India’s most popular event Star Nite Awards (SNA), popularly recognised as the DNA of the Channel was held last Friday, where 700 CXOs had gathered to discuss and deliberate on ‘Sustainability and Digital Transformation with Simplification’, with the aim of improving client experience for profitable growth. The day-long session was organised by Kalinga Digital Media, the information-communication-technology (ICT) publishing house that celebrated its 18th anniversary and hosted the 16th edition of Star Nite Awards ceremony.

Digital India will lead the country into a digitally empowered society

Mr Deepak Kumar Sahu, Publisher and Group editor, (VARINDIA & SPO INDIA), in his welcome address spoke on the need for increased access to internet, Big Data, Internet of Things (IoT), connectivity and social media, and how they have completely changed our lives and the business landscape as a whole. "There is huge potential for ICT to drive sustainability forward, and both businesses and national players have a crucial role to play in this. We at SPO INDIA is committed to leveraging technology to solve some of India’s most urgent environmental issues, and focusing on key areas where we believe we can have the most positive impact by bringing together our another flagship publication, VARINDIA. We are trying to bridge an alliance between the industry, the Government, the social sector and the society at large. 
 

To complement the efforts, Digital India will leapfrog the country into a digitally empowered society in the next five years by enabling consumers, citizens, small businesses, traders and farmers to harness technology for efficiency and productivity. Digital offers significant economic and societal opportunities and benefits to multiple stakeholders from consumers, business, government and citizens in areas like digital democracy, together with communication, participation, engagement and feedback of one or more citizens in the democratic process. Digital India will be the major accelerator of economic and societal transformation and will impact all stakeholders enhancing their quality of life."

(From Left to Right): Mr. Shrikant Sinha, CEO, NASSCOM Foundation; Mr Ajay Choudhary, DGM – Marketing ALIMCO; Dr. Bhaskar Chatterjee, Former DG & CEO, Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs; Mr Deepak Kumar Sahu, Publisher and Group Editor, (VARINDIA & SPO INDIA); Chief Guest, Shri. Ram Kripal Yadav, Hon’ble Minister of State for Rural Development and Land Resources; Ms. Madhu Madan, Country Head - Resource Mobilization, HelpAge India; Ms. Dipanwita Chakraborty, Regional Director, Corporate Responsibility & Sustainable Development, Asia Pacific, Cargill; Mr Avijeet Kumar, COO, CAF India; Ms. Meghna Garg, Associate Director – Facilities & Administration, Thomson Reuters and Mr Rajeev Gupta, CIO - Air One Aviation.
 

CSR to play a big role in developing the under-developed areas of the country

Shri Ram Kripal Yadav, Hon’ble Minister of State for Rural Development and Land Resources, Government of India was the Chief Guest at the event and he kick-started the event by lighting the ceremonial lamp. The Hon’ble Minister in his keynote address emphasised that CSR is the need of the hour and that it should be promoted for the welfare of the country. “India is a huge country and 70% of its population reside in its villages. Even after 70 years of independence, the condition of the villages or the lifestyle of the people living in these villages has not improved. Development in areas of food, electricity, water, sanitation is still a far cry. The government is doing its bit in introducing schemes from time to time for such people but due to challenges in last mile, these schemes are not reaching the right individual. It is here that CSR is going to play a big role and NGOs & different corporates involved in CSR should take this responsibility upon themselves to act as a bridge and provide these services to the people there.”

Any registered company in India is supposed to declare its CSR budget

Dr. Bhaskar Chatterjee, Former DG & CEO, Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs. Ministry of Corporate Affairs- GOI spoke on “Any company that is registered in India, or any multinational has any operation in India, it should declare what is its CSR budget. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has developed a 360 degree database in which we are able to track every single company – where they have spent the money, which district they have spent the money and so on.”

Every citizen is the owner of the SDGs and have the responsibility to achieve them

Mr. Shrikant Sinha, CEO - NASSCOM Foundation while addressing the event said, “When we talk of STGs and 17 of them, we try to see how they are impacting us and what exactly they mean to us. But the question is who creates these STGs? Do we think that the UN owns these STGs or is it the Govt. and the corporates who take responsibility of these STGs or is the NGOs and the civil society who own them? Unless and until we are clear that each and every one of us own the STGs and have the responsibility of achieving these goals, I don’t think we can make any headway. We being the social arm of NASSCOM, we believe in technology and feel that it is today a game-changer in bridging the digital divide.”

Panel Discussion I: Technology helps in Sustainable Development

(From Left to Right): Mr. Shrikant Sinha, CEO, NASSCOM Foundation; Mr. Deepak Kumar Sahu, Group Editor (VARINDIA and SPO INDIA); Chief Guest, Shri. Ram Kripal Yadav, Hon’ble Minister of State for Rural Development and Land Resources; Dr. Bhaskar Chatterjee, Former DG & CEO, Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs and Ms. Meenakshi Batra, CEO, CAF India.

Panel Discussion II: CSR & Sustainability in Business

(From Left to Right): Ms. Dipanwita Chakraborty, Regional Director, Corporate Responsibility & Sustainable Development, Asia Pacific, Cargill; Dr Angeli Qwatra, CEO, Centre for Disaster Risk and Safety; Mr Avijeet Kumar, COO, CAF India; Ms. Akanksha Sharma, Head- CSR & Sustainability, Jubilant FoodWorks Ltd.; Mr. Vishal Bhardwaj, Group Head – Corporate Social Responsibility – Dalmia Bharat Group; Dr. Bhaskar Chatterjee, Former DG & CEO, Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs, Ministry of Corporate Affairs; Mr. Sanjeev Dham, COO, Smile Foundation; Mr. Shrikant Sinha, CEO, NASSCOM Foundation and Ms. Radhika Ralhan, Head Innovations for Exponential Impact Unit, CAF India.

Panel Discussion III: CSR @ Women's empowerment

(From Left to Right): Ms. Laxmi Agarwal, Indian Campaigner with Stop Acid Attacks; Ms. Meenakshi Batra, CEO, CAF India; Dr. Vikas Goswami, Head Sustainability - Good and Green, Godrej One; Ms. Rina Dhaka, Fashion Designer; Dr. Bhaskar Chatterjee, Former DG & CEO, Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs, Ministry of Corporate Affairs; Mr. Sanjeev Dham, COO, Smile Foundation; Ms. Mamta Wasan, Senior Vice President, Human Resources, ‎Fidelity National Information Services; Ms. Madhu Madan, Country Head - Resource Mobilization, HelpAge India; Ms. Meghna Garg, Associate Director – Facilities & Administration, Thomson Reuters and Ms. Shivani Wazir Pasrich, Theater Personality, TV host.

Key Takeaways: Massive cybersecurity breaches have become almost commonplace, regularly grabbing headlines that alarm consumers and leaders. But for all of the attention such incidents have attracted in recent years, many organizations worldwide still struggle to comprehend and manage emerging cyber risks in an increasingly complex digital society.

Three parallel track sessions were conducted during the event. They are -

1. Government and PSU Breakfast session being supported by NETAPP, GEMALTO and INSPIRE.

2. Industry Round Table: Attended by 45 senior officials of various IT Associations from across the country.

3. Enterprise CIO Round Table session being supported by VERTIV and CANON.

Evening Session (Star Nite Awards 2017)

(From Left to Right): Mr. AMIT GUJRAL, CMO - LG ELECTRONICS INDIA, Mr. Prashant Gupta, Partner- Grant Thornton, Mr. Dan Mishra, Chairman and CEO- CSDC and Executive Chairman- ICAD Investments LLC., Mr. Vineet Goenka, Member – IT Taskforce, Ministries of Shipping, Road Transport & Highways, Mr. Deepak Kumar Sahu, Publisher and Group editor, (VARINDIA & SPO INDIA), Col. H P S Bawa, CEO-WTL, Col. K. K. Chaudhary, CIO, Lanco Group, Mr. Vipin Tyagi, ED-C Dot, Monalisa Sahoo, Sr. V.P-Marketing- Vodafone Business Services, Mr. Vipin Kumar, Group CIO-ESCORTS, Mr. Sujit Panigrahi, Co-Founder & CTO- Convergent Technologies.
 

As evening descended, the air at the Ballroom of Hotel The Lalit, New Delhi was pregnant with hope and anxiety to understand this year’s verdict on who are the winners of the Annual Star Nite Awards. But once the awards were announced, the mood changed to one of celebration - with the joy of the winners overshadowing the disappointment of those who did not make it.

A number of government ministers, officials, as well as top industry executives from around the world, spoke in all 5 different sessions. India is experiencing unprecedented digital growth. As its citizens embrace new technologies, a massive number of connections are coming online. These users are expecting more services and better experiences-as a result, consumption is pressing heavily on the limits of the country’s current broadband infrastructure.

Cyber crimes have evolved to a great level in recent years

Prashant Gupta, Partner – Grant Thornton   

“Cyber crimes are evolving day by day around the globe. In past, it used to be like we would look into crime incidents and work with the clients to come up with a defensive strategy by analyzing the problem and then resolve it. But in recent 4-5 years, the kind of attacks or risk factors that is coming out has really awaken the industry. The most recent Bad Rabbit attacks that revolves around vulnerabilities on the website, created quite a stir in the last few weeks. Similarly the WannaCry that revolved around systems working on Microsoft systems was another such attack that squeezed the security industry and made them think about of what can be done to avert such threats.”  

Computer technology has developed to a point from where there is no looking back

Dan Mishra, Chairman and CEO-CSDC and Executive Chairman – ICAD Investments LLC

“There is a saying which says that when a wave comes, either you swim or sink. This is true with the digital wave too, where the level of preparedness decides how well you would be able to adapt to digitization. When I left India in 1969, computer technology was still at a nascent stage.  There were only 4 computers in the country at that time. I remember travelling to Bombay to do our programming project. The other 2 were in Kolkata and 1 in Delhi. In computer programming, ‘Zero defect’ is very important and this determines the success of a business. The ancient computer systems however no longer exist but the heritage still remains and we have all readily accepted it.” 

Essentially we need 3Es as best practices for conducting business in India

Mr. Vineet Goenka, Member – IT Taskforce, Ministries of Shipping, Road Transport & Highways said, “When we started the journey in 2014, we started addressing corruption, curtailments, curtails, complications and compulsions in public life. Taking this to the next level was more disturbing because there was delays, debts, diseases, more disabilities, distortion of facts. As we progressed, we thought that we have to stop this, which was going on in this country for several years. What was the element that can change this corruption, curtailment, disturbance etc. When we took it further, we talked about three Es - ethical business, the environment and economic viability. So even if you are ethically correct, environmentally right, we should not do a business which is not economically viable. We have to be practical and so let’s run this government with e-Governance.”

The Govt. is working towards realizing a complete digital economy

Mr. A Sheshagiri Rao, CMD – TCIL said, “On 2nd July 2015, when our Honourable Prime Minister, Narendra Modi launched the three pillars of digital infrastructure as utility, digital service and also digital empowerment to the citizens, it was then that the wave of digitization started. The complete government and industry is working towards it. The schemes which are developed and implemented by government or PSUs are converging towards it. Today, everything wants to be in a digital fashion. If we talk about the readiness, we are actually trying to implement it and maybe we are 20% ready. There is however a gap of 80% which needs to be bridged by all of us.”

It is time to unleash our potential to create a New India

Mr. Vipin Tyagi, Executive Director – C-DOT while addressing the audience said, “This is the time to create in India the new India. What can be created and what can we do so that we can realise the new India. It is the best place in my assessment as we have hardware and software capabilities. We are all geared up but the only thing is that this is the time for us to really think of what we want to create. The potential, ability, creativity that we have in this country which is bottled up should be realised.”

Star Nite Awards also took the opportunity to recognize the Chief Marketing Officers (CMO), Value Added Resellers (VARs) and IT Vendors (Corporates) serving the Indian ICT Industry. There were Technology showcases by 16 Corporates that included Vodafone, Canon, Vertiv, Dell-EMC, HPE, Ingram Micro, Inspira, Acer, Cambium Networks, eScan, ALIMCO, Digisol, Epson, Gemalto, RAH Infotech, LG and IndiaSoft-ESC that promoted their products and solutions.

The Awards Nite was also supported by IT associations from across the country - FAIITA, PCAIT, COMPASS, FITDAK, TAIT, ASIRT, FITAG, CONFED-ITA, ITAO, CMDA, RCTA, JCDA,ISODA, UPCDA, AIT, VCMDWA & ADCTA who also attended the Industry Round table to discuss and understand the theme “Vendors Commitment for the VARs”. The meet was also attended by ACER as the key vendor. The key discussion was on the ‘On-line versus Traditional Resellers’.

Tech Talk Session:

The idea of this tech talk is that, within five minutes a speaker needs to tell the audience on the present and future technology that their respective organisations are endorsing. There are a multitude of topics capped, on which Five leaders has shared their ideas and concepts with the audience. These talks were a great source of inspiration to all those who were present in the hall and was a great benefit for their professional growth.

Star Nite Awards witnessed inspirational Tech Talk by the Tech professionals in their areas of focus, while engaging with the analysts through track presentations. Grant Thornton supported the event as the Knowledge partner.

Vodafone is helping the SMEs adopt the digital strategy

Monalisa Sahoo, Sr. V.P-Marketing- Vodafone Business Services

“I believe the SMEs are the growth engine for India's economy. If we see the industry figures, there are about 50 million SMEs who contribute about 40% of India's export, 38% of our GDP and they are employing a staggering 117 million employees in the sector. And if you look, 68% of this Industry today is not even digital and a very small percentage of them actually do their business in a digital manner. We have this great mission of our prime minister about digital India and we believe that vision can be made a reality when we actually focus on this segment and actually make them go digital.”
 

For data security, you need a strong parameter and Gemalto is a leader in providing that

Ruchin Kumar, Business Head (Govt. & Defence) - GEMALTO

“We are in Data Centric security and when I am talking about Data centric security we ensure that data is safe from unauthorised access. Data confidentiality is there in the system. We also ensure that Data integrity and things like granular access, authorization and similar type of security concepts are there in place. If we see in the organisations when we talk about security, some 70 to 80% budgets are spent on the parameters on the firewalls, on the IDS, IPS and other systems. By virtue we have concretized our parameters and it is almost impossible for outsiders to intrude in our systems.”

McAfee has made the lives of customers simpler with sophisticated detection technology

Rajeev Sreedhar, Director – Channels & Alliances (India & SAARC)- McAfee

“We have taken a step ahead in security and have integrated our technology which can protect, detect and also remediate, which means from a customer’s standpoint he/she does not need to invest in too much technology and skills and have that automation done where not only the viruses get detected but also protected against it that we are seeing in the recent times. Another key factor that we have come out with is 'data exchange layer' which is based on open protocol where the other security vendors can also integrate.”

Convergent Technologies help customers capture the tertiary sales with its technology

Sujit Panigrahi, Co-Founder & CTO- Convergent Technologies

“As the name suggests, 'smooth XRM' a product that we have, if you look at the typical CRMs that you find in the market they all cater to the end customers. Our smooth XRMs actually solve that particular problem; what we are looking at is extending that relationship to both partners and customers. So partners are extremely important for all the OEMs. Essentially when you look at the industry leading CRMs, they typically do 3 things - first, they do sales performance tracking, essentially the primary sales from the company to the distributors. But they do not capture the tertiary sales, the sales that actually happens in every stores. So, what we do is, we help companies and large OEMs to be able to capture the tertiary sales from every point of sale. Second thing is about marketing communication, typically it is either to customer or to the sales team and not necessarily to the channel partners and the third thing is about service and the support. Again either the sales team gets involved or the customer support is separate one.”
 

Sophos has a big focus when it comes to contributing to security

Sunil Sharma, Managing Director- Sophos India

“Sophos started 35 years back, in 1982. It started on information and endpoint security and after 35 years it is a listed company on London stock exchange. Today we have 20,000 partners across the globe and in India itself we have 3000+ partners. India is contributing more than 5% to the overall worldwide business. There are 850 people involved in research and development, product development and support, based out of Ahmedabad and Bengaluru. In our sales team, we have 82+ people who are there to support our partners. Sophos has also done massive investments in terms of solutions; in fact we were the first company to come out with solution addressing WannaCry and Bad Rabbit.”

After an eye opening Tech Talk, the time clocked for the CMO Leadership Awards 2017, where 15 CMO’s being recognised -

CMO Leadership Award winners in the event. The awards were being facilitated by Mr. Vinit Goenka, Member-IT Taskforce, Ministries of Shipping, Road Transport & Highways; Mr. Savitur Prasad, Addl. CGDA, Ministry Of Defence, Govt. Of India and Mr. Deepak Kumar Sahu, Publisher and Group Editor, VARINDIA & SPO INDIA

ARVIND SAXENA, GROUP MARKETING HEAD - SIFY TECHNOLOGIES LTD

PARAG AMALNEKAR, DIRECTOR-MARKETING, NETAPP INDIA

SRIRAM GOPALASWAMY, HEAD OF COMMERCIAL MARKETING - LENOVO INDIA PVT LTD

B S RAO, V.P-MARKETING - CTRLS DATACENTERS LTD.

ANUPAM SAHA, SENIOR MARKETING MANAGER - CP PLUS INDIA PVT. LTD.

AMIT GUJRAL, CMO - LG ELECTRONICS INDIA

MONALISHA SAHOO, SENIOR VP-MARKETING - VODAFONE BUSINESS SERVICES

CHANDRAHAS PANIGRAHI, CMO & CONSUMER BUSINESS HEAD -ACER INDIA

DIPTI SINGH, HEAD-MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS -VERTIV ENERGY PVT. LTD.

SRIHARI PALANGANA, DIRECTOR MARKETING –INDIA, DELL EMC INDIA

PAWAN AWASTI, CHANNEL MARKETING ASIA SOUTH - NVIDIA INDIA PVT. LTD.

TUSHAD TALATI, DIRECTOR- BRAND & COMMUNICATIONS - EPSON INDIA PVT. LTD.

DEEPTI SHARMA, MARKETING HEAD - SUSE

ANOOP JARIAL, VP- PRODUCT MARKETING, D-LINK INDIA

RUPA ROY, HEAD MARKETING, APAC - MCAFEE INDIA SALES PVT. LTD.

The next attraction of the event was recognising the VARs in the country and they are -

MUMBAI

AARVEE COMPUTERS- BEST RESELLER

XPRESS COMPUTERS LTD. - BEST VAR

ORIENT TECHNOLOGIES PVT LTD- BEST SOLUTION PARTNER

ASHTECH INFOTECH PVT. LTD.- BEST SYSTEM INTEGRATOR

NEW DELHI

 ACPL SYSTEMS PRIVATE LIMITED- BEST SOLUTION PARTNER

 TEAM COMPUTERS PVT LTD- BEST SYSTEM INTEGRATOR

 ORBIT PERIPHERALS PVT. LTD.- BEST VAR

 MODI INFOSOL PVT.LTD.- BEST RESELLER

KOLKATA

 LALANI COMPUTER ACADEMY PVT.LTD. -BEST RESELLER

 Technocrat Infotech Pvt. Ltd. - BEST VAR

 EMBEE SOFTWARE PVT.LTD. - BEST SOLUTION PARTNER

 TECHNICHE CONSULTING SERVICES - BEST SYSTEM INTEGRATOR

BANGALURU

 UNITED COMPUTERS – BEST RESELLER

 FUTURE BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY INDIA PVT. LTD. - BEST SOLUTION PARTNER

 VALUE POINT SYSTEMS PVT.LTD. - BEST SYSTEM INTEGRATOR

 NEWWAVE COMPUTING PVT.LTD. - BEST VAR

There was also a winner from up-country which is

SANGHIVI INFOTECH PVT. LTD. - BEST SYSTEM INTEGRATOR, AHMEDABAD