26th of July may have been just another day for many, but for the winners of Gems of Digital India 2024 Awards, it was a special one. In a glittering ceremony they were felicitated for their path breaking projects that contribute immensely to the Digital India dream.
But felicitation and celebrations were just one part of the 5th Gems of Digital India Knowledge and Awards Event 2024 at The Claridges Hotel, New Delhi. There were also rich knowledge sessions and conversations that in more than one way illuminated the theme of “Digital India- The Road Ahead in the Age of AI.”
The event started with lamp lighting and with Ganesh Shloka resonating in the air for an auspicious beginning. Key guests participated in the lamp lighting ceremony.
It was followed by the inaugural keynote by the Guest of Honor Shri Golok Kumar Simli, Principal Advisor and CTO, Passport Seva Program, Ministry of External Affairs.
Shri Simli made some very pertinent observations on ‘Digital for the Larger Public Good’. He asserted that citizens have evolved now and are demanding better services from the Government, hence flawless interaction and continuous availability is required. He talked of 4 S that shall enable this – Scale, Speed, Security, and Sustainability. He stressed upon the use of AI for building predictability and becoming proactive.
His mantra for success of Passport Seva or any other project is inclusion of every citizen and not differentiating between regions, classes or strata. He also stressed upon the need for collaboration between Government and other entities for success.
“Government alone cannot achieve the Digital India dream. It has been and will be built in collaboration with the industry, academia, and research institutes.”
Shri Golok Kumar Simli, Principal Advisor and CTO, Passport Seva Program, Ministry of External Affairs.
Shri Shimli’s keynote was followed by Research Keynote by Dr Kapil Dev Singh, CEO, Coeus Age. He presented 10 tech trends for 2024-25 in the government, PSU, and cooperative sectors.
These tech trends covered aspects such as evolution of platforms to become more efficient and smarter, relevance of AI to move beyond point applications to broad based use cases across the value chain, emergence of data driven governance models, focus on digital supply chains and digital factory, generation of employment that requires newer skills, shift from reactive to proactive security, and higher-level imperatives driving digital.
Dr Singh also launched the research report on this occasion that covered the 10 tech trends.
“Platforms have become de-facto governments for the citizens and with the use of AI and related technologies, they are becoming more efficient and smarter. Modern platforms can handle a much complex logic at the top with the help of an agile, scalable, cloud native, and secured IT infrastructure underneath.”
Dr Kapil Dev Singh, CEO, Coeus Age
The research keynote was followed by the Presenting Partner keynote by Shri Saurabh Saxena, Regional Vice President, Open Text India.
He argued that the world is changing fast with the emergence of AI and at the core of AI is data or information. He presented how Open Text is helping businesses reimagine information in the new age and enabling businesses and governments provide next gen quality and consistent services to the customers with the best possible experience. According to Shri Saxena, the future of the business will be driven by four key pillars – total enterprise reinvention driven by automation and AI; convergence of cloud, security, and AI; elevation of human potential; and putting trust at the centre.
“To be competitive, we encourage everyone to have an AI-first mindset. In the world of AI-First, we need to automate information management, prompt the right questions, never waste anything, learn for autonomic decisions, and reimagine business.”
Shri Saurabh Saxena, Regional Vice President, Open Text India.
The Gold Partner Keynote was delivered by Shri Sarabjit Singh, Principal Specialist Solution Architect, Red Hat APAC.
His presentation ‘Fast Tracking AI with Red Hat’ covered the evolution of the field of AI/ ML over the years, the distinction between traditional and generative AI, and the multiple use cases around them. He recommended a five steps process to fast-track AI – three steps related to AI infrastructure and two steps with the operational model. Unifying AI and app development is a very important element of this fast tracking. He also presented Red Hat’s flagship product, OpenShift AI. It is built on top of open shift platform, designed for both generative and predictive AI, promotes extensive collaboration and embraces DevOps paradigm. It develops, trains, serves, monitor and manage the life cycle of AI/ ML models and applications, from experiments to production.
“Red Hat’s AI portfolio offerings are built around three fundamentals – Trust, Choice, and Consistency. It brings with it the flexibility of a hybrid cloud.”
Shri Sarabjit Singh, Principal Specialist Solution Architect, Red Hat APAC.
An interesting panel discussion was also organized that discussed the topic ‘Digital India – Road Ahead in the Age of AI’ threadbare. The participants were very senior IT leaders with decades of leading successful digital transformation – Shri Manish Grover (ED – Strategic IS, Indian Oil Corporation Limited), Shri Sharat Sahai Mathur (Former Group General Manager, Centre for Railways Information System), and Shri Amit Naithani (Director Sales, Open Text).
Mr Manish Grover shared a six points agenda for AI initiatives. it includes envisioning an inclusive growth – an apt example of that being the Ujjwala Scheme for supply of LPG, creating the ecosystem of startups and academia, creating the data infrastructure to support AI, visualizing and telling the story around data, educating the employees and involving them, securing the data, and ensuring the ethics around use of AI.
“The initial use of AI is for enhancing the process efficiency and operational excellence. Then evolves the transformational journey which demands change management at the employees and organizational levels”.
Shri Manish Grover, ED – Strategic IS, Indian Oil Corporation Limited
Mr Sharat Sahai Mathur narrated the history of IT in the Railways and highlighted the fact that a lot of data was available a decade ago but the technology to process that data was not up to the mark. Over the past decade, a lot of work has been done by putting data to various use cases to solve problems around efficiency, operational excellence, and decision making. Now we have much better tools available and for analytics and AI/ ML.
“Today, a lot of streaming data is available, not just in your domain but from other domains too. The analytics and AI/ ML technologies have also matured. The need is to collectively think of use cases around solving business and operational problems and put the data to good use.”
Shri Sharat Sahai Mathur, Former Group General Manager, Centre for Railways Information System
Shri Amit Naithani talked about how digital is helping government to provide better services to the citizens. He cited the examples of initiatives such as income tax, GSTN, passport seva etc. Stressing upon citizen experience, he cited the examples of how technology has helped income tax and GSTN platforms to cope with the peak loads and enhance the experience for the taxpayers.
“Open Text’s software is powering large number of Digital India initiatives including many notable government projects, PSU IT platforms, multiple smart cities, and multiple security operations centers, SWANs, and SDCs. Open Text’s software is providing critical support towards ensuring better service experience to the end users and the citizens.”
Shri Amit Naithani, Director Sales, Open Text.
The program concluded with 32 Gems of Digital India being felicitated for their contribution to the Digital India dream.
