IT entrepreneurship and multi-disciplinary collaboration just
got a mega boost. Beckoning creative networking on a global scale, Chief
Minister Siddaramaiah launched the Bengaluru Technology Summit-2017 at
Bengaluru Palace in the presence of other dignitaries that included Guest of
Honor, Anne Berner, Minister for Transport and Communications, Finalnd; R.V.
Deshpande, Minister for LMI and Infrastructure Development, GoK; K.J. George,
Minister for Bengaluru, Development and Town Planning GoK; Priyank
Kharge, Minister for IT, BT and Tourism, D. Sudhakar, Chairman KEONICS, C.N.
Ashwath Narayan, MLA Mallshwaram Constituency, Subhash C Khuntia, Chief
Secretary, Government of Karnataka, S GopalaKrishnan, Chairman, VGIT&
Co-Founder, Infosys, Vanitha Narayanan, Chairman, IBM –India, Dr. Omkar Rai,
Director Technology Parks Of India.
Hosted by the Department of IT & BT, Government of
Karnataka, the three-day mega event is a creative mix of two flagship events-
the 20th edition of Bengaluru ITE.biz and the 17th edition of Bengaluru India
Bio undher one platform.
The government chose the occasion to announce a unique programme
to strengthen rural Karnataka: Free WiFi to grama panchayats, a move to ensure
availability of comprehensive data to villagers at their fingertips.
The project’s first phase will see 500 grama panchayats get free
WiFi facility from Thursday (November 16, 2017). This is part of the
Government’s ambitious programme of providing wireless local area networking
facility to all the 2,650 grama panchayats in the State.
Here’s what all individuals within a radius of one kilometer
from the WiFi-enabled grama panchayat will get: Free access to 100 MB data at
high speed. This way, all government facilities will get accessible via
internet.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had this to say on the project:
“Access to knowledge and information should not be confined only to the people
in the urban areas but also should be made available to the rural people as
well.’’ The project was seen as a clear indication of the government’s
commitment to an outcome driven development of the State.
The State IT, BT and Tourism Minister, Priyank Kharge, said the
initiative will be implemented in a phases. “The rural people, especially
the youth, must get the facilities available to their urban counterparts and
must get an opportunity to access the internet to get themselves enlightened,
enriched and also to communicate or share data.”
The 3-day mega event is the result of Karnataka combining its 2
flagship events- the 20th edition of Bengaluru ITE.biz and the 17th edition of
Bengaluru India Bio under one platform, Bengaluru Technology Summit-2017, to
facilitate creative collaboration between multi-disciplinary stakeholders and
entrepreneurs from around the world. The summit also included separate element
for women entrepreneurs on 16th November titled “She Drives Technology" by
‘She the People’ to highlight women leading innovation and how women returning
to work can be a game changer for IT.
Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Chairman VGBT & CMD, Biocon, addressed
the development in the life sciences space and heralded in a new age of digital
health using advanced technology, AI and data sciences. Vanita Narayanan
furthered the argument by adding - “Technology helps bring industries together
and this goes a long way in influencing govt. policies. Technology has become a
pervasive platform for all industries.”
Anne Berner highlighted the need of the moment as data sharing.
By giving an example of Finland she said “Instead of ownership of data, sharing
data is better as it helps the overall infrastructure. Quality and speed will
only increase as technology increases and with shorter delays in data
transmission forecasting becomes more accurate and we have a high quality
automated reality.”
The grand summit will also co-locate "Bengaluru Maker
Faire" on November 17 and 18, a global event for all those who
believe in the “do-it-yourself” spirit for sharing their accomplishments and
showcasing their work with an appreciative audience and rub shoulders with
other Makers. It is a place where technologists, hobbyists, tinkerers,
artisans, craftspeople, entrepreneurs and the merely curious gather together to
celebrate, inspire and get inspired! It is a place where technologists,
hobbyists, tinkerers, artisans, craftspeople, entrepreneurs and the merely
curious gather together to celebrate, inspire and get inspired!
The mega event also witnessed ‘Bengaluru AVGC Summit’ on November
16-17, which will be held at ITC Windsor Manor. This is being organised for the
first time in the country and is a partnership between the Government of
Karnataka and ABAI, the trade association for animation, visual effects, gaming
and comics sector. This unique platform is aimed at bringing together IP owners
& developers, content creators and production houses interested in
producing and co-producing creative content as well as bring selected
international and national studios, producers, broadcasters, distributors and
financiers to participate in this buyer, seller interface.
There will also be a “Security 360” event from November 17-19
at Hotel Taj West End, which is being organised by the Government of Karnataka
in partnership with Synergia Foundation. Security 360 will feature a range of
key note presentations and panel discussions giving participants an unique
opportunity to interact and learn from some of the finest strategic & security
practitioners and strategic thinkers from all over the world.
Ben Story, strategic marketing partner of Rolls Royce, had this
to say regarding the issue of partnerships“India has among the best engineers
and we look forward to working with them. The amount of flexibility,
creativity and global mentality has led us to join forces with TCS. At Rolls
Royce we believe in advancing cars through digitisation and the technology
sector has a lot to do in the future of transport.”
Once the Tech Summit and IT Expo were formally inaugurated, a
CEO Roundtable took over the spotlight. Captains of the industry highlighted
opportunities and issues facing the industry. The discussion had its broad
theme as “How diverse technologies are converging to shape our world, impacting
the society?”
The Roundtable speakers dwelt extensively upon emerging
technologies and how they are converging to change the game in various sectors.
They drew attention to new business opportunities shaping up to create a better
society. Emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Internet of
Things, AR/VR were all part of that change.
The discussions traced the evolving business models and new
economies emerging out of these new convergent technologies. The focus was also
on new challenges to revamp the traditional business models. Affordability, the
innovation cycle and the economics of scale were well highlighted through the
duration of the Roundtable.
While Vijay Chandru talked about the opportunities through
IT-Biotech linkages. When questioned about the decision making capabilities of
AI in healthcare he had this to say: “At no point will that be allowed to
happen. Advances in AI will only increase the productivity and effectiveness of
the system.”
Nivruthi Rai’s intervention was about new age chips that can
mimic the human mind and other revolutionary developments happening at Intel
with respect to Artificial Intelligence. “AI has been a part of Intel, along
with several other companies for almost half a century in terms of using AI for
hiring, safety etc.” she said. A key argument made my Nivruthi was “Jobs don’t
go away because of technology; jobs are created because of technology.”
Shifting the focus to driver-less cars, Kamal Bali emphasized on
the much needed push for electric vehicles. He then went on to trace the
opportunities, possibilities and challenges for the Indian auto sector of the
future. Mr. Kamal also has a unique outlook on the labour market of India
and said “We have enough manpower in India. Places to network, however, are
limited.”
For Nachiket Sukhtankar, the platform was apt to talk about
technology skills, jobs of the future, impact of intelligent automation and
driving better business outcomes with converging technologies. Another
interesting talk was about responsible AI and the pitfalls of reckless AI
practices by large corporates. The criticality of this was driven home by the
reference to Elon Musk’s remark that unregulated AI can be an existential
threat.
Lined up for the Tech summit are presentations of the STPI IT
Export Awards and Bio Excellence Award in recognition of the outstanding
achievements of IT & BT innovators.
Over the next three days, Thought leaders, Technocrats,
Researchers, Innovators, Investors and Policy Makers from different streams
gathered at the event will participate in interdisciplinary dialogue. On the
agenda are collaborations and emergence of disruptive technologies, path
breaking products and unique services.
For women entrepreneurs, the summit has a separate element on November 16,
titled “She Drives Technology" by ‘She the People.’ The objective is to
highlight women leading innovation and how women returning to work can be a
game changer for IT.
