XLRI’s Conclave Committee hosted its Digital Transformation Conclave – ReEnvision based on the theme The Digital First Mindset. The event was inaugurated by the guest of honour, Sam Pitroda, chairman, The Pitroda Group LLC. Member of the conclave committee Sanjana Varshney was the host and Sohrab Faraz and Vijayankesh Barier were co-host for the event.
Pitroda highlighted the importance of digital transformation in redesigning the world. He talked about the concept of Hyper-connectivity, wherein people across the globe are connected with each other. He also discussed the concept of cloud computing, cyber security and big data. He also talked about his efforts in redesigning hyper-connectivity which includes redesigning an optimum world including institutions, healthcare and education system, to improve productivity and bring a change into a hyper-connected world.
It was followed by the chief guest address Sindhu Gangadharan, MD, SAP Labs India. The speaker mentioned the impact of technology on the human world and how the transformation brought by technology has been a motivation and inspiration for her. She also requested people collectively to come together and use technology for the betterment of humanity and highlighted that society will overall become the best version of itself. She also emphasized on the inclusivity aspect while riding on the wave of digital transformation. The Chief Guest's address was followed by a Fire-side chat session wherein Sindhu had an interactive session with the audience.
It was followed by the keynote address from Monesh Dange (Partner & Consulting Markets Leader, EY). He informed that the technology has changed rapidly over the years but innovation in technology has allowed new entrants to thrive in the market. He also stressed that consumers must be treated as king and this has been made possible only by the advent of technology.
The first Panel Discussion on the topic “How Fintech is disrupting the BFSI Industry and the Digital World“. The panel comprised of Varun Sridhar, CEO, Paytm Money, Arundhoti Banerjee, COO, Zaggle, Sridhar Iyer, Head, Mashreq Neo- Mashreq Bank, UAE and Prashanth Narayan, CTO, Zype and was moderated by Prof. Kushal Saha, Faculty, Information Systems Area at XLRI Jamshedpur.
Varun Sridhar stressed that investment should be made in both humans and technology. He has also devised a new concept of a Failure budget, which covers high-risk projects in his company. The financial loss created by these high-risk projects was included in that budget. He was astonished when he found out that more successful projects originated from the Failure budget projects.
Arundhoti Banerjee initially touched upon SAAS where she believed that the entire SAAS market is expected to grow 6x times from 4.8 billions in 2018. She believed that three important focus areas of SAAS are the student segment, the use of software without licensing requirements and scalability. She also stressed that the Fintech Industry will undergo a massive transformation only through innovation and proper regulation by the government. The introduction of AI and account aggregators as regulators by RBI will be game changing examples.
