Do big symposium - Kolkata 18th December 2015
As the anchor/moderator for the Do Big Symposium presented by Tata DoCoMo business services and powered by CNBC TV18, I was in the city of joy - Kolkata -recently for our 3rd pit stop of the series.
With a strong turnout of approx 200 delegates, the evening began with the Managing Director of SREI Infrastructure Hemant Kanoria addressing the audience about his views on digital disruptions. Some of the key points of his address:
* The Holy Trinity of Hindu Mythology - Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh - are also disrupters in their space
* Technology can be used to provide employment in rural areas
* His company allows customers in rural areas, who dont have access to banking services, to use their product offering (S-Cash) to buy products
* Essential to digitise so as to make it easier for your customers
This was followed by the MD of Tata Teleservices Ltd., N. Srinath's presentation on digital disruption which began with a thought provoking statement - that change is the only constant. During his presentation he also spoke about the major trends emerging in the digital field - rapidly rising number of mobile phones, widening coverage of internet in india, etc.
After this I moderated a panel revolving around the theme "Digital disruption - The CEO's Agenda".
My panelists were
Debashis Sen, Principal Secretary, Urban Development, Govt of West Bengal and CMD HIDCO
Swaraj Krishnan - CEO, MAGMA HDI genral insurance company
Keshav Bhajanka, ED, Century Ply
N Srinath, Managing Director, Tata Teleservices Limited
Below are some of the main thoughts that were put forth during the panel:-
Debashis Sen spoke about the smart city that Kolkata is making - New Town Kolkata- which is situated close to the Kolkata airport. He emphasised the need to "Indianise" the digital solutions that companies wish to implement, since Indian problems a different from those in other parts of the world. He shared an e.g. - in New Town Kolkata the bus stops will have a video feed from the previous bus stop on that route, so that passengers can see when the bus has left from the previous stop. This will enable them to know, in real time, the expected arrival time of the bus.
Swaraj Krishnan highlighted a need for clarity in customer KYCs. This information being collected from the customer by various service providers would be very helpful for insurance and other financial services providers and with the help of technology it can easily be shared. But the privacy and ethical issues cause the sharebility of this data to reside in a grey area.
Keshav Bhajanka shared his thoughts on E-Commerce not being a necessity for all businesses. He spoke about Century Ply's plans of launching an app that home owners can use on their smartphones to visualise how their home walls and floors would look with Century ply laminates and veneers.
N Srinath brought the views of the telecom operator to the table when he spoke about the need for wired connectivity to also grow in sync with wireless connectivity. He also spoke about how things are changing in the conversations they have with their clients as more and more companies are going digital.
All in all an interesting evening with views coming from different business heads. The next edition is on 8th Jan 2016 in delhi. Watch this space for a post on that.
As the anchor/moderator for the Do Big Symposium presented by Tata DoCoMo business services and powered by CNBC TV18, I was in the city of joy - Kolkata -recently for our 3rd pit stop of the series.
With a strong turnout of approx 200 delegates, the evening began with the Managing Director of SREI Infrastructure Hemant Kanoria addressing the audience about his views on digital disruptions. Some of the key points of his address:
* The Holy Trinity of Hindu Mythology - Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh - are also disrupters in their space
* Technology can be used to provide employment in rural areas
* His company allows customers in rural areas, who dont have access to banking services, to use their product offering (S-Cash) to buy products
* Essential to digitise so as to make it easier for your customers
This was followed by the MD of Tata Teleservices Ltd., N. Srinath's presentation on digital disruption which began with a thought provoking statement - that change is the only constant. During his presentation he also spoke about the major trends emerging in the digital field - rapidly rising number of mobile phones, widening coverage of internet in india, etc.
After this I moderated a panel revolving around the theme "Digital disruption - The CEO's Agenda".
My panelists were
Debashis Sen, Principal Secretary, Urban Development, Govt of West Bengal and CMD HIDCO
Swaraj Krishnan - CEO, MAGMA HDI genral insurance company
Keshav Bhajanka, ED, Century Ply
N Srinath, Managing Director, Tata Teleservices Limited
Below are some of the main thoughts that were put forth during the panel:-
Debashis Sen spoke about the smart city that Kolkata is making - New Town Kolkata- which is situated close to the Kolkata airport. He emphasised the need to "Indianise" the digital solutions that companies wish to implement, since Indian problems a different from those in other parts of the world. He shared an e.g. - in New Town Kolkata the bus stops will have a video feed from the previous bus stop on that route, so that passengers can see when the bus has left from the previous stop. This will enable them to know, in real time, the expected arrival time of the bus.
Swaraj Krishnan highlighted a need for clarity in customer KYCs. This information being collected from the customer by various service providers would be very helpful for insurance and other financial services providers and with the help of technology it can easily be shared. But the privacy and ethical issues cause the sharebility of this data to reside in a grey area.
Keshav Bhajanka shared his thoughts on E-Commerce not being a necessity for all businesses. He spoke about Century Ply's plans of launching an app that home owners can use on their smartphones to visualise how their home walls and floors would look with Century ply laminates and veneers.
N Srinath brought the views of the telecom operator to the table when he spoke about the need for wired connectivity to also grow in sync with wireless connectivity. He also spoke about how things are changing in the conversations they have with their clients as more and more companies are going digital.
All in all an interesting evening with views coming from different business heads. The next edition is on 8th Jan 2016 in delhi. Watch this space for a post on that.