January 2021 Monthly Newsletter Volume 2 Issue 1  
 
Meeting with DPIIT and Tourism Ministry, Goa
IAMAI on behalf of the Online Service Provider (OSPs) members has sent a representation along with the revised Draft of Goa Registration of Tourist Trade (Amendment) Rules, 2020 published by the Goa Tourism Department vide Notification dated 27.08.2020. In the light of this representation, IAMAI was invited by DPIIT to make a presentation and discuss the following issues:
  1. Issues regarding registration of OSPs as per Goa Registration of Tourist Trade (Amendment) Rules, 2020
  2. Display and listing of accommodation by the OSPs on internet
  3. Burden of regulatory responsibility of verifying the veracity of registration certificates of OSPs
The meeting was chaired by Shri Ravinder, Joint Secretary, DPIIT. The meeting was also attended by Shri J Ashok Kumar, Secretary Tourism, Goa.

Submission to the Registrar of Copyrights on amendments to the Copyright Act, 1957
Considering the rapid progression of the media and entertainment industry towards an increasingly digitized future, the shortcomings of the existing Copyright Act are becoming untenable. Keeping this in mind, IAMAI responded to the call for inputs on “Whether there is a need for amendment in Copyright Act, 1957?”
IAMAI’s submission attempted to delineate the need for a new copyright regime, and gave suggestions on how such a regime should be structured. IAMAI also voiced the opinions of industry, by raising specific concerns about the current Act, such as provisions of criminal liability.

Response to NITI Aayog on ‘Enforcement Mechanisms for responsible AI’
In the aftermath of the Covid-19 crisis, there was abundant clarity on the pressing need for an augmented digital infrastructure capable of safeguarding the economy in unprecedented times. Use cases of AI saw rapid expansion in the crisis, from clearing airline backlogs to helping medical services identify higher risk individuals. Taking cognizance of this, NITI Aayog published a report for public consultation looking to develop a framework for AI.
IAMAI consolidated the industry’s perspective on the matter; addressing concerns such as international cooperation, futureproofing, and transparency standards. IAMAI’s submission aimed to better define what responsible AI would entail, and what mechanisms would be best suited to such ends.

Industry Concerns raised with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting
Following Press note 4 2019 and the subsequent clarification 2020, many industry stakeholders had voiced concerns about the applicability of the new FDI regime to Video on Demand (VOD) platforms. The ambiguity around the language prompted IAMAI to write to the MiB asking for clarifications about the applicability of the new rules, and restate the fact that there is an intrinsic difference between Digital news content creators/curators/streamers and VOD platforms which merely host third party content on an ‘as-is’ basis.

Consultation on the Draft Social Security Rules, 2021
Amongst the most tragic impacts of the pandemic has been the condition of the modern Indian worker. The degree of vulnerability and disenfranchisement was poignantly exposed in the subsequent lockdowns, and the immense need for reforms around social security was felt around the country. Taking this into account, the Ministry of labour and employment drafted new Social Security rules. These rules attempted to replace the existing framework of Social security with a streamlined and consolidated set of rules applicable to workers of various types. The new rules also aim to simplify compliance for businesses, to widen the net of Social Security benefits.

Keeping in mind the goals of the Government and the needs of the industry, IAMAI made a submission to the Ministry of Labour and Employment. This submission voiced industry concerns about the rules and made suggestions on how the rules could be made easier to follow without compromising the standard of care for the beneficiaries.

D2C Founders' Meeting with Sahil Barua, Co-Founder, Delhivery
On December 8th, 2020, IAMAI  organized D2C Founders' Meeting with Sahil Barua, Co-Founder, Delhivery Over 25 D2C Founders had face to face conversation regarding B2B synergies with Sahil. D2C brands which manufacture, market, sell, and ship their products directly to the consumers from their digital platforms, embark on new-age logistics players and have B2B synergies so IAMAI conducted a meeting for direct interaction of D2C brand founders with Sahil Barua.
This meeting was moderated by chair and co-chair of IAMAI’s D2C committee i.e. Aman Gupta, Co-founder of boAt and Manish Chowdhary, Co-founder of WoW Skin Science, respectively.
The participants discussed Sahil’s journey with Delhivery; challenges faced and opportunities grabbed during Covid; the trend of e.commerce businesses across segments; issues with respect to last mile deliveries and their solutions; specialized or customized delivery needs of e-retailers and small online businesses. The chairs of the committee also discussed the possibility of collaborations with the members of IAMAI D2C committee with Delhivery.

13th Digital Money 2020 1-2 December, 2020
With the beginning of a new decade of innovation and growth in the payments industry, and to celebrate the developments in the past decade, the Payments Council of India (PCI), organized the 13th edition of its Annual Digital Money Conference on the 1st and 2nd of December 2020.

The theme of the conference this year was: ‘Ushering into a new decade: Reassess  |  Renovate  |  Reimagine  |  Ramp up’. The conference brought together the brightest and the most experienced people of the payments industry and the government together to discuss their learnings from the past decade and suggest their thoughts on the way forward for the new decade to come.

The conference saw discussions of industry experts with speakers from the Reserve Bank of India, Shri T Rabi Sankar, Executive Director, Shri P Vasudevan, Chief General Manager, Department of Payment and Settlement System, and Smt. Sushmita Phukan, General Manager, Department of Financial Inclusion and Development. From the industry, active discussions were seen from imminent speakers like Mr. Prashant Kumar, MD and CEO, Yes Bank, Mr. T.R. Ramachandran, Group Country Manager -India & South Asia, Visa, Mr. Navin Surya, Founder and Director at So Hum Bharat Digital Payments & Chairman Fintech Convergence Council (FCC), Mr. H Srikrishnan, MD & CEO, Jio Payments Bank, Mr. Tobias Puehse, Vice President, Innovation & Customer Solutions Asia Pacific, Mastercard, Ms. Praveena Rai, COO, NPCI, and many others. The conference created a space for such discussions through innovative digital mediums. A special Address was delivered by Shri Rahul Kaswan, Honb’le Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha during the conference.

Please find more details for the conference here: https://digitalmoney.iamai.in/

Roundtable on: Customer Experience in the New Economy, Building the Future
On December 10, 2020, IAMAI in partnership with Freshworks, organised this virtual roundtable . In this virtual roundtable discussion there were  12  CX leaders participated and shared their views and thoughts on Consumer Behaviour, Employee Engagement and Customer Engagement

The were participants from BankBazaar, Home First Finance Company, NiYO Solutions, Orange Retail Finance India, SMECorner, Aadhar Housing Finance, Aditya Birla Capital, DMI Finance, NeoGrowth, PolicyBazaar, BOB Financial Solution, BharatPe

The discussion was led by Karthik Rajaram from Freshworks

Roundtable on: The State of Health and Nutrition in India
As the world reels from the disruptive and transformative power of COVID-19, we are now witnessing an unprecedented focus on health, fitness and nutrition. The pandemic has been a true catalyst in altering people’s perception of health, immunity and well-being. There is a conspicuous interest in the role of food, supplements, immunity, exercise and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

On December 11 2020, IAMAI organised a webinar to present a holistic view from leaders in the nutrition and health space on the emerging trends and shifts that have altered consumer behavior. The webinar touched upon some key areas of interest like the state of health and nutrition in today’s world, the impact of COVID-19 on lifestyle and health attitudes, the changing trends in the marketing and consumption of health & nutritional products and the transforming shopping habits of the health-conscious consumer.

The webinar was attended by industry leaders from the Health & Wellness, Fitness, Food & Beverages, Pharma, eCommerce and Nutraceutical sectors. The Panelists for the Webinar were Vishal Gondal, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, GOQii, Anand Pathak, Director of Sales & Marketing, Netmeds.com, Arnab Mitra, Managing Director, LIQVD ASIA Worldwide, Siddharth Batra, Director Marketing, Glanbia Performance Nutrition and Vijayaraghavan Venugopal, Co-founder and CEO, Fast & Up

The webinar also witnessed the launch of the report ‘Unfolding the State of Health, Fitness & Nutrition in New India’. This report attempted an ‘Unfolding’ of a comparative study of the perception of nutrition pre and post COVID and also determined the way ahead for the brands, in terms of the manufacturing and marketing of the products.

CMO Honor Roll
CMO Honour Roll organized by IAMAI & iProspect recognizes India’s Super 30 credible and innovative marketing leaders on December 16th 2020. Last year, marketing leaders created a demonstrable impact across their respective organisations.

The CMO Honor Roll celebrates the significant contribution, inspiring marketing leaders and sharing their accomplishments and challenges of innovative marketing campaigns.

The purpose of CMO Honor roll is to identify talent, build transparency and display tenacity of various industry professionals and how they changed the lives of their customers and consumers.

The event was celebrated virtually and Super 30 CMOs were recognized. Few among the top 30 were as follows:
  1. Shashwat Sharma, CMO, Airtel
  2. Sushant Sreeram, Director Marketing, Amazon Prime
  3. Atit Mehta, VP and Head of Marketing, Byju's
  4. Ravi Santhanam, CMO, HDFC Bank
  5. Sujit Ganguli, CMO, ICICI Bank
You can check out full list of super 30 CMOs here - http://cmohonorroll.in/