CII Delhi Annual Session and Business Conference: Industry experts say that the world needs innovative solutions

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday – February 28, 2023 – said that technology will help India achieve the target of becoming a developed nation by 2047. According to the news reports, the PM outlined the massive and modern digital infrastructure being created to ensure that benefits of digital revolution reach all citizens.

The Prime Minister was addressing a post-Budget webinar on Unleashing the Potential: Ease of Living Using Technology, and added that the Government wants to reduce the cost of compliance of small businesses, and asked the industry to formulate a list of unnecessary compliances that can be pruned.

On the same day the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), held its annual session and business conference: Leveraging Technology Towards Realizing Vision 2047–Sustainability, Competitiveness, Growth, and Inclusiveness in the Capital. The event’s co-associate sponsor was Apeejay Stya Svran Group.

Speaking at the at the inaugural session of CII Delhi Annual Business Conference 2022-23 H.E Shri Vinai Kumar Saxena, Lt Governor of Delhi said that he has been seeking to foster participatory role for every segment of society on the path to change the face of Delhi and the industry (CII) has had a big role to play.

“I have been told that this is the biggest annual conference that solely focuses on Delhi. Therefore, to my mind, this should be the ideal forum for a dialogue that involves collective participation of the industry in partnering with the government. It is good to see that the theme of CII Delhi is Leveraging Technology Towards Realizing Vision 2047-Sustainability, Competitiveness, Growth, and Inclusiveness. This theme is apt keeping in mind the challenges as well as opportunities of Delhi. I would like to underline the challenges that the Delhi-NCR faces and request all of you (CII) to harness and embrace technology to address these,” Saxena said.

He also said that sustainable management and disposal of municipal solid waste, cleaning of the Yamuna, availability of water, and tackling pollution in Delhi are primary areas of concern. “These are areas where technology needs to be used. These are also areas where industries can be willing partners by way of enterprise and Corporate Social Responsibility. Post-pandemic bridging the global digital divide has become increasingly important since aspects like education, healthcare, and banking have seen an increased dependency on digital use. Enhancing digital literacy is the key to narrowing this divide,” Saxena said.

He added that the good work only gets better with every passing year. “It is important for policy-makers like ourselves to be in regular touch with industry leaders to draw a balanced and robust eco-system,” Saxena said.

The session one for the day was: Making Delhi InnoTech Capital-Hub of Innovation, Research and Technology. The session was chaired by Vijay Rai, Chairman Panel of on Technology, Chief Growth Officer-Asia Pacific & Executive, Board Member DayOne Technologies. The key panelists included: Mr Vinod Bhat, Chief Information Officer, Air Vistara; Mr Arun Karna, MD & CEO, AT&T; Mr Jagdish Mitra, Strategy & Growth, Tech Mahindra; Mr Sunando Bhattacharya, CEO Apiculus, and Mr Rohan Verma, Vice-Chairman, CII Delhi and Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director Mappls MapmyIndia (CE Info Systems Limited).

Rai welcoming the panelists said making Delhi innovation technology capital hub for innovation, research and technology is a very powerful theme that the world is talking about. “Technology is a great leveler and force multiplier. At the centre of technology is the human being and the technology that we developing for the future – Delhi of tomorrow and future of India – running up to 2047, we must do rapid advancement in innovation, research and technology and co-creation and co-development with the state government and different stakeholders so that we can come up with innovations that the world needs,” Rai said.

He said that Delhi has the opportunity to become a technology innovation hub. “With this thrust, the focus of this session should be on how we can leverage Delhi’s strengths and characteristics to position itself as the leading state for technology and what would be needed to attract talent, frontier technology, industry investment, innovation and entrepreneurship,” Rai said and asked for ideas and broader perspective from the panelists on the theme.

 Karna said that for Delhi to become an innovation hub the various participants and stakeholders of the ecosystem need to come together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. “These pieces are many and varied – research institutes, incubators, accelerators, start-ups, investors, local administration, government agencies, talent pool and NGOs. These must come together perfectly. The good news that all these pieces are present in abundance in Delhi. We also have the benefit to draw from the larger NCR. But if the city has to become an innovation hub by focusing on just technological innovation would not be enough. This is because the creative process of innovation has to be married to cultural innovations, to societal needs and themes. The innovations need to speak to the people, the processes and products. Therefore, other than technological innovations, there are four other key aspects that are needed to supplement this,” Karna said.

First, entrepreneurial innovation to focus on MSMEs and unleash their potential and create more jobs. Second, societal innovations where we look at how to improve social interchange where we use ideas and initiatives of the civil society and meld it to the whole in the innovation process of urban development. Third, improvement and innovation in the working system. Last is cultural innovation where we draw from our arts and cultural heritage and convert that into city-specific related themes.

“The good thing is that different stakeholders – governments, educational institutes and industries – are becoming platforms for start-ups; be it in the form of mentoring them, investing in them or giving them a chance to roll out their product. This will bring about innovation”

–Mr Rohan Verma, Vice-Chairman, CII Delhi and Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director Mappls MapmyIndia ( CE Info Systems Limited)

Taking a cue from what Karna said, Bhat added that in order to make Delhi a tech-hub, a bit more technology flavour needs to be put in place. “The good news is that a lot of technology disruption has taken place in the last couple of years – a lot of offline services have gone online. We have gone from digitisation to digitalisation and this is something that is not going to stop. But there are several dots that we need to connect to create a digital ecosystem. Delhi has a unique advancement; it has a huge workforce. The city has great educational institutes and the talent needs to be trained for a purpose that is technology driven and creates opportunities in Delhi itself. If we can make Delhi a knowledge hub, it will be a game-changer,” Bhat said.

Mitra, whose organisation has been using a lot of block chain and other future technology, said that the most important thing to understand first is what the vision is for 2047. “I am frankly not aware of what the vision is. Why do people always talk about innovation and technology but never understand? The answer lies in the fact that the company needs to grow in the future. If growth is the only reason why we survive, then innovation is the only mantra. The next question that comes is what needs to be done to drive innovation? There are a few things – talent, environment, and an eco-system that enables this talent and environment like education, skills and capabilities which we have in abundance – an amazing mix of arts, science and culture. Innovation doesn’t happen from students graduating from big education institutes – we have Lady Sriram College, and IIT-Delhi, Hindu College; there is amazing talent,” Mitra said.

But he also said that what is missing is the need to make Delhi a place where we want to live. “This is the first thing to solve. While manufacturing is not a possibility in the old sense, why not make the city a hub of creation. “The questions that need to be addressed: The vision for 2047; a roadmap that will drive people to come to Delhi to live – first Indians and then international people. The more international people come to Delhi, more will be the chances of diverse thinking which is the core of innovation. If we can drive these agendas, we have a great opportunity to make Delhi a role model. We need to turn challenges into opportunities,” Mitra said.

Bhattacharya, who has the experience of working in start-up and cloud space, said that the key challenge is to get people to come and live in Delhi. “This needs to be addressed. Another challenge is all the talent that exists, each one is working in their silos – there is very little cooperation happening across different fields of innovations. What is happening in IITs remains there; what is happening in other colleges remains there. While research and development happens in limited scope, what is needed is a bridge across the eco-system and this is when the true innovation will happen and take it to a new level,” Bhattacharya opined.

Verma addressing the challenge of what the problems are and why can’t we find solutions at the space and scale that is needed, said that the issues may arise due to the mindset that exists. “Are you a problem-oriented or solution-oriented person? It has been my experience that it has been relatively easy to not just identify the problem but to envision what kind of future we want and can build for our city, and country. There is a need to build products and platforms to address the needs of the world that we want to create. Delhi, being the capital, it is easy to align this with where the country is going. With as many potential problems there are just as many solutions,” Verma said.

The good thing is that different stakeholders – governments, educational institutes and industries – are becoming platforms for start-ups; be it in the form of mentoring them, investing in them or giving them a chance to roll out their product. This will bring about innovation and finally create a mindset that if are willing to adopt local products and platforms we will attract industries and entrepreneurs to build products that will solve local problems and give them the ability to scale outside India. “And this is the cycle that we need to create to not just create a better Delhi but to also build stronger competitive industry in the city which can then take on larger challenges,” Verma said.