< The 2014 All-India Research TeamKawaljeet SalujaKotak SecuritiesFirst-place appearances: 0

Total appearances: 4

Analyst debut: 2011Kotak Securities researcher Kawaljeet Saluja earns his best showing on this list to date, capturing second place after finishing as a runner-up the past two years and at No. 3 in his 2011 debut. Expansion of India’s information technology industry will be buoyed by the prospect of domestic players’ winning large deals that are up for rebid, he believes. Moreover, the European market has gained critical size and acceptance and is underpenetrated by Indian IT companies, notes Saluja. He foresees additional business opportunities for the group in the social, mobility, analytics and cloud — or SMAC — space. One of his favorite names is global IT and software services provider Infosys. The “critical elements for a turnaround are falling in place,” he says, now that the Bangalore-based operator has made changes to its cost structure in a bid to become competitive again in such traditional services as application, development and infrastructure management. These measures will reduce the gap between Infosys’s growth rate and that of the industry, the analyst reasons. By that metric, Saluja expects another of his preferred names, Pune’s Tech Mahindra, to outperform its peers over the next three years. The services provider’s comprehensive telecommunications offerings will drive market share gains, he advises, and expansion will be further buoyed by the executive team’s focus on newer markets like telecom network management and its more concentrated growth strategy in the enterprise segment.