Winning in the Digital 3.0 Age Discussed at BMA's Digital Leadership Summit 3.0 in Mumbai

Established in 1954, the Bombay Management Association popularly known by the acronym BMA; is one of the India’s leading managerial communities striving for managerial excellence in business and corporate management. BMA came up with a digital leadership summit 3.0 titled Winning in the Digital Age in partnership with AIMA (All India Management Association). This partnership is not only brought two team’s objectives together but also provided value to the larger management community and ecosystem. The Bombay Management Association's Digital Leadership Summit 3.0. The summit had business leaders from varied companies talking about the digital wave and how to ride it.  Eminent executives from OYO Rooms India, Reliance Jio, Genpact, Kirloskar Brothers, YES Bank, Wockhardt Ltd, L&T Finance, Deloitte, Hindustan Petroleum, etc were a part of the summit.

Speaking on the occasion Ms Prasanthi Reddy, President - Strategic Initiatives, YES Bank said; "Digitization of production and consumption has put data at the centre of business decision making. Connected devices and people are generating enormous amounts of intelligence about products and their usage, which is allowing organizations to make more informed judgements instead of relying on the experience of their leaders."

Mr Pramod Bhasin, Founder Genpact Ltd and Chairman, Clix Capital said; "The companies with more and better data can understand the customers more deeply, innovate fast and even predict future market events. In this digital age, a business that falls behind in data extraction and analytics is likely to disappear from the scene. Also, ensuring data
security and privacy is essential to the growth and longevity of a business."

Dr. Murtuza Khorakiwala, Managing Director, Wockhardt Limited said, "Digitization has changed marketing by opening more communication channels and giving marketers deep insights into customer behaviour.”

Adding to this Mr. Mohit Kapoor, Vice President Group Alliances & Advertising Reliance Group said, “Today, enterprises can go beyond persuasion and aim at personalization. Technology has empowered marketers to shape not just consumers’ expectations but also their experience of a brand. However, in a hyper competitive environment, businesses need to excel in using technology to find, incent and engage customers.” Mr Rakesh Barik, Service Area Leader - Technology
Consulting Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India LLP said "Data enables to make better business decisions. Organizations should always strive to acquire more data on their operations and customers. Companies should use the data for market prediction and innovation and at the same time protect privacy." Abhishek Sharma, Chief Digital Officer, L&T Financial Services said "Digital marketers also need to navigate the minefield of privacy and regulation to monetise consumer data and
bring innovations to the market."

R. Radhakrishnan Executive Director, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited said; "Organizations use multiple digital channels for effective marketing and use consumer data to improve the brand experience for consumers. Marketers should take ample care to alleviate consumers' privacy concerns. The future of Indian economy is digital. More than half a billion Indians are connected and more people are coming online because of falling prices of devices and access. After a slow start, India's digital economy is nearing the critical mass needed for rapid transformation."

Sanjay Kirloskar, Chairman & M.D. Kirloskar Brothers Limited commenting on the occasion said; "Indians are the second-largest users of apps in the world and largest users of social media. Digital consumption and online transactions are growing in popularity and every enterprise is expected to have an online presence. According to McKinsey, Indian economy has the potential to grow by nearly half a trillion dollars by 2025 because of digitization alone. In this scenario, the digitizers of today will be the leaders of tomorrow. They are less likely to be destroyed by disruptions in their
industries and more likely to win in a hyper-innovative environment."

Harshit Vyas, Chief Business Officer - India, OYO Hotels & Homes said "Merely digitizing a business is not enough to survive disruption. It takes creation of a digital business to redefine the product, delivery, value and consumer. While the conventional companies are digitizing to become more efficient, young entrepreneurs are recreating familiar businesses in digital form and overwhelming the established players. The digital natives are disrupting supply chain and value creation and are taking away the market by offering unprecedented convenience, economy and speed to consumers. The legacy
businesses need to imbibe the spirit of new generation to have a future in this fast changing world."

Shailesh Haribhakti, Chairman - Blue Star Limited added "Digital business modules are disrupting the established industry ecosystems everyday. The established industry players now need to think beyond digitization and becoming digital enterprises to survive in the fast changing structures. This is the only way in which established industry players will be able to overcome stiff competition from their digital competitors." Sonny George, Chief General Manager Digital
Transformation & E-Commerce, Strategy & Digital Banking Department, State Bank of India said; "Consumers are getting used to the convenience of anytime, anywhere purchase. Whether a business sells physical products or knowledge services, it risks losing sales and customers by restricting its presence to only the physical or only the online world. Moreover, customers expect a business to solve their problem in entirety and not just provide bits and pieces of the
overall solution. The digital economy demands delivery of integrated solutions through every possible channel. Businesses must straddle the physical and the virtual worlds to do well in the digital age."

Anup Purohit, Group President and Chief Information Officer, YES Bank added; "Organizations should build a competitive presence in both the physical and the digital markets. Organizations who integrate their online and offline channels reinforce each other channel's sales."

The conclave was attended by more than 200 plus delegates from across the country. DLS 3.0 approach was simple yet gave out complete insights in today's digital wave in almost all industries.

IT Spending in India to Total US$94 Billion in 2020, Up 6.6% From 2019

According to the latest forecast by Gartner, Inc., IT spending in India will total US$94 billion in 2020, up from US$88.5 billion in 2019 (an increase of 6.6%).

“2020 will be a rebound year for India’s IT spending as consumers return to purchasing mobile phones after sitting on the sidelines in 2019,” said John-David Lovelock, research vice president at Gartner. “Additionally, business spending on IT grew 6% in 2019 and is expected to increase 9% in 2020, helping to drive growth across all segments.”

Gartner analysts are discussing the macroeconomic trends affecting the IT spending market in India this week during Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo, which is taking place in Goa until Thursday.

Strong growth in total software spending will be driven by enterprise application software which is forecast to grow 17% in 2020. The expected increase in overall business spending will help drive 16% growth in enterprise mobile phone spending in 2020, pushing growth in the devices segment to 6.3%.

Business Resilience and Increased Consumer Spending Fuels IT Growth

“Over half of India’s total IT spending is done by consumers, so it was expected that a dip in consumer spending would have tremendous impact on total IT spending,” said Mr. Lovelock. “Consumer resistance to investing in devices has impacted overall IT spending in the country. In 2019, private consumption slowed despite five back-to-back rate cuts throughout the year. This scenario is expected to change in 2020.”

“However, even within the slow economy, businesses showed resilience and continued to invest in IT,” said Arup Roy, research vice president at Gartner. “In mid-2019, the Indian government introduced corporate tax cuts, along with policies that were aimed at reviving the economy and bolstering consumer spending. As a result, corporate spending in software and services saw an uptick and organizations continued to invest in cloud, analytics, digital and automation.”

“In the next two to three years, IT spending will increase as the economy benefits from the goods and service tax (GST) implemented by the Indian government in 2018, and as policies supporting consumer spending come into practice,” said Mr. Roy.

More detailed analysis on the outlook for the IT industry is available in the complimentary webinar "IT Spending Forecast, 3Q 2019 Update: The Next Generation of Cloud."

Gartner’s IT spending forecast methodology relies heavily on rigorous analysis of sales by thousands of vendors across the entire range of IT products and services. Gartner uses primary research techniques, complemented by secondary research sources, to build a comprehensive database on which to base its forecasts. 

Boeing Marks a Decade of Research and Technology Presence in India

Boeing marks the 10th anniversary of its research and technology presence in India. Boeing Research & Technology-India is playing an important role in Boeing’s technological advancement. The center, in addition to building internal capabilities, has also been working closely with Indian R&D organizations, driving innovation and contributing to the aviation industry.

Using home-grown Indian technical talent, Boeing Research & Technology-India (BR&T-India) has been pursuing research and development in areas of aerodynamics, structures, materials, manufacturing, communication networks and artificial intelligence. Its researchers and engineers partner with Indian academic and research organizations such as Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and Indian Institutes of Technology, to create value through high quality engineering, advancing aerospace technology, and creating digital solutions.

“Celebrating 10 years of BR&T-India is an exciting milestone that signals the importance of Boeing’s partnership with the Indian aerospace, ecosystem,” said Salil Gupte, president of Boeing India. “BR&T India is building and enhancing the aerospace capability in the country by bringing the best of Boeing to India and the best of India to Boeing.”

Boeing Research & Technology-India is leading a solid foundation of collaborative research projects in India. The team has set up labs for manufacturing & materials and value engineering. In these labs, scientist and engineers work to improve the design, materials and manufacturability of aircraft parts, in order to make them more reliable and create opportunity for sourcing them from Indian manufacturers.

Over the past ten years, Boeing Research & Technology-India has delivered commercially viable solutions for Airplane Health Management (AHM) and Air Traffic Management (ATM).  Its ATM experts are currently working with Airports Authority of India to develop a roadmap for modernisation of air traffic management in the country. Today, the research center is using artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve quality of wide body airplanes that Boeing delivers. Using Internet-of-Things (IOT) technologies, its engineers are finding ways to improve passenger experience during air travel.

“The BR&T-India team continues our legacy of creating and collaborating with research and development partners in India to provide innovative solutions to the aerospace industry's toughest challenges,” said Dr. Naveed Hussain, vice president and general manager of Boeing Research & Technology. “What started as a four-employee venture in 2009, today has grown to a team of over 100 researchers, delivering innovative technical solutions and collaborative research projects in India. BR&T-India has also been influential in the launch of the Boeing India Engineering and Technology Center, which is a testament to Boeing’s long term commitment to India.”

Yes Bank Launches YES Fintech Developer, India’s Largest Banking API Developer Platform

Highlights

* Sandbox platform hosts more than 50+ APIs, highest in the Indian Banking Sector  - the platform will host 100+ APIs by the end of FY20
* Wide array of APIs enabling corporate partners, startups and individual developers to discover relevant APIs, and test banking integrations for their apps in a secure environment
* Also plans to conduct a series of hackathons – registration opens on November 13, 2019

YES BANK, India’s fourth largest private sector Bank announced the launch of YES Fintech Developer, India’s largest API sandbox with 50+ virtual APIs at Bengaluru today, marking the evolution of the Bank’s technologies to Open Banking. This is in line with the Bank’s strategy of keeping customers at the core while ideating and co-creating solutions. YES BANK was the first Bank in India to launch APIs that allowed integration with the technology systems of corporate clients.

The sandbox builds on the Bank’s strategy of using API banking as an enabler to customize digital solutions for its clients. This will not only help corporates, MSMEs and startups to identify ‘best-fit’ APIs based on their sectors but also allow them to test the APIs with their app in a secure environment. The sandbox will enable clients across sectors to visualize multiple banking use cases, customized for their application and understand possible integrations & functionalities of the Bank’s APIs.

YES Fintech Developer, also provides a boost to the Bank’s effort of co-creating innovations with Fintechs, startups and the developer ecosystem to enhance customer experience. While API suites from banks have helped such partnerships, it is often difficult for Fintechs and startups to experiment with live APIs to build new features and capabilities. The YES BANK sandbox will ease these concerns by providing a secure virtual environment to test, train and develop solutions with banking integrations. Developers can complete integrations in the environment and mimic how their solutions would work in a ‘live’ environment. Once they are comfortable, they can move to subscribing the APIs.

Commenting on the launch, Ritesh Pai, Chief Digital Officer, YES BANK said, “YES Fintech Developer sandbox will create a perfect collaboration opportunity with startups to test emerging solutions such as alternative data-driven banking models, gamified solutions to nudge user behavior and more. Along with this, the platform would showcase our API suite – functionalities, responses with corporate and MSME clients and help them to understand full attributes of our API stack, while enabling faster integration with the Bank’s APIs.”

Through the sandbox, YES BANK will grant access to APIs across four usage categories including account management, payments, cards and CRM with operations such as –

ü  Accounts: Account Opening; Account Management; Customer Portfolio

ü  Payments: Beneficiary Management; Fund Transfer; Bill Payment;  Recurring Payment

ü  Cards: Credit Card; Debit Card

ü  CRM: Lead management; Customer Service

ü  Partner APIs: Sandbox APIs of partner organizations across sectors (to be launched soon)

The launch event hosted in Bangalore, was attended by 100+ clients including market leaders such as Swiggy, PhonePe, Blackbuck, Myntra and Razorpay among others who are already using the platform for banking functions like instant cashback, in-app fund transfers, customer authentication and custom database management among others to develop innovations.

YES BANK will work with its clients, the start-up ecosystem and the developer community to continually expand portal’s functionalities and the virtual APIs it offers basis feedback.

The sandbox is open to all developers, startups and corporate partners, who are invited to register their interest at www.yesdeveloper.in. Upon registration, once an email verification is completed, they will have access to all APIs in a development sandbox, thereby enabling them to test their ideas in a secure environment.

To fuel co-development of innovations, the Bank will also conduct a series of virtual hackathons and developer jamming sessions on the sandbox platform. Registration opens for the virtual hackathon on November 13, 2019 at www.yesdeveloper.in for an exciting 72 hours of brainstorming and coding.

YES BANK had also conducted a detailed study and released a report on 'Open Government, Open Data – Re-imagining India’ last year. The study was undertaken by the Bank, in support with Digital India, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).The study can be accessed at https://www.yesbank.in/beyond-banking/knowledge-reports/technology/open-government-open-data-reimagining-india.

Accenture Expands Cybersecurity Capabilities with Network of “Cyber Ranges”

Accenture has expanded its cybersecurity capabilities with the opening of three “cyber ranges” to help industrial companies — including those in the oil and gas, chemicals, utilities and manufacturing industries — practice their response to cyberattacks across their most critical assets.

The cyber ranges are controlled, interactive and hyper-realistic environments for cybersecurity training and software development used to assess network and other technical vulnerabilities of industrial control systems (ICS). These systems are commonly used to automate processes in critical infrastructure industries such as utilities, petrochemicals, oil and gas, and industrial manufacturing.

Featuring live-fire, multi-vendor capabilities, the three cyber ranges are located in:

Houston, Texas ‒ Housed within one of the company’s innovation hubs, this cyber range focuses on the oil and gas industry, from upstream exploration, midstream into downstream refining and retail. 
Washington, D.C. ‒ Focused on the utilities industry from electric transmission to distribution, this cyber range is in Accenture’s Cyber Fusion Center in Washington, D.C.
Essen, Germany ‒ This cyber range, in one of the company’s Industry X.0 Innovation Centers, is dedicated to the utilities and chemicals industries focused on electric distribution networks and chemical plants.

“We tailor security solutions to our clients’ industries and help them build resilience across their entire value chains,” said Jim Guinn II, who leads Accenture’s cybersecurity business for the energy, utilities, chemicals and mining industries. “Our ICS cyber ranges are designed to help pressure-test and improve the security posture of organizations so they can innovate safely and grow their businesses with confidence.”

Accenture is also in the construction stage of its first ICS Cyber Fusion Center opening early next year to help clients better protect their industrial networks, including field level and plant assets. Located in Accenture’s Innovation Hub in the heart of Houston’s business district, the new ICS Cyber Fusion Center will bring together world-class threat intelligence and vulnerability assessment services leveraging a dedicated team of ICS and industry security analysts. The center will be part of Accenture’s global network of Cyber Fusion Centers, joining others in Washington, D.C.; Bangalore, India; Prague; Tel Aviv, Israel; and Tokyo.

“The energy industry has the largest installed base of industrial control systems around the world, and the cyber risk has never been greater,” said Luis Luque, ICS cybersecurity global lead at Accenture Security. “Securing and defending these large and complex industrial systems requires not only improving processes and tools, but also adopting cybersecurity practices for operational maintenance and resilience programs. With the expansion of our ICS cybersecurity capabilities, we can deliver the most comprehensive security solutions tailored across the ICS environment, delivered by people who understand the zero-loss time imperative our industry expects.”

ICAT is Organizing NuGen Mobility Summit – Disruption Unveils from Nov 27-29, 2019 at ICAT Centre-II, IMT Manesar, Haryana

International Centre for Automotive Technology (ICAT), a premier Government of India automotive Research & Development and Testing agency, has been in the forefront of creating the required knowledge, competences, R & D and testing facilities for new emerging auto technologies, including for electrification technologies. As an ongoing part of its efforts, ICAT is organizing the “NuGen Mobility Summit – Disruption Unveils” from 27th - 29th Nov 2019 at ICAT Centre-II, IMT Manesar, Haryana.

NuGen is being preceded by technology appreciation workshop for Government agencies on 8th Nov’19, at ICAT Manesar. This will include inauguration of new testing and development facilities by Hon’ble Minister of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises along with a session on electrification technology appreciation wherein the strengths, benefits, and unique challenges to electrification, specific to Indian conditions will be presented. During this event ICAT will also share the performance results of various xEVs on Indian conditions tested in Lab as well as ‘On road’.

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS, New York) has Honoured Dr. K. Ullas Karanth

The award is named after WCS’s Dr. George Schaller, considered to be one of the greatest wildlife scientists and onservationists globally. The WCS George Schaller Lifetime Award in Wildlife Conservation Science has been created to honour WCS colleagues for outstanding contributions to saving wildlife and wild places. Dr. K. Ullas Karanth is the first recipient.

Dr. George Schaller said “It has been my honour and pleasure to know Ullas since 1988 and mentoring his early career with the Wildlife Conservation Society. No one, anywhere, has done better research and conservation on large carnivores than Ullas."

Dr. Karanth was honoured by the WCS Board of Trustees on 29th October in New York. He was presented with the award by WCS President and CEO Cristián Samper and WCS Board Chair Alejandro Santo Domingo.

“Dr. Karanth has set the bar for excellence in science and field research,” said Dr. Samper. “His leadership on tiger conservation is recognised across the globe, but his influence extends even beyond tigers. Today, there is not a species of big cat that is not better studied and conserved because of Ullas’s rigorous and conservation-focused science. It has been a great honour to work with Dr. Karanth.”

Dr. Karanth joined WCS in 1988. He was inspired to become a wildlife biologist by the work of Dr. Schaller. Dr. Karanth’s research is often described as pioneering and groundbreaking. He has focussed on the ecology of tigers, sympatric predators and other large mammals, predator-prey population ecology, and mitigation of human-wildlife conflicts. He has provided research expertise to projects across the world including in Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Lao
PDR, Myanmar, Indonesia, Russia, as well as in Africa and Latin America. He has published hundreds of scientific papers, authored many books and written popular articles in various journals of international repute.

A recipient of several other honours including the Sanctuary Asia Lifetime Achievement Award (2007), the J. Paul Getty Award for Conservation Leadership (2007), the Karnataka Rajyotsava Award (2010), and the Padma Shri (2012), Dr. Karanth is currently the Director of Centre for Wildlife Studies.