The IT Committee of The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry organized the sixth edition of the annual Business IT Conclave on 26th June 2015 in Hyatt Regency, Kolkata. The theme, this year, was ‘Enabling a Digital India’.
Dr. Amit Mitra, Hon’ble Minister-in-Charge, Commerce and Industries, Information Technology and Electronics, Finance and Excise and Industrial Reconstruction, Government of West Bengal was the Chief Guest. The other Inaugural Session speakers were:
• Mr. Rajan S Mathews, Director General, Cellular Operators Association of India
• Mr. Sudipta K. Sen, Regional Director-South East Asia, Vice Chairman & Board Member – India, SAS Institute (India) Pvt. Ltd.
• Dr. G D Gautama, IAS, State Information Commissioner, West Bengal Information Commission
The programme flowed on the contours of ‘Enabling a Digital India’ highlighting the aspects of:
• E-Governance: At a time, when there is increasing awareness amongst citizens about their rights with a resultant increase in expectations from the Government to perform and deliver, the whole paradigm of governance has changed. Today the Government is expected to be transparent in its dealings, accountable for its activities and faster in its responses. Digital India subsumes a mix of services and plans that are just right for reinvigorating the state of governance in the country. Mr. Shekhar Agrawal, Senior Vice President, - Government Business, Vodafone spoke on the ‘Driving eGovernance’.
• Mr. Rajarshi Sengupta, Senior Director, Deloitte & Touche Consulting India Pvt. Ltd. addressed Outside In Perspective of ‘Digital India’.
• Cyber Security will be an important focus in the Digital India initiative, especially as the Internet becomes the new weapon for fighting wars. Increased connectivity and greater use of technology would undoubtedly benefit the masses, but at the same time it could throw up a new set of vulnerabilities and security challenges. Past incidents have shown that cyber security is one area where India is clearly lacking. Discussion Forum 1: Securing Digital India was joined by,
• Shri Sivaji Ghosh, IPS, Principal Secretary, Department of Correctional Administration, Government of West Bengal
• Mr. Harish Agarwal, Partner, Ernst and Young
• Mr. Siddharth Vishwanath, Partner,
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)
• Mr. Puneet Bhatia
• Maj Gen (Retd.) P.K. Mallick
Mr. Partha Sengupta, Vice President- IT Services, ITC Infotech and Head-IT, ITC Ltd. chaired the Forum.
• Internet of Things (IoT) framework is part of the broader ‘Digital India’ vision shared by the Government. A budget of Rs 1 lakh crore has already been sanctioned to implement all the future plans under this vision. Big Data and the Internet of Things (IoT) are revolutionizing the world around us - from the medical care we receive to the way retailers market to us. Researchers are bullish over adoption of mobile Internet, cloud technology, digital payments, digital identity, Internet of Things, intelligent transportation, advanced geographic information system and next generation genomics. Discussion Forum 2: Connecting the country through IoT was joined by,
• Mr. Sourabh Mukherjee, Vice President-Data Management, Accenture Digital
• Mr. Sandeep Agarwal, Sr. VP & Head, Engineering R&D Services, Happiest Minds Technologies
• Mr C N Raghupathi, Vice President & Head – India Business Unit, Infosys
• Mr. Subrata Das, Country Lead – Internet of Things, SAP
• Mr. Selva Kumar Rajasekaran, General Manager –New Product Development and Partnerships
Mr. S Radhakrishnan, President, TiE Kolkata and Past President, The Bengal Camber chaired the Forum.
• Building Smart Cities – the Way Forward and its implementation in Kolkata- At the conclusion, Mr. Amit Malik, Director India & SAARC, Cisco Systems (India) Private Limited addressed the topic.