Digital transformation key to India’s growth: CII Jharkhand Chairman Ranjot Singh

India’s data centres are fastest growing assets across the world: Sarajit Jha highlights data-driven opportunities for SMEs

CII Jharkhand hosts 5th ICT Conclave on ‘AI and Data Strategies’

Jamshedpur, Sep 27: CII Jharkhand organized 5^th Edition of ICT Conclave with the theme of “Unlocking Future Growth: The Synergy of AI and Data Strategies for the Next Era”.

The event held at city hotel on Friday saw eminent leaders from various sectors deliberated on the convergence of AI and data, setting the stage for a new era of intelligent and secure digital transformation. With a focus on power of technological advancements, spotlighting the transformative impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and data strategies, the conclave aimed at the fusion of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and data strategies as the ultimate growth engine for industries to thrive in the next era.

Ranjot Singh, Chairman, CII Jharkhand State Council & Managing Director, Emdet Jamshedpur Private Limited inaugurated the session with his welcome address. He quoted “being digital is what we do more than anything else and it is an immense transformation in the last two decades.”

He emphasised on Make in India – making India digitally developed country very soon. Today we are a part of economy of 5.5 billion in terms of digital revenues and the economy is aimed to reach 55.37 billion by 2032. To get India completely developed, there are going to be ample opportunities and those opportunities alongside challenges.

Sarajit Jha, Convenor – ICTE, Startup & Innovation Panel & Chief – Business Transformation Services & Digital, Tata Steel Ltd said, “We are in an era of data driven decision making and data centres are the temple.” He emphasised India’s data centres as fastest growing assets across the world. With a population of 1.45 billion, India is rich in data and leads in per capita data consumption. Remarkably, 40% of all digital transactions globally occur in India, which ranks fifth in GDP. He urged Indian SMEs to leverage digital infrastructure to capitalize on these opportunities.

Tapas Sahu, Past Chairman, CII Jharkhand State Council & Managing Director & CEO, Highco Engineers Pvt Ltd said we must accept digitization as a culture, understand it, visualize it, adopt it and that is the way forward. Mr Sahu illustrated this paradigm shift with a compelling case study: seven top lawyers in the U.S. were compared with an AI to see who could make a legal decision faster. The lawyers took six days to reach the correct decision, while the AI did it in just four hours. This shows how AI can speed up tasks and improve efficiency. He urged everyone to acknowledge data and new technologies for growth and to accept challenges and to explore new possibilities.

Ujjal Chakraborti, Immediate Past Chairman, CII Jharkhand State Council & EIC, Tata Steel Ltd, Tinplate Division encouraged industries to navigate the digital transformation as technology holds immense potential to drive more informed decision-making, improve operational efficiencies, and unlock new revenue streams for companies. Additionally, he deliberated in this new era collaboration between AI and data strategies and how they will be pivotal in reshaping industries, fostering innovation and in helping organizations stay competitive in an increasingly complex global market. He quoted, “Data is the new oil, and AI is the engine that refines it to fuel tomorrow’s innovations.”

Shivam Kamani, Co-Convenor, CII ICTE, Startup & Innovation Panel & Associate President, Sparx Technologies Pvt Ltd lauded the efforts of CII to organize the sessions that are timely, relevant and promote technology growth and digital development across different industries. India is becoming a digitally empowered society because of the acceleration of economic reforms, increased use of digital technologies, and numerous Digital India initiatives. Industries are progressively adopting and investing in new technologies. The Digital India Mission and related initiatives have created an enabling environment for technology adoption and thus he encouraged the MSMEs of Jharkhand to adapt technology to accelerate growth.

Eminent Speakers who shared their views during the session included Manojit Sengupta, Delivery Centre Head – Eastern Region, Tata Consultancy Services; Chinmay D.Gavankar, Director – Specialist Management – Microsoft Azure Data & AI – BFSI + MFG & Conglomerates Business – India & South Asia, Microsoft ; Soumitra Dhankar, Solution Consulting Manager, Adobe; Mr Dinesh Kumar, Head Data Governance, Data Office, Tata Steel Ltd; Mr Partha Kanjilal, Master Principle Cloud Architecture, Oracle; Mr Ramesh Kumar Singh, Vice President – Sales, Sigma ESolution Pvt. Ltd; Mr Rayan Saldanha, Head of SAP Solution Advisory Business Technology Platform, SAP India & Subcontinent; Soumya Kanti Hansa, Executive Director, AI & Data, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India LLP; Mr Ajay Kumar Jayprakash Singh, Solutions Consultant, Palo Alto Networks; Mr Debasish Addy, Founder , Addy Digital Analytics Private Limited; Amitava Nag, Senior Enterprise Account Manager, Amazon Web Services and Binu Aiyappan, Senior Solutions Architect, AWS India Pvt. Ltd.

The 5th Edition of the ICT Conclave discussed how AI and data can drive digital change. The sessions highlighted the need for accurate data to support India’s growing digital economy, which is expected to see significant growth by 2032. The conclave emphasized the shift towards data-driven decision-making and the rapid growth of data centres in India. Overall, the conclave highlighted the importance of using technology and working together to create a digitally empowered economy. The ICT Conclave witnessed 204 participants from more than 102 companies.