Profound discussions enabled knowledge sharing on harnessing advanced technologies and making India a digitally empowered nation
Spearheading deliberations on topics related to the application of emerging technologies, NIC hosted its first ever Technology Conclave at Pravasi Bhartiya Kendra, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi from 22nd to 23rd January 2019. Themed as “Technologies for NextGen Governance”, the two-day event was organised by the Technical Advisory Group (TAG), constituted by NIC, to help project teams in the development of strategic solutions. Shri Ajay Sawhney, IAS, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, inaugurated the Conclave by lighting ceremonial lamp, along with Dr. Neeta Verma, Director General, NIC, Dr. Savita Dawar, DDG & Chair, TAG, NIC, and Dr. Anand Deshpande, Founder, Chairman and Managing Director, Persistent Systems.
The event witnessed an enthusiastic participation of NIC officers from all over the country and erudite speakers, the technology experts from the IT industry, who deliberated on various topics related to the application of emerging technologies.
Extending welcome to the dignitaries and participants, Dr. Neeta Verma, in her address, highlighted the role of NIC in driving the use of ICT. She said, “NIC has been instrumental in steering the application of ICT at various levels in the government. This leverages Digital India, a flagship programme of the government to transform India into a digital nation.”
The speech was followed by a keynote address by Dr. Anand Deshpande who emphasised on the importance of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in building a software-driven government for effective governance.
Shri Ajay Sawhney also addressed the gathering and appreciated the technical support provided by NIC to the Centre, States and Districts. He said, “With national e-Governance plans, NIC has developed nation-wide projects such as e-Hospital, e-Courts, National Knowledge Network, National Data Centre etc.”
The next session on the Conclave’s theme taken by Shri D.C. Misra, DDG, NIC, and Shri Ganesh Ramamurthy, Managing VP, Gartner, deliberated on “Transitioning to the Digital Future: What Government Must Do Now?” He suggested government organisations to take full advantage of digital data to optimise, transform and create entirely new services while renovating backend systems.
“Big Data and Advanced Analytics” was the theme of the following session, which was taken by Shri Lenin P, DDG, NIC, and witnessed deliberations from Shri Aniruddha Deswandikar, Director, Data & AI, Microsoft on “Transform your Data Estate using Big Data & Analytics” and Mr. Salmon Sim, Regional VP, APAC - Hitachi Vantara, on “Smart Cities: The nexus of citizens, government, data and technology”.
Underscoring potential avenues to tap “Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning”, the next session was taken by Shri G K Gaur, DDG, NIC. Shri Manav Sehgal, Head (Solution Architecture), Amazon Internet Services, spoke about “AI & ML on the Cloud”, while Shri Vishal Dhupar, MD, Asia South, NVIDIA, put forth insights on “Is India Ready for AI Disruption?”
The second day of the Conclave began with a keynote address session taken by Shri Nagesh Shastri, DDG, NIC. The keynote address was delivered by Shri Lalitesh Katragadda, Founder, Indihood, who shared views on “Transforming India with Technology and Policy”.
Shri Vishnu Chandra, DDG, NIC, took the next session on “DevOps/ Agile” during which, Shri Vinod Shankar Narayanan, ThoughtWorks Technologies, deliberated on “Government Going Agile”, while Shri Manjunath Bhat, Senior Director Analyst for DevOps, Gartner, spoke about “From Fragile to Agile: Leading Cultural and Technology Change for DevOps”.
Cloud technology was also among the prime areas of focus during the Technology Conclave. Underscoring the same, a session on “Cloud Native Scalable Applications and Microservices” was taken by Smt. Shalini Mathrani, DDG, NIC. Mr. Benjamin Henshall, Country Manager, Red Hat India & South Asia, deliberated on “Cloud Native Applications and Microservices and its Relevance for Government Sector”, while Shri Santanu Roy Chowdhury, Technical Specialist Lead, Intel, talked about “Software Defined Agile Infrastructure for Cloud Native Application”.
Dwelling on the protection of network systems against any kind of threat or misuse, the next session, taken by Shri R. S. Mani, DDG, NIC, was based on “Software-Defined Infrastructure/ Network Security”. The topic “Software-defined Infrastructure - The new reality of Business Transformation” was elaborated by Shri B S Nagarajan, Senior Director & Chief Technologist, VMWARE India, while Shri KPM Das, Cyber Security and Trust officer, Cisco Systems, spoke at length about “Securing the Public Sector: A DIGITAL INDIA Imperative”.
Since online systems are extremely prone to cyber attacks, there is a need to implement cyber security controls. Contemplating the same, the next session was taken by Smt. Ratnaboli Ghorai Dinda, DDG, NIC. Speaking on “Culture & Technology: Why the modern threat landscape demands both?”, Mr. Nick Savvides, Chief Technology Officer, Symantec, Asia-Pacific, focussed on Pervasive Security Culture and other potential aspects. Shri Balasubramanya Ramananda, Architect, McAfee, also delivered a speech on “Trend and Predictions on Cyber Security”.
Such pragmatic discussions paved the way towards tapping the latest of technologies and operating the government processes more efficiently. The Technology Conclave concluded on a successful note, with the event highlights and closing remarks shared by Dr. Savita Dawar, DDG & Chair, TAG, NIC and Shri S B Singh, DDG, NIC, respectively. Dr. Neeta Verma, DG, NIC, also shared her feedback about the event and appreciated all the speakers for sharing invaluable insights. Dr. R K Mishra, Senior Technical Director, NIC, delivered the Vote of Thanks.
The webcast video covering the entire event is available at http://webcast.gov- .in/techconclave-2019/.