The Gladiators: They have led their companies with elan and vigour, ensuring high growth despite the difficult economic environment. Business Today, with knowledge support from PwC India, presents India's Best CEOs in 2013

To choose the winner in each category from among the nominees, we turned to the qualitative aspect. We set up an independent jury chaired by K.V. Kamath, Chairman, ICICI Bank. The other jury members were J.J. Irani, Ex-Managing Director, Tata Steel; Subodh Bhargava, Chairman, Tata Communications; Samir Barua, ex-Director, IIM Ahmedabad; and Amit Tandon, Founder and Managing Director, Institutional Investor Advisory Services India (IiAS). Decisions were reached at an intense 90-minute jury meeting on November 11 in Mumbai, moderated by Business Today's Managing Editor Josey Puliyenthuruthel with technical support from Shashank Tripathi, Leader, Strategy, PwC India, and Arup Mazumdar, Principal Consultant, Strategy and Research, PwC India. A word on the winners. Ever since N. Chandrasekaran took charge as CEO of IT services major TCS, the company has seen a scorching pace of growth. This year, for the second year running, the company topped the BT500. It came as no surprise then when the jury picked Chandrasekaran as India's Best CEO in 2013. He also bags the Best CEO award for the IT & ITeS category. What makes Chandrasekaran tick? Find the answer in our profile. There are also detailed profiles of winners in the other categories: Shikha Sharma (Best Woman CEO), Rajiv Bajaj (Best CEO: Automobiles), Nitin Paranjpe (Best CEO of an MNC as well as Best CEO: FMCG), Aditya Puri (Best CEO: BFSI), K.K. Sharma (Best CEO: Pharma and Health Care), Akhilesh Joshi (Best CEO: Core sector), and V.C. Sehgal (Best CEO : Auto Ancillaries).