Highlighting them in the budget speech was Mukherjee's way of reinforcing the importance his government attached to these initiatives.

Compare it with TCS, HCL, and the more recent performances of midsize cos, and you will find that Cognizant is only as good as the best.

TCS, Infosys and Wipro, India's top three IT cos, accounted for $9 bn software exports during 2006-07.