Over the last year, technology has evolved at a rapid pace and is considered a key factor for economic development. For the economy to grow at a sustainable rate, adopting the latest technologies which augment the business performance is essential.
As we observe National Technology Day today, here are some thoughts from the industry leaders on how #gamechanging trends are shaping India’s technology sector in 2022.
Kunal Purohit, Chief Digital Services Officer, Tech Mahindra, said, “Today, technology has become all pervasive and helps create needle moving outcomes across all industries and governments as well. The development and adoption of solutions through advanced technologies, including intelligent automation, artificial intelligence, Metaverse, Blockchain, 5G, and Quantum Computing can impact one or more of the following: a) significant reduction in the cost of doing business b) increase in revenues through increased differentiation and c) higher customer delight. At Tech Mahindra, we are focused on leveraging next-generation technologies to enable end-to-end digital transformation for global customers and solve complex business challenges. Some relevant recent examples are:
We have launched TechMVerse, our Metaverse practice to deliver interactive and immersive experiences in the Metaverse for our customers. We launched ‘Meta Village’ to gamify learning. A part of TechMVerse, Meta Village will gamify the learning process for children in rural India thereby providing them with an opportunity to develop the crucial technical skills needed to become tomorrow’s disruptors. Today Pargaon is India’s first Meta village created by Tech Mahindra. We have launched amplifAI 0->∞ to democratize AI (artificial intelligence) for enterprises globally.
Agendra Kumar, MD, Esri India, said, “Location Intelligence is transforming the way businesses are devising strategies, analysing competitors, managing operations and engaging customers. Decision-makers are imbibing spatial literacy to be able to effectively use location intelligence solutions and build a ‘Location Strategy’ within their IT Landscape of the organization. Seeing all relevant information in the context of location—on a map powered application or dashboard is helping businesses get deeper insights and giving ability to roll out location intelligence based IT automation of business processes. As businesses understand the importance of location technology, the need for creating geospatially literate IT teams within organizations becomes all the more necessary.
With technologies like GIS (Geographic Information Systems) that serve as the backbone for Location Intelligence Infrastructure becoming more popular, companies are joining the quest for deeper knowledge. As a leader in the field of GIS, we at Esri India, are taking multiple initiatives to create market skills and knowledge. Be it inculcating GIS skills in students at the university level or empowering the developers with the right tools to incorporate location intelligence in businesses, Esri India is making a strong impact in today’s technology-driven business landscape. Indo ArcGIS is a complete platform that individuals and organizations use to find, explore, create, and share maps; apply geospatial data, tools, and models to solve problems; collaborate in groups and communities; and deploy geospatial resources whenever and wherever they are needed. Esri India instructor-led training provides the foundation professionals need to learn how to build a strong platform, extend it across an organization, and fully leverage their GIS investment. Staying current with the latest GIS technology gives businesses a competitive edge”.
Sudha KV, Vice President, Dell Technologies, India, commented, “In todays’ digital age, technology is driving human progress and the driving force behind technological growth comes with introducing disruptive ideas. Dell Technologies continues to be one of the global leaders in producing server tech, and India has a key role to play in this. Our Bengaluru R&D centre has been instrumental in bringing about cutting-edge technology in the server portfolio. Right from conceptualization of the servers, to product upgrade and then retiring the offerings, and thinking about the next product and technology trends, the Bengaluru R&D centre is the locus of innovation. Having filed over 100 patents in the last 3-4 years, the team at the Bengaluru centre has been dedicatedly helping Dell Technologies meet their goals of driving growth through technology.
To integrate software and hardware with specific capabilities, the R&D centre runs about 7 petabytes of networking traffic, 1600 virtual machines and 1400 test configurations to mimic all possible customer scenarios before making solutions available to global markets. With highly skilled engineers, distinguished technical staff and a dedicated team of designers and developers, the team is able to churn out adaptive and autonomous modern infrastructure solutions aligned with modern workloads which meet the customer interests in the areas of cloud computing, AI, analytics and edge computing. Our aim is to increase efficiency and boost performance of end-user computing with new developments and improvements to their PowerEdge portfolio, which allow customers to bring the computing power closer to their data, and our R&D centre is at the cornerstone of these innovations.”
Sachin Alug, CEO, NLB Services, commented, “Navigating the post-covid world requires a certain level of digital literacy both in and outside of work. Speaking of work, remote and hybrid models have compelled employees to have at least an intermediate understanding of tech for their daily tasks. From tracking attendance to managing projects and frequent coordination with fellow teammates, a 2022 employee needs digital skills to get by on a daily basis.
At NLB Services, we are a team of 8000+ members across the globe. The onset of the pandemic scattered us even farther from each other but we’ve overcome geographical limitations through tech. We’ve held regular IT workshops and training sessions to ease our employees into remote working. Online team building activities and leadership interactions have also been conducted. Additionally, virtual fitness and entertainment sessions have also helped us to bring the team together from time to time”.
Anku Jain, MD, at MediaTek, said, “Post pandemic, technology has become a mainstay for every sector and company. With deep tech innovations such as AI, IoT, ML and cloud computing becoming the norm, and technology being leveraged for even the most basic requirements, people lacking digital literacy will find it difficult to prosper in the new normal. Organisations need to focus on imbibing digital literacy and upskilling employees to participate in the tremendous growth opportunities available across sectors. At MediaTek, which is a global fabless semiconductor company, our employees are already well-versed in digital initiatives but we offer our associates the opportunity to further upskill themselves through dedicated technical training sessions and tech talks aimed at optimising their inherent potential.”
Rushi Bhatt, Sr. Director and Head of AI at Compass IDC, said, “India is a hotbed of technology and as Compass’ overseas development centres in Hyderabad and Bengaluru, we are leveraging the top tech talent available here to make cutting-edge solutions across Data, AI, and ML. India’s top tech talent combined with the power of innovation and entrepreneurial thinking has played a leading role in transforming every industry globally. The engineering talent across Compass IDC is engaged in advancing the company’s technology stack as well as working on mobile, cloud and data solutions for our growing client base. We believe that India has the technological expertise and potential required to propel innovation on a global scale and we look forward to being a part of this revolutionary journey in the years ahead”.
Kumar Vembu, CEO & Co-Founder, said, “The future is much larger and many times scarier than it has ever looked in the past. Smart companies are ones that would use technology as a smart platform for all stakeholders to seamlessly collaborate, paving the way for connected business. Omni-channel experiences will continue to evolve so far as to let consumers enjoy a seamless shopping experience – both offline and online.
Gofrugal will continue to make technology easy, intuitive, and affordable to help businesses, agnostic of size and style, to stay competitive. Gofrugal has, is, and will continue to enable businesses to win by letting them work with minimal staff, with least skills, yet make 100% reliable with accurate predictions and decision recommendations-based solutions ”
Ganesh Shankar, CEO & Co-Founder, said, “Request for proposal (RFP) technology was originally developed only for procurement, to help organizations issue, track, and monitor RFPs when they sourced a new product, service, or solution provider. RFP technology developers recognized an opportunity to improve efficiency, encourage competition, and accelerate supply chains. However, these solutions neglected the needs of responders. In fact, as RFP technology made it easier for issuers to include demands for guaranteed service levels, risk mitigation, regulatory compliance, privacy assurances, and security protocols in their RFPs, questionnaires ballooned; while RFP issuing technology made it easier for organizations to ask for these requirements, responders were still stuck with manual or in-house solutions that offered unreliable results.
Companies such as RFPIO developed response management technology to support responders. Early versions of the technology-focused on automating response processes, in-app collaboration tools, and organizing content to respond to RFPs and security questionnaires faster. As the technology has advanced, sales teams have also realized the value of responding faster and more accurately from a library of response-ready content that can be accessed from almost everywhere, including web browsers, CRMs, Microsoft Office, Slack, and more. Now, with AI-enabled automated responses, intuitive proposal building tools that enable easier proactive responding, and ubiquitous knowledge management available to all responders—including sales, proposal, customer support, analyst relations, investor relations, and IT teams—having RFPIO in a sales tech stack is a game-changing competitive advantage.”
Gaurav Vasu, CEO, UnearthInsight, said, “India employs over 1.8 million women in Tech sector largely IT services, GCCs, Software Products and Tech Start-ups but gender diversity for senior roles in core product or tech services remains low both globally and in India largely due to various factors. India has seen significant improvement of Women participation in STEM across Tech Start-ups along with middle management roles in Tech services and Software product in the last 2 to 3 years due to Hybrid working models, Satellite office models, Remote roles however senior roles/CXO lacks gender diversity at less than 3-5%.
Industry players can definitely showcase women leaders as role models and also create defined career paths for women from coding to quality to managerial to service line head roles as that would encourage more women in STEM to aspire to grow to leadership roles. Marketing and HR function has done well and has over 5000+ women leaders but Tech Services, GCC and Tech Start-ups have a lot of work to improve this ”
“At NetApp, innovation is at the heart of everything we do, and it all starts with our ability to harness the power of the data we have and use it to change people’s lives. Management of storage, regardless of where it exists across clouds, infrastructure, and as a service, has become a vital competence for all enterprises as India experiences the age of cloud adoption and data explosion.
NetApp is many years ahead of its closest competitors in the fight to modernise and transform in the cloud. Because of its unique ability to function smoothly across hybrid clouds, NetApp’s flagship data management software, ONTAP, is immensely popular with its customers throughout the world. Our secret sauce is ONTAP, which was co-developed by the company’s Bengaluru R&D team.
Our industry-leading storage infrastructure capabilities may be expanded to any format – on premises and in the cloud – and even between cloud service providers using ONTAP. This is the cornerstone for hybrid multi-cloud, and it also simplifies the management of both structured and unstructured data, reaping tremendous benefits in terms of manageability, storage efficiency, and interoperability. The team in India is responsible for a large portion of this effort.
On National Technology Day, we look back with pride on how our innovations work to make our customers take advantage of technology at an accelerated pace,” said, Ravi Chhabria, Managing Director, NetApp India.
“Within the logistics sector, traditional digitization efforts have lasted several decades, however most of these technologies are now obsolete or based on on-premise solutions. Cloud computing has revolutionised numerous businesses, including logistics. Software as a Service, or SaaS, has emerged as a winning business model for new high-growth technology companies. Customers and technology suppliers both profit from this. Customers benefit from a product that is constantly upgraded, and it lowers the bar for technology providers to produce better products.
Working in the SaaS space, I have seen that this model significantly reduces software costs. In addition, once a piece of software is produced and deployed in the cloud, it requires very little upkeep. When software was installed on-premise, a specialised support team was necessary, and each deployment required many servers to manage. There is only one deployment using SaaS, and it is delivered over the cloud. This translates in gross margins of 85 percent on average, which is a fantastic standard.
According to the most recent Gartner forecast on Transportation Management Systems (TMS), the market will expand from $1.32 billion to $2.11 billion globally (from 2019 through 2024). That’s a 60 percent increase in just five years. And SaaS-based automation solutions are responsible for the majority of this. On National Technology Day, I am optimistic about the efforts put in by the technology workforce to build SaaS platforms that are true game changers in the logistics industry,” commented, Dhruvil Sanghvi, Founder & CEO, LogiNext.
Sandeep Bhambure, Vice President, Veeam Software – India & SAARC, said, “Digital technologies have the potential to revolutionize and reinvent how everyone does business in an increasingly connected world. In recent years, organizations have seen a rapid increase in the adoption of digital services as a result of hybrid work models, growing data security concerns, and overall business disruptions. As per Veeam’s Data Protection Trends Report 2022 “84 percent of Indian organizations experienced ransomware attacks, making cyber-attacks one of the leading causes of downtime for organizations, for the second year in a row.” The growing importance of digital services, data proliferation, and the ever-changing threat landscape have resulted in an increase in cyber-attacks (ransomware), making it critical for businesses to ensure that their organization’s data is always secure. As a result, organizations are now considering aligning with a data protection framework that provides a dependable strategy when normal operations are disrupted.
We at Veeam believe that secure backup is the last line of defense against ransomware. We strive to provide modern data protection to our customers by delivering secure and reliable backup solutions that eliminate downtime, minimize data loss and prevent organizations from paying a costly ransom, ensuring business continuity, and thus contributing to a sustainable future.”
“On National Technology Day, I’d like to honour and celebrate the contribution of Dr. APJ Abdul Kadam as a scientist, people’s President, and exceptional teacher. His exemplary work in the fields of science, technology, and rural empowerment has always inspired me and the world. I also want to take this opportunity to appreciate and applaud our scientists, innovators, and technologists playing a pivotal role in transforming lives with deep tech solutions. Similarly, at Fulcrum Digital, we are on a relentless pursuit of making lives better with the power of our digital platforms. We help customers bring technologically advanced and future-ready products faster to the market through our integrated suite of platform, digital engineering services, and technology consulting,” said, Rajesh Sinha, Founder and Chairman Fulcrum Digital.
“Buckminster Fuller, an American architect once quoted ‘You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete’. The quote clearly defines the need & capability of model improvisation to develop, change & implement the new technologies in everyday life for all firms & entities. Technological innovations will be key to the futuristic survival of all industry sectors. We at Aurionpro Solutions are committed to innovate, adapt and succeed in leveraging emerging tech to build products of the future, and placing customer needs at the core of what we do. As we celebrate National Technology Day, I’d like to express my gratitude to all our tech leaders for doing their best to place India at the forefront of global tech innovations,” said, Paresh Zaveri, Chairman & Managing Director, Aurionpro Solutions.
“Brands have been sharpening their expertise in cutting-edge technology as it has altered our lives, from the evolution of voice assistants to the introduction of smart products. The technological era has charged an exhilarating stage in the smart product market, delivering consumers with unique and improved smart home technologies which are leaning towards an interconnected, easy-to-control habitat. Lifestyle patterns are constantly shifting, not just as a result of external forces, but also because of shifting consumer patterns fuelled by the rapid growth and adoption of innovative technology. Hence, brands today are offering products basis evolving necessities and are prioritising around incorporating technology for a sustainable environment. At Syska, we focus on delivering technology-led products that conserve energy and are sustainable. Our LED products save energy up to 70% by application, and our wires are made basis Indo-European technology which saves up to 3% energy. In addition, our fans are built with BLDC technology which saves up to 50% energy. As we celebrate National Technology Day on 11th May, we believe there is a need to celebrate the innovative technology that focuses on making conscious products for future living,” commented, Rajesh Uttamchandani, Director, Syska Group.
“Our lives have become increasingly reliant on new and inventive technological developments. It has changed how we make purchases, communicate, plan our trips, and learn new things. The revolution of technology has been improving our standard of life, making it more comfortable, economical, and safe. With innovation and advanced technology, home automation systems have evolved significantly over the last few decades. Home automation technology has enabled appliances to sense, connect with, and analyse relevant data, enabling them to automate a variety of household operations. Smart home technology not only has a positive outlook from a consumer perspective but also presents significant opportunities for businesses and entrepreneurs to innovate and build next-gen solutions that can expand the market as a whole. We strive to offer technology-driven products to our customers at Goldmedal Electricals. We are betting big on the home automation business as it doesn’t just influence lighting but also variety of other electrical appliances. We at Goldmedal believe that technology is the future, and we will continue to make progress to deliver unique and advanced technology-led products as we mark National Technology Day,” said, Kishan Jain, Director, Goldmedal Electricals.
“Technology and tech-led innovations have been a game-changer for the environment and society. Recently we have observed massive progress in technological innovations across multiple businesses particularly, in the environmental health space. Technology is taking over the world, and we can safely say that it has the potential to provide solutions for most of the problems across sectors. Environmental issues are no different. Today with the help of evolved and advanced technologies, one can address and beat air pollution. Pollutant monitoring devices, retrofits, scrubbers and similar solutions are promising technologies that have contributed to the system. We have introduced the patented ‘Filterless Carbon Cutter Technology’, a revolutionary innovation rated as one of the best technologies globally to reduce air pollution. As we observe National Technology Day on 11th May, we at Pi Green Innovations stand committed to continue developing the latest technologies and support bringing about a positive change through our efficient offerings,” commented, Irfan Pathan, Co-Founder & CEO, Pi Green Innovations.
“In the recent years, technology has played a huge role in the country’s development and advancing its infrastructure. Today with the increase in urbanisation, cities are facing a crunch at every aspect, especially the rising congestion on roads disrupting the free flow of traffic. With the advancement in technology and smart parking solutions, this issue can be handled well. The integration of Information Communications Technology (ICT) solutions and the use of Internet of Things (IoT) and data have greatly improved the overall efficiency of the Indian parking industry. Today, we are able to eliminate the need to drive around in circles endlessly in search of a parking space ensuring that we, drivers save time while contributing to reducing emissions as well. On the occasion of National Technology Day, we would like to extend our appreciation to the efforts of the Government in this endeavour while committing to creating better tech-enabled solutions for the future of this country,” said, Rajesh Kabra, Managing Director, RR Parkon.
