National Technology Day: Industry experts on the role of Technology in their respective sectors

Here we share the thoughts from the industry experts about the role of technology in their respective sectors.

Kunal Purohit, Chief Digital Services Officer, Tech Mahindra

"Today, technology has become all pervasive and helps create needlemoving outcomes across all industries and governments as well. The developmentand adoption of solutions through advanced technologies, including intelligentautomation, artificial intelligence, Metaverse, Blockchain, 5G, and QuantumComputing can impact one or more of the following: a) significant reduction inthe cost of doing business b) increase in revenues through increaseddifferentiation and c) higher customer delight. At Tech Mahindra, we arefocused on leveraging next-generation technologies to enable end-to-end digitaltransformation for global customers and solve complex businesschallenges. Some relevant recent examples are:

· We have launched TechMVerse, our Metaverse practice to deliverinteractive and immersive experiences in the Metaverse for our customers. Welaunched 'Meta Village' to gamify learning. A part of TechMVerse, Meta Villagewill gamify the learning process for children in rural India thereby providingthem with an opportunity to develop the crucial technical skills needed tobecome tomorrow's disruptors. Today Pargaon is India's first Meta village createdby Tech Mahindra

· We have launched amplifAI 0->∞ to democratize AI (artificialintelligence) for enterprises globally.

Sachin Alug, CEO, NLB Services

"Navigating the post-covid world requires a certain level ofdigital literacy both in and outside of work. Speaking of work, remote andhybrid models have compelled employees to have at least an intermediateunderstanding of tech for their daily tasks. From tracking attendance tomanaging projects and frequent coordination with fellow teammates, a 2022 employeeneeds digital skills to get by on a daily basis.

At NLB Services, we are a team of 8000+ members across theglobe. The onset of the pandemic scattered us even farther from each other butwe've overcome geographical limitations through tech. We've held regular ITworkshops and training sessions to ease our employees into remote working.Online team building activities and leadership interactions have also beenconducted. Additionally, virtual fitness and entertainment sessions have alsohelped us to bring the team together from time to time".

Anku Jain, MD, at MediaTek

"Post pandemic, technology has become a mainstay for everysector and company. With deep tech innovations such as AI, IoT, ML and cloudcomputing becoming the norm, and technology being leveraged for even the mostbasic requirements, people lacking digital literacy will find it difficult toprosper in the new normal. Organisations need to focus on imbibing digitalliteracy and upskilling employees to participate in the tremendous growth opportunitiesavailable across sectors. At MediaTek, which is a global fabless semiconductorcompany, our employees are already well-versed in digital initiatives but weoffer our associates the opportunity to further upskill themselves throughdedicated technical training sessions and tech talks aimed at optimising theirinherent potential."

Rushi Bhatt, Sr. Director and Head of AI at Compass IDC

"India is a hotbed of technology and as Compass' overseasdevelopment centres in Hyderabad and Bengaluru, we are leveraging the top techtalent available here to make cutting-edge solutions across Data, AI, and ML.India's top tech talent combined with the power of innovation andentrepreneurial thinking has played a leading role in transforming everyindustry globally. The engineering talent across Compass IDC is engaged inadvancing the company's technology stack as well as working on mobile, cloudand data solutions for our growing client base. We believe that India has thetechnological expertise and potential required to propel innovation on a globalscale and we look forward to being a part of this revolutionary journey in theyears ahead".

Gaurav Vasu, CEO, UnearthInsight

"India employs over 1.8 million womenin Tech sector largely IT services, GCCs, Software Products and Tech Start-upsbut gender diversity for senior roles in core product or tech services remainslow both globally and in India largely due to various factors. India has seensignificant improvement of Women participation in STEM across Tech Start-upsalong with middle management roles in Tech services and Software product in thelast 2 to 3 years due to Hybrid working models, Satellite office models, Remoteroles however senior roles/CXO lacks gender diversity at less than 3-5%.

Industry players can definitelyshowcase women leaders as role models and also create defined career paths forwomen from coding to quality to managerial to service line head roles as thatwould encourage more women in STEM to aspire to grow to leadership roles.Marketing and HR function has done well and has over 5000+ women leaders butTech Services, GCC and Tech Start-ups have a lot of work to improve this."

Raghu Ravinutala, CEO and Co-founder, Yellow.ai

RBI recently stated that India will take until 2035 to overcome the losses suffered because of the pandemic. The outline of reforms proposed by RBI focuses on seven wheels of economic progress including technological progression. With technologies like AI, IOT, NLP, 5G and RPA enabling the economy, the need is to encourage more usage and adoption across industries.

Conversational AI has been a great demand driver in India, if leveraged well, Conversational AI-led innovation can enable enterprises across industries to grow exponentially. At Yellow.ai, we are continuing to invest and innovate heavily on our Total Experience (TX) solutions, powered by AI. Along with private enterprises, we are also observing the government sector leveraging our Conversational AI solutions across functions. Over the past two years, we have helped various government agencies bring out relevant and credible information to the masses and digitally deliver government services. In the near future, we expect an increased adoption of Conversational AI by government agencies in order to make services more accessible across the country.

Furthermore, as tech innovators, we advocate the democratization of artificial intelligence, by improving access, upskilling the workforce and encouraging adoption. The real impact will only be visible when we put these capabilities in the hands of every individual who aspires to become a part of India's digital transformation story.