KshITij - IT Conclave 2007

Information Technology Vision: 2015

Kshitij, IT Conclave 2007, at Faculty of Management Studies (Delhi), was launched with the underlying theme of “Developing India’s Information Technology Innovation Ecosystem”.  The sessions boasted of 2 panel discussions with one panel headed by intelligentsia from the government and educational sector, while leading innovation in services in the second panel were industry stalwarts from the IT consulting domain. The aim was to have speakers canopying a wide array of IT stalwarts in order to encourage students keenly interested in pursuing IT as a long term career option.

The first session, “Developing India’s Innovation Ecosystem”, began with a key note address by Mr. Sharad Sharma who is the CEO of Yahoo India R&D.

 Since, many Indian IT companies are now foraying into Outsourced product development (OPD), he also covered the subtle nuances of this relatively unexplored domain.

Mr. Mohd. Salman, VP (life sciences and health care), HCL Technologies, carried the session forward by an intellectually stimulating lecture backed by his rich experience in the IT industry. Being an Alumni of FMS, he began the session in reminiscence. He indulged the audience into a very interactive session which helped the future managers to get an insight into the real IT corporate world.

This was followed by a talk by Mr. Subranshu Rout, Head of Consumer Insights (Motorola), who talked about the consumer perspectives in the IT domain. With valuable inputs from his experience at Motorola, he elaborated into “Consumer Insights”. Beginning his vivacious presentation by defining the “art of innovation”, he went on to describe how the industry has shifted the focus from mere development of products to consumer needs led designing of products. He addressed the entrepreneurial spirits in the students by describing the classical innovation funnel with various illustrative examples.

To add on to the intellectually rich environment, our esteemed alum, Mr. Rajdeep Sahrawat, VP NASSCOM, discussed the topic extensively and added a new dimension thereby, presenting a holistic perspective to the concept of in house incubation of IT products.

The session ended with a panel discussion moderated by Dr. M.L. Singla, faculty member at Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi for Information Technology. Various key issues were raised and the speakers gave valuable insights in to each which helped the students to gauge the opportunities from all possible angles. Not only the Indian market perspective but the global competition was covered which gave students valuable insights on the real entrepreneurial opportunities in this domain.

Session two “IT Consulting – On a High Road” began with an elaborate address by Mr. Ajay Davessar, Head corporate communications (Capegimini). He gave valuable insights into the IT consulting world and discussed the various aspects of the same including the structure of business applications, importance of standardization in IT as well as the competitive requirements in the increasing cost pressure environment.

This was followed by an extensive talk by Mr Jagan Lalan, Head, Medical Devices, HCL Technologies, on the current trends in the IT consulting domain. Apart from discussing how the sector is progressing he also gave student a perspective as to what are the opportunities for them in this domain.

Director e-governance, S. Abbassi, talked about the opportunities and challenges in e-governance in India. He elaborated on what are the pitfalls and how they can be overcome in this domain.

Last but not the least, Mr. Pankaj Mohindroo, National President, Indian Cellular Association presented the ICA’s vision for the country by 2025. He discussed the applications and increasing relevance of the mobile value added services in the present competitive scenario. He also touched upon the potential of the VAS market as well as the challenges to the growth of VAS in India.

Thus, the intellectually stimulating conclave came to a close. The sessions proved to be comprehensive and highly useful for the students who gained valuable insights into the complex domain of IT innovation as well as IT consulting.