SAMACHAR- FEBRUARY, 2024  
 
 
18th India Digital Summit Held in Mumbai
Shri Rajesh Kumar Singh, Secretary, DPIIT, addressing IDS 2024 Shri S Krishnan, Secretary, MeitY, addressing IDS 2024 virtually Shri Sanjay Jaju, Secretary, MIB, addressing IDS 2024

The 18th edition of the India Digital Summit (IDS) was held on February 27-28, 2024, in Mumbai, bringing together on one platform some of the best minds related to India's digital ecosystem. IDS 2024 was organised by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) in partnership with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB), the Ministry of Tourism, UIDAI, Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C), Government eMarketplace, In-Space and Skill India Digital. The Summit was Co-Powered by Peak XV and WhistleFEED, and Brough to You by META.

The theme of IDS 2024 was Digitise | Monetise | Democratise. This year the conference upscaled manifold from its previous editions to comprise seven parallel sectoral conferences, covering the digital landscape 360 degrees.

Among the key speakers who addressed the Summit were, Shri Rajesh Kumar Singh, Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India; Shri S Krishnan, Secretary, MeitY; Shri Sanjay Jaju, Secretary, MIB; Shri Brijesh Singh, Principal Secretary to Honourable Chief Minister, Government of Maharashtra; Harsh Jain, Chairman, IAMAI and CEO & Co-Founder, Dream Sports; Rajesh Magow, Vice-chairman, IAMAI, and Co-Founder and Group Chief Executive Officer, MakeMyTrip; Aloke Singh, Managing Director, Air India Express; Anil Kapoor, Actor & Producer; Anupam Mittal, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Shaadi.com; Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari, Director, Producer, Writer, Earthsky Pictures LLP; Avnish Bajaj, Founder & Managing Director, Matrix Partners India; Dr. Bijna Kotak Dasani, MBE, FRSA, Managing Director, ArthAum Group; Bharat Gupta, Chief Executive Officer, Jagran New Media; Dinesh Agarwal, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, IndiaMART; Goldie Behl, Director, Rose Audio Visuals; Hitesh Oberoi, Co-Promoter, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, Naukri; Murugavel Janakiraman, Chief Executive Officer, BharatMatrimony; Prateek Maheshwari, Co-Founder, Physics Wallah; Rajan Anandan, Managing Director, Peak XV and Surge, and Rohit Jain President, Lionsgate Play Asia.

A number of insightful reports and a whitepaper was launched at the Summit. These include: A) The 'Internet in India' report based on the ICUBE 2023 study, covering over 90,000 households across all states and Union Territories of India (barring Lakshadweep). This annual report is the most comprehensive survey of internet usage in the country. The report is jointly prepared by IAMAI and KANTAR, B) 'Travel Tech 2.0: The Next Phase of Digitally Empowering the Indian Traveler' produced by Grant Thorton Bharat, and C) 'How Indian Consumers Choose between Horizontal, Vertical and D2C Commerce', produced by Interactive Avenues. A whitepaper, 'Leveraging Location-based Services for a Sustainable EV Ecosystem in India' prepared by the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, in partnership with HERE India, will also be unveiled at the Summit.

Instituted under IDS are two prestigious digital awards: the India Digital Awards and the Digital Responsibility Awards. These awards honour outstanding achievements in the digital world across various categories, recognizing the best and brightest in the industry. Winners of both were announced at the Summit.

The 14th edition of the India Digital Awards ceremony was held on February 28, 2028. The awards were given away in 10 broad categories, with 58 categories, recognizing the brightest and the best, individuals as well as enterprises, in India's digital ecosystem. The jury of the India Digital Awards (IDA) adjudicated Sameer Nigam, CEO, PhonePe to be the Digital Person of the Year.  The Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) was awarded for being the Digital Start-up of the Year.

From this year IAMAI also introduced a major bouquet of awards, the Digital Responsibility Awards (DRA), which primarily aims to address the issue of digital divide prevalent in India in various forms by encouraging digital enterprises and entrepreneurs to walk the extra mile in this regard. DRA recognised and celebrated companies who have displayed exceptional initiatives to bridge the digital disparities through various activities. The DRA has nine categories.

A national-level innovation challenge, Make-a-Thon, designed to unleash the potential of creativity, innovation, and problem-solving skills among students, was also organised as part of the IDS 2024. Eighty-two teams participated in the competition, with six making it to the finals and three securing top honours.
 
 
IAMAI Requests Karnataka Govt. Not to Introduce Flat Fares for Taxis
IAMAI wrote to Shri Ramalinga Reddy, Minister of Transport, Government of Karnataka in response to a notification issued by the Karnataka Transport Department introducing flat fares for taxis. IAMAI emphasized the differences between street ride hailing taxis and their web-based counterparts, highlighting additional services provided by the latter such as GPS tracking, digital payment options and panic buttons, etc. Clubbing the two and leaving no room for dynamic pricing would have a chilling impact on Karnataka's mobility ecosystem. The elimination of dynamic pricing for taxis would severely undermine the livelihoods of drivers who previously relied on the flexibility it provides during peak hours.
 
 
FCC Submission on RBI Draft Framework for SROs - Fintechs
IAMAI's Fintech Convergence Council (FCC) submitted industry recommendations on Reserve Bank of India's Draft Framework for Self-Regulatory Organizations - Fintechs. While the industry welcomes the initiative, the submission requests clarity on the definition of fintech and membership criteria for SROs. The submission also highlighted that the aim should be to ensure effective implementation and regulatory compliance.
 
 
FCC's Regtech Committee Representation to CERSAI on Quality of KYC Data in C-KYC
The Regtech Committee of the Fintech Convergence Council submitted a representation to CERSAI on improving the quality of KYC data in C-KYC. The representation noted that while C-KYC was vital for regulated entities seeking seamless access to customer KYC details, a challenge hindered interoperable KYC, impacting the intended efficiency of completing KYC once. The Challenge, the representation underlined, arose from data reliability issues, including poor image quality and incomplete or outdated customer records. It urged that since these hurdles made efficient reuse of customer KYC data difficult, necessitating resource-intensive data enrichment or obtaining fresh KYC, the issue needed to be addressed.
 
 
PCI, FCC Organize Webinar on BFSI Transformation
IAMAI's Payments Council of India (PCI) and Fintech Convergence Council (FCC) in collaboration with Digital fifth organised a webinar on "RBI Regulatory Cloud: A Blueprint for BFSI Transformation" on February 22, 2024. The webinar was focused on the evolving regulatory landscape and cloud adaptation in BFSI. It discussed factors favouring the adoption of cloud computing in the Indian fintech sector and provided an overview of RBI's regulated cloud for financial institutions. The webinar also explored the challenges and expectations for implementing a cloud stack within the regulatory framework.
 
 
Regtech Committee Knowledge Series

The Regtech Committee under the Fintech Convergence Council (FCC) organised a series of virtual presentations, titled the Knowledge Series, by industry experts addressing critical Regtech issues concerning risk and compliance, and the evolving regulatory landscape. The following presentations were held in February:

  1. "Cybersecurity and Data Privacy in Regtech" by Kannan Subbiah, Principal Consultant at BluBricks Consulting. The session was conducted on February 8, 2024. It attracted over 100 participants.
  2. "Compliance First: A Wake-up Call for the Fintech Industry" by Rohan Bagai, Senior Partner at AZB and Partners, on February 14, 2024. It had over 110 participants.
  3. "Managing Risk and Compliance as a Platform with Both Regulated and Unregulated Products" by Astha Srivastava, Principal Associate, Fintech and Product, and Aparajita Srivastava, Partner, Fintech and Product, from IKIGAI LAW. The session was held on February 23, 2024, and attracted nearly 100 participants.
 
 
Roundtable on Driving Business Through Location Technologies
Participants at the IAMAI-HERE Technologies Roundtable in Mumbai

IAMAI's Supply Chain and LogisticsTech Committee and HERE Technologies jointly organised a roundtable on how to "Drive Business Expansion with Advanced Software Capabilities through Location Technology", on February 27, 2024, in Mumbai. During the roundtable participants engaged in insightful discussions around various use cases and challenges within the automotive sector related to location technology. Some notable use cases discussed include Fleet Management Optimization, Autonomous Vehicles, and Customer Experience Enhancement.

Among those who addressed the roundtable were Dhruv Chopra, Co-founder, and Chief Marketing Officer, Chalo; Jagadish Babu Korla, Founder & CEO, Kdr Soft Solutions; Kaushal Shetty, Head of Product, Gati; Manav Kapoor, Co-Founder & Chief Business & Growth Officer, Plus Innovations; Pavan Muralidhar, VP - Product, Design, Analytics & Marketing, Freight Tiger; Raj Saxena, Founder & CEO, LogisticsNow; Samiran Ghosh, Technology Council Member, Forbes Technology Council; Sameer Mahapatra, VP & Country Manager-India & SAARC, Aeris Communications; Srinivas Shankar, Director, AUM Infotech, and Srivasta Katta, Head of Engineering, Rapido.
 
 
Roundtable on How Secure Cloud Storage Powers Innovation
Participants of the IAMAI – DigiBoxx Roundtable in Mumbai

IAMAI's Digital Advertising Committee and DigiBoxx jointly organised a roundtable on "Digital Trust Across Industries: How Secure Cloud Storage Powers Innovation", on February 27, 2024, in Mumbai. At the roundtable industry stalwarts deliberated upon the crucial trends and emerging technologies shaping customer interactions in the digital landscape.

Key speakers at the roundtable were Abhishek Ranakoti Chief Technology Officer, Pharynxai; Abhishek Chandra, Chief Technology Officer, Kotak Private; Aditya Sharma, Chief Technology Officer, KloudLite; Ajay Patil, IT Head, HDB Financial Services; Ankit Gupta, Chief Technology Architect, Nium; Anuj Gupta, CEO, Hitachi Systems India; Ninad Raje,CIO & Director, HealthAssure; Rahul Khurana, Country Head, KIT Global; Sanjay Tripathi, Co-Founder and CEO, BriskPe; TN Srinivasan, Sr. Vice President, Hitachi Systems India, and Arnab Mitra, CEO, DigiBoxx.
 
 
Roundtable on Digital Maturity Journey
Participants of the IAMAI-Ethinos Roundtable in Mumbai

IAMAI's Digital Advertising Committee and Ethinos jointly organised a roundtable on "Embarking Digital Maturity Journey to Ace the Race", on February 27, 2024, in Mumbai. The roundtable brought together a select group of industry leaders and innovators to delve deep into the dynamic convergence of media and technology in today's fast-paced digital world.

Among those who shared their insights at the roundtable were Argho Bhattacharya - Head of Marketing at PayU Payments; Amit Sethiya - Head of Marketing at Syska World; Avinash Naik - CMO at Enter10 Television; Karan Taurani - Sr. Vice President at Elara Capital; Prasad Pimple - Executive Vice President & Head of Digital Business Unit at Kotak Life; Shonali Shetty - Head of Growth Marketing at Godrej Capital; Shrinivas Khanolkar - Head of Products, Marketing & Corporate Communication at Mirae Asset Mutual Fund; Srikrishna Moorthy - Executive Vice President at Kotak Mahindra Bank, and Prashant Choudhari - Head of Marketing at Fino Payments Bank.
 
 
Roundtable on Leveraging AI in Advertising
Participants of the IAMAI-LIQVD ASIA Roundtable in Mumbai

IAMAI's Digital Advertising Committee and LIQVD ASIA jointly organised a roundtable on "Transforming Creative Strategies with Generative AI in Advertising" on February 28, 2024, in Mumbai. At the roundtable experts offered a deep dive into the transformative trends and emerging technologies reshaping customer interactions in the digital world.

Key speakers at the roundtable were, Amit Sethiya, Head - Marketing, Syska Group; Anand Bhatia, CMO, Fino Payment Bank; Argho Bhattacharya, Head - Marketing, PayU Payments; Arjun Bhatia, CMO, Matrimony; Boni Noronha, Senior Vice President & Head - Marketing, Axis Mutual Fund; Deepak Srivastava, Digital Marketing Head, TATA Group; Dhanashri Rane, Head - Digital Busines, RBL Bank; Dhruv Chopra, Co-founder and CMO, Chalo; Parth Dave, Director - Business Stratergy, Liqvd Asia;  Prajakta Rathe, Deputy General Manager, Tira Beauty - Reliance Retail; Rajeeb Dash, Head - Marketing, Adani Realty; Ruchika Gupta, Marketing Director-India, Beam Suntory; Sunil Gangras, Head of Creative, Liqvd Asia; Tarun Nazare, Co-founder & CEO, Neokred; VikramJeet Bhayana, Vice President and Head of Marketing, Bajaj Allianz, and Yatnesh Pandey, Head - Marketing, Greenply Industries.