The most coveted IT Awards Nite - the 17th edition of VARINDIA Star Nite Awards 2018 concluded in the capital city of New Delhi amidst the presence of the who's who of the ICT industry. The event provided a platform for all to discuss latest technological disruptions that are going on in the Information Technology industry, technical presentations and also business networking.

The evening commenced with the lamp lighting ceremony that was graced by dignitaries including S N Tripathi, Secretary, Parliamentary Affairs - Govt. of India; Manjit Nayak, Addl. Director - STPI; C P Gurnani, MD & Chief Executive - Tech Mahindra; Dr. Deepak Kr. Sahu, Publisher - VARINDIA; Shyam Jaju, Vice President - BJP; S Mohini Ratna, Editor - VARINDIA; Vipin Tyagi, Executive Director - C Dot; A N Rai, Advisor to Minister of State for Communications and Minister of State for Railways, Govt. of India; Deepak Chanduka, Deputy Director General - DoT, Govt. of India and Alok Gupta, Managing Director - Unistal. The presence of all these dignitaries raised the bar to a different level never witnessed earlier.

Dr. Deepak Sahu, Publisher & Editor-in-Chief, Kalinga Digital Media in his evening welcome speech highlighted that India is becoming the global hub for manufacturing, the measures taken by the government will surely grow confidence amongst the manufacturers which will eventually create business opportunities. "Unique IDs for companies will definitely go a long way in contributing towards interest of the nation and increasing transparency by corporate. The iconic BharatNet project, where the government’s announcement to promote digitization through greater connectivity will fuel uptake for collaboration and remote working solutions resulting in a more productive and connected India."

In her keynote address, S Mohini Ratna, Editor - VARINDIA said that India will remain the top-most offshoring destination for IT companies across the world. "In order to prove capabilities in delivering both on-shore and off-shore services to global clients, leading IT firms like Infosys, Wipro, TCS, Tech Mahindra and Accenture are diversifying their offerings and showcasing leading ideas in blockchain, artificial intelligence to clients using innovation hubs, research and development centres, in order to create differentiated offerings.”

C P Gurnani, MD & Chief Executive - Tech Mahindra, who was the special guest at this year’s event was honoured as the IT Man of the Year by VARINDIA.

In his speech, Gurnani while lauding VARINDIA’s contribution in propagating the PM’s vision of Digital India explained how this ambitious initiative can be turned into a reality. “So what does Digital India means to India? I would ask everyone to reflect on what has actually changed – it is a fact that the world has changed as digital transformation started taking shape. Along with this the type of leadership that is required will also change. Though it is true that the fundamentals of leadership is going to remain the same - the fundamentals of having a mission, a vision and the capabilities of harvesting the resources available and delivering results beyond expectations.”

S N Tripathi, Secretary, Parliamentary Affairs - Govt. of India in his speech said, “I believe in one simple philosophy - One mile of road can lead you to cover only one mile. But one mile of runway can take you anywhere. Today is the age of ‘Dataway’, or like our PM calls it the ‘Infoway’. This can literally take you literally anywhere if you are able to manage that.”

A N Rai, Advisor to Minister of State for Communications and Minister of State for Railways, Govt. of India while addressing the guests said, “I belong to a profession that is related to connectivity. But this connectivity is not always visible to the people as they are in the background. But for citizens to know what initiatives the govt. is taking it is very important to understand what projects are being undertaken. One just lucrative project is the BharatNet.”

Shyam Jaju, Vice President – BJP while highlighting the special initiatives of the BJP govt. said, “I came to Delhi at that time when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the PM of India. This was in 2001, when STD calls or Trunk calls used to be made to keep in touch with friends and relatives staying far-off. There has been so much revolution after that in the field of telecommunication. STD booths are not visible anymore but you will find a mobile phone in everyone’s palm today.”

In the corporate presentation Hursh Chetan, Consultant – Solutions Presales Group, HPE spoke about various initiatives of Hewlett Packard Enterprises. “The need for data has always been there. People have been using data to collect information and use it for different purpose. With the advent of multiple technologies, it is feasible to collect data at more regular intervals and people can now slice, dice and look at this data and use it more beneficially for faster, better reach.”

In the Tech Talk session, Shailendra Mandrawadkar, VP – Enterprise Sales – Happay; Sunil Sharma, MD (Sales) – Sophos and Harsha Bennur, Enterprise and Government Marketing Lead – India, NetApp presented their respective company’s transformation process and its key growth and success factors.

Harsha Bennur in his presentation stated, “The IT industry is transforming and the landscaping is changing. Customers want to leverage the power of hybrid and multi cloud while continuing to utilise the current infrastructure they have in their environment. 65% of the companies are adopting a cloud-first model and in that 80% are using a multi-cloud environment.”

Sunil Sharma, MD (Sales) – Sophos said, “Sophos is the name that has made cyber security simple. We as a company are into the cyber security business. As of today we provide end-to-end security. We have so many OEM partners who actually buy from us and then they sell to people like you and you sell to customers going forward.”

Shailendra Mandrawadkar, VP – Enterprise Sales – Happay said,” Happay is leading the technological revolution in India. And I am going to say that financial technology has grown as an industry today. Just recently PM Modi had been to Singapore attending a Fintech event and he hinted at how the fintech is the next big thing. And Happay as a company is doing a lot of innovative work.”

Like every year, Star Nite Awards took the opportunity to recognize the Chief Marketing Officers (CMO), and the top performing IT Vendors (Corporates) serving the Indian ICT Industry. The Awards Nite saw 11 CMOs being recognised. The top CMOs felicitated during the event ceremony are from NetApp, Adobe, Lenovo, NVIDIA, Suse, HPE, Barco, Netmagic, Seagate, UiPath and Veeam.

In the vendor award ceremony, close to 40 vendors have been recognized in various categories, based on the feedback received through an online voting from channel partners and VARs.