India, July 6 -- Lakshmi Narayanan has lived through the making of Indian IT from close quarters. As a co-founder of Cognizant and one of the industry's enduring institution-builders, he belongs to a generation that helped convert India's technology services story into a globally respected strategic industry. This year, Dataquest conferred on him the Lifetime Achievement Award 2025, recognising not only his role in building Cognizant, but also his wider contribution to Indian IT, leadership development, and institution-building.

What stands out in Lakshmi's reflections is that they do not linger on nostalgia. He looks back only to identify the structural decisions that changed the trajectory of the industry. More importantly, he looks ah...