The IT Committee of The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry organized the 9th Edition of the Annual Business-IT Conclave on 10th May 2018 at Hyatt Regency, Kolkata. The theme, this year, was ‘Fintech –Riding on Blockchain’.

Mr. Bhaskar Pramanik, Former Chairman, Microsoft India and Member of the Board, SBI delivered the Keynote Address – “Blockchain for Financial Services”. He spoke about the priorities for the Banking Industry - better Credit Risk Management, while fixing their NPA’s and stressed Accounts; finding new avenues for Growth and managing their P&L and balance sheet- reducing costs. He also mentioned about other priorities like human capital, meeting the needs of priority sectors etc while at the same time fending off new competitors like NBFC’s, Fintechs, Venture capitalists and Private Equity companies who are now penetrating into areas which were traditionally in the domain of banking. In many cases it is not an even playing field as Banks are subject to more regulatory requirements compared to the others. He emphasized that technology would continue to play a major role in meeting the priorities of banks with the objectives of Improved Customer Outcomes, Risk Mitigation and Cost Reduction. He described Blockchain as a technology which could be used for reducing risk and improving customer outcomes in many areas in Business and has the potential as a technology to bring about transformation in many industries. He mentioned that at its core, a blockchain is a secure, shared, distributed ledger – a new shared data structure where banks could record transactions and work together to validate updates. Smart contracts act as a shared tool to govern changes to the underlying ledger in accordance to pre-agreed rules or terms. He highlighted the misconception of considering blockchain as just another form of a distributed or encrypted database whereas it is not. Blockchain technology requires understanding of, at a fundamental level, aspects of security, law, value exchange, decentralized governance, process and commercial architectures. It therefore implies that traditional lines of business and organization silos can no longer operate under their historical structures. From an industry perspective, CIOs from telecom, insurance and financial services indicated being more actively involved in blockchain planning and experimentation than CIOs from other industries. While financial services and insurance companies are at the forefront of this activity, the transportation, government and utilities sectors are now becoming more engaged due to the heavy focus on process efficiency, supply chain and logistics opportunities.

Shri Debashis Sen, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Information Technology & Electronics, Government of West Bengal & Chairman and Managing Director, Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited and Chairman, Nabadiganta Industrial Township Authority made Special Address on ‘West Bengal as ideal Fintech Destination’. Mr. Ambarish Dasgupta, Former President, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Senior Partner and Founder, Intueri Consulting LLB and Advisor to IT&E Department, Government of West Bengal was also present who shared the perspective on ‘Digital in the backdrop of changing technology landscape of ASEAN Countries and its scope in West Bengal’.

From the Chamber, the Inauguration Session was joined by Mr. C S Ghosh, President; Mr. Arnab Basu, Chairperson, IT Committee and Mr. Debasis Basu, Co-Chairperson, IT Committee.

The Inaugural Session was moderated by Mr. Tamal Bandyopadhyay, Consulting Editor, Mint and Adviser –Strategy, Bandhan Bank.

The Inaugural Session was followed by the Lead Session – Landscape & Legal Modalities. Mr. Vivek Belgavi, Partner, India FS Tech and FinTech Leader, PricewaterhouseCoopers Private Limited took a Master Class on ‘Mapping the expansion of Fintech with realistic demand of Indian Financial Infrastructure’. Mr. Souvik Das, Senior Solution Advisor: Evangelist for Digital Transformation, SAP addressed on ‘The Da Vinci Code of Innovation with (intelligent) ERP - Business with Purpose’. Mr. Xavier Kuriyan, Director - Solutions and Alliances, Global Compute and Network, India, Dell spoke on ‘Blockchain, Fintech and beyond’. Another Master Class was on ‘Techno-Legal Perspective’ by Mr. Prashant Mali, Cyber Law Expert, Bombay High Court. He covered Smart Contracts; Cryptocurrencies and Global Trends. The Session was also joined by Mr. Diptiman Dasgupta and Mr Debojyoti Das, Bengal Blockchain Believers sharing their perspectives on ‘Blockchain – how close to the ground it is in business landscape’. Mr. S Radhakrishnan, Former President, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry chaired the Session.

To understand the users’ perspectives, CIOs’ Forum was organized. Mr Jimeet Modi, CEO & Founder, SAMCO Securities & StockNote; Mr Suresh A Shan, Global CIO,Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services Limited and Mr Hemant Adarkar, CTO Digital Venture, The Nainital Bank Ltd joined to discuss ‘Blockchain and AI transforming BFSI’. The Forum was moderated by Mr. Leslie D'Monte, Technology Editor, Mint.

The Afternoon Session was opened with Mr. Soichi Umeki, Director, JETRO (Japan External Trade Organization) (under Ministry of Economy, Trade & Industry, Government of Japan) addressing on ‘Business Collaboration with Japan on cutting edge Fintech’.

The Concluding Session was on ‘Blockchain in Fintech creating Innovations and Disruptions’. Mr. Sanjoy Sen, Co- Chairperson, IT Committee, The Bengal Chamber chaired the Session. The Panelists were Ms Indrani Saha, AVP, Cognizant Technology Solutions India Limited; Mr. Kaustubh S Oak, Executive IT Architect, IBM; Mr. Pankaj Mittal, Digital Enabler AI, IoT, Co Founder Pune Angels, Member CIO Angel Network, Board Adviser Global Block Chain Foundation; Mr. Sumit Misra, General Manager, RS Software (India) Ltd. and Mr. Subash Shanmugam, Associate Director – IT Consulting, Protiviti.

The winners of the Health Hack, an Innovation Competition in healthcare organized as a precursor to the earlier IT programme of the Chamber – Health Tech in March 2018; were felicitated.

The winning team made a presentation on “Portable Olfactory Diabetes Detection Device”. The first runner up team made a presentation on “Connected Light weight devices for examination of blood and urine”. The second runner up team made a presentation on “3D Printing for Development (3D4D)”. The team declared as the best student entry made a presentation on “Fall - Safe Device For Elderly People”.