:Benjamin Breen, Managing Director, Asia Pacific Global Head of Construction, Project Management InstituteFarid Ahmed, Divisional Head Marketing – OHT, Apollo TyresMohamed Ali Janah, President, IFAWPCA, MaldivesPradeep Singh, Former Vice Chairman, IDFC ProjectsRK Narayan, COO, Allcargo Logistics Park Vijay Agrawal, Executive Director, Equirus CapitalVipul Roongta, Managing Director and CEO, HDFC Capital Advisors.The jury meet was initiated by pulling out a list of nominations for the CW Person of the Year 2020 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.The CONSTRUCTION WORLD Awards follow a statistical model developed by the FIRST Construction Council (FCC) to analyse and present India’s Fastest Growing Construction Companies. FCC is a non-profit trust set up in 2003 to empower and enable the construction community through information and policy advocacy, and achieve sustainable world-class standards in construction. The council also engages in researching information and ranking construction and infrastructure companies.The statistical model uses financial data of the last six years, and companies are categorised under ‘Large Category’ if the turnover for the current year is greater than Rs.75 billion, under ‘Medium Category’ if the turnover is over Rs.20 billion but under Rs.75 billion, and under ‘Small Category’ if the turnover is under Rs.20 billion, but over Rs.2 billion. The analysis for the awards was presented to the eminent jury to finalise the set of winners from the shortlisted companies.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, Ceramics and Sanitaryware. 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 that it was error-free. This data was collated and compiled by FCC. As a prelude to the discussion of selecting India’s Fastest Growing Companies, Pratap Padode, President, FIRST Construction Council, took the jury through the parameters of the model. 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 FY2020; and those whose figures were derived mainly from ‘in-house performance’.For the ‘Fastest Growing Construction Companies’ category, capital management, safety and ethical construction, and the company’s focus on providing on-site training and transparency in activities, were considered important factors. Companies were also studied for their track record and internal processes.Well, it was worth the wait when the panel arrived at its definitive list of the winning companies for 2020: India’s Fastest Growing Companies.