The much-hyped DQ Week Awards Night, held on August 7, at Minerva Grand, Secunderabad, saw award winners gather from all across South India. Though, it was the first time the awards night were held in Secunderabad, the show was well received by the channel community of the Deccan, who supported it by turning up in large numbers.

The growing importance of channels in IT business was reflected in the number of awards and categories. A total of 52 awards were given away this year. Tamil Nadu got 18 awards for having more number of potential cities/markets, with Chennai taking a lion's share of 12 awards.

Karnataka stood next in the order with a total of 14 awards, while Bangalore alone took 10 awards. The host state - Andhra Pradesh came third with 13 awards and, Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada were the only two upcountry markets in the state, which were eligible for awards. Kerala bagged seven awards this year and the commercial capital - Cochin walked away with four.

The awards were decided by an panel which comprised of eminent persons from the industry. The panelists were: Rajesh Khetarpal, GM, Redington India Ltd; Devendra Rawat, Deputy GM - South 1, Ingram Micro India Ltd; Manoj Grover, Partner Business Manager, HP India and Anand Sreekumar, Regional Manager - South, Samsung India.

Supreme Computers receiving the Gold award for Sub Distribution category in Chennai from Devendra Rawat, Deputy GM - South 1, Ingram Micro India Ltd	Bloom Electronics receiving the Gold award for Coimbatore from Manoj Grover, Partner Business Manager, HP India

The first set of awards was given by Khetarpal for the upcountry markets of Karnataka. In Belgaum, Syscon Systems won the Best Channel Partner award for the first time, while Balar Intertrade bagged it for the second year in a row in Hubli. For Mangalore, the award went to Syscomp Computer Services, another debutante. System Needs from Mysore also joined the list of first timers.

For the garden city of Bangalore, there were six award categories. Vignesh Infotech bagged the Best Software Reseller award, while Alpha Consumables got the title Best Media Reseller for the second time. In the sub distribution category, the Silver award went to Jain Computers
& Communication while Gold was bagged by Megabyte Corporation. The next set of awards were given by Yogesh Sharma, Country Manager, Netgear India. In the Retail category, the Silver award was bagged by Sycom Technologies. And, for the third year running, Karthik Business Machines got the Gold award.

Kruticomp India took up Silver award in the Reseller category and Geeta Electronics walked away with Gold for the second consecutive year. Frontier Business Systems and Value Point Systems were the winner and runner-up in the SI category.

Grover gave away the next set of awards to the upcountry market of Tamil Nadu. Erode-based A-Team Computers won the Best Channel Partner award for the region, while in Pondicherry and Trichy the awards were bagged by Indica Computers and Fusion Systems, respectively. For the temple town of Madurai, it was PC World who won the award. Coimbatore-based Bloom Electronics, the evergreen partner, won the award for the fifth time this year, while Micro Systems qualified for Silver.

Compage Computers receiving the Gold award in sub-distribution category for Hyderabad from Pradeep Gupta, MD & Publisher, CyberMedia	Syscon Systems receiving the Best Channel Partner award for Belgaum from Rajesh Khetarpal, GM, Redington

Rawat, another panelist, gave away the awards for Chennai. The Gold award for the reseller category was given to Magnum Computers and Silver to Sri Lakshmi System Products. Pelikan Office Automation bagged the Best Media Reseller award for the second successive year. Acme Business Solutions gained entry for the first time as the Most Promising Reseller. The Sub Distribution category had Devraj Computers as the Silver award recipient. The crowd cheered the numero uno, Supreme Computers for creating a record by bagging the Gold award for the fifth time.

The next set of awards for Chennai were presented by S Pattabiraman, Executive VP, HCL Peripherals. The Best Software Reseller award was given to Veeras Infotek for the second time. AN Marketing Services and GBS Systems & Services shared the Silver award in the Retail category. Access scored a hat trick by winning the Gold award in the Retail category this year. Quadsel joined the first-timers list to bag the Silver award in SI category, while Precision won the Gold award for the fourth time.

Sreekumar of Samsung gave away the awards for Kerala. Logtech Infoway of Trivandrum was the award for the fifth time. For Calicut and Thrissur, Technomake and Southern Associates were the award winners. Nortech Infonet of Cochin did a hat trick this year by being the best SI. Online IT Shoppe was declared the Most Promising Retailer and Focuz Computers bagged the Best Retailer for the port city of Cochin.T he Best Sub Distributor award was given to Aldous Glare Trade & Exports. The final set of awards for the host state of Andhra Pradesh were given away by Pradeep Gupta, MD and Publisher, CyberMedia India Ltd.

The Best Channel Partner title for Vijayawada was givento Digital World. Innovative Infotech was another partner who has made winning a habit. He won the Best Channel Partner award for Visakhapatnam for the fifth consecutive year. In Hyderabad, SP Software received the Best Software Reseller award, while Mehak Data Systems got the Best Media Reseller award for the second consecutive year. RS Computer World won the Silver award in the Retail category and Youdan Computers & Peripherals received the Gold award for the third time.

In the Reseller category, the Silver award was won by Brahmand Computers and the Gold was bagged by Vishal Peripherals. Microcare Computers won the Gold award under SI category, while Cache Peripherals took the Silver. The last category was Sub Distribution. Gela Tida Infotech made an entry for the first time as the Most Promising Sub Distributor. The Silver award was given to Shweta Computer Bazaar while Compage Computers walked away with the Gold for the second consecutive year.

The award show also had a lucky dip contest for the participants sponsored by Netgear India and three prizes were given away. Finally, the night continued with more dance, music, food and fun.

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