The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry organized the 12th edition of its annual signature Business IT Conclave on 16th and 22nd September 2021 on virtual platform. 

The theme of this year was “Reimagining the future- Rebuilding Nation with Technology”.  

Day 1: 16th September 2021, featured:

• Inaugural Session 
• Creation of Value : Digital Strategy
• Digital Transformation 
• Building Nation with Technology 
• Workspace Dynamics with Technology Disruptions 

Inaugural Session:

Dr. Partha Chatterjee, Hon'ble Minister-in-Charge, Department of Industry, Commerce and Enterprises; Information Technology and Electronics and Parliamentary Affairs, Government of West Bengal graced the Inaugural Session as our Chief Guest.

The Session presented a conversation on “IT Landscape in West Bengal in the New Normal”, with: 

• Mr. Arnab Basu, Chairperson, IT Committee, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Advisory Leader, PricewaterhouseCoopers Pvt. Ltd
• Mr. Sanjoy Sen, Co-Chairperson, IT Committee, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Senior Vice President, ITC Infotech India Limited
• Mr. Chiranjib Bhattacharya, Co-Chairperson, IT Committee, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Chief Executive Officer & Director, Wizertech Informatics Pvt Ltd.

Mr. Arnab Basu said that over the last 12 months the hybrid work model has gained momentum and it is here to stay. How this hybrid atmosphere will impact the work culture and how it would drive value in digital transformation that needs to be discussed. In this distributed work environment the overall need of trust is crucial. The sustained outcome of nation building technology, its effect on economy –all these will be discussed in the two day long conclave. 

Dr. Partha Chatterjee stated that Technology is the key focus area of our Government. In the last decade Bengal’s GDP has gone up almost 3 times. Annual Expenditure in social sector has grown 10 times and in building physical infrastructure it has increased 6 times. West Bengal has over 200 engineering colleges from where more than 40000 graduates prepare themselves for the job market. Bengal Government has recently allotted 100 acres of land for Bengal Silicon Valley. 18 IT parks are already operational with 71 % occupancy. IT parks in Rajarhat and Kalyani will start soon. Another 5 IT Parks in Sector V, Durgapur, Belur, Darjeeling and Kalimpong have been proposed. Electronic Hardware Park has been developed in Sonarpur and Kalyani. Electronic Manufacturing Charter has been constituted in Naihati (70 Acres) and Phalta (60 acres).Land for Internet landing Stations have been allocated for companies like Reliance to ensure high speed connectivity in the state. Another 100 Acres of land have been marked for extending Bengal Silicon Valley which has a unique locational advantage along with all civic amenities.The Government has realized the need of Data Centre Policy for West Bengal to develop Bengal as a hub of Data Handling and Storage. Through this policy, companies will be assisted with easy approvals, self- certification. The focus will be optimal use of land as well as providing quality infrastructure like optical fiber connectivity, steady source of water and power supply. Some fiscal benefit of 100% exemption of stamp duty and free registration for any transaction related to setting up business for 5 years from the date of starting commercial operation will be provided. There are proposals from Reliance, Hiranandani and CtrlS for setting up Data Centre. The emergence of so many Unicorns in India in the last 12 months has made the Government consider a new policy for them to encourage new innovation in the field of IT & ITeS. The Govt. believes that Kolkata with its strategic location, plug & play infrastructure, diverse talent pool and good social infrastructure is all set to become the next IT destination of not just India but of the world. 

Keynote Address on Creation of Value : Digital Strategy:

Mr. Mahadeva Matt Mani, Partner, Strategy& (Part of the PwC Network) Netherlands graced the session as our Keynote Speaker. Mr. Deb A Mukherjee, President, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Managing Director, Cenergist Energy Private Limited moderated the Session. 

The theme session was- Building Nation with Technology. The Speakers included: 

• Visionary Speaker: Dr. Sanjaya Baru , Writer, Policy Analyst, Economist
• Industry Lead Speaker: Mr. Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, Managing Director and CEO, Bandhan Bank Limited and Past President, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry 
• The Session was moderated by Mr C N Raghupathi, Senior Adviser, Infosys Limited. 

Dr Baru stated that there have been a lot of successes in the application of technology, in areas like finance, digital banking etc. The biggest concern is how much technology is being developed at home, what is been the record in patenting technologies, what is the amount of royalty payment taking out on imported technology. The essence of technology is human capital and unless the investment happens in human capital technology becomes like a material good. Without adequate investment in human capital the goal of reaching a 5 trillion dollar economy is very far. The digitalization concept does not capture the minds of the Indians who are going abroad. The challenge today is not just to invest in education but to ensure those who we have invested in remain in India. 

Mr. Ghosh mentioned that the main objective of the bank is to reach more people at the grass root level and provide financial services to them. The banking network has spread across to every corner of the country and has reached 71% of the rural and semi-urban. In the Indian banking industry 70% of the people are living in the rural sector and only 11% of the banks are in the rural sector.Very good opportunities have been built for the digital technologies which have changed the people’s behavior today. The people have been educated with the banking technologies and digital transactions and about the formal banking services from the banking industry. As a bank 88% of total transaction happens digitally and soon 95% of total transaction will happen digitally. 

The other Sessions:

Day 2: 22nd September 2021 featured:

• Rebuilding the Nation – Right Technologies for MSMEs 
• Start Up Stories 
• Security- a constant in digital transformation

The Session - Rebuilding the Nation – Right Technologies for MSMEs , was graced by Mr .Sanjay Kumar Das, Joint Secretary, Information Technology & Electronics Department, Government of West Bengal and moderated by Mr. Sanjoy Sen, Co-Chairperson, IT Committee, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Senior Vice President, ITC Infotech India Limited. Mr Das highlighted that MSME requires secured cloud storage and Government of West Bengal has opened up its Gohar State Data Center and it is a tier 3 Data Center. It will become a tier 4 Data Center in the next few months. This data center has been made open to the MSME’s and Startups. Seven applications have been received from the Startups and MSMEs, out of which four have been provided space and the remaining three are undertaking security audit. The Government is trying to bring everybody through cloud sourcing and presenting the service to the MSME’s and Startups. MSME is required different kinds of applications, such as, E-Commerce applications as they are very keen to put their services to the world. The Government launched Karmabhumi Potal on 9th June 2020 to collaborate between Job Seekers and employers in IT/ITeS sector. The Government has taken a step to create a revolutionary platform and inviting applications to all the MSME’s to work with the Government. Public transactional data sharing guidelines 2020 was sorted in December 2020. The data, which are available are dated and all these data can be placed on an anonymous platform after properly anonymising the data. Form that platform , the MSMEs and Startups can start downloading. These are real data and live data which can be corroborated and these data can ensure POC’s of all these applications. We are enabling MSME with requisite infrastructure through collaborative use of 3D printing technology. Different materials could be printed in WEBEL-Fujisoft Vara Centre of Excellence and it was set up with the assistance from the department of Micro Small and Medium Enterprise and Textile and Industry Commerce and Enterprises, Government of West Bengal. Any MSME and any industry can use the facility of 3D printing.

The Session- Start Up Stories featured iconic Speakers - Mr. Alok Bansal, Co- Founder & Group CFO, Policybazaar.Com and Mr. Vijay N Menon, Executive Director, TiE Global, in conversation with Mr. Arnab Basu, Chairperson, IT Committee, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Advisory Leader, PricewaterhouseCoopers Pvt. Ltd. The Speakers highlighted that the Indian GDP as part of the global GDP is 3%. The US market’s contribution is 25%.The Indian market is tech rich and there is a lot of scope for tech startups. The image of India is very positive for investors as the exit issue has been solved. For any business there are three choices and geographical expansion is one of them. Ed tech start-ups that are developed can be easily taken on a global level. Indian start-ups should look in the neighboring countries which are culturally similar to India .The SAARC companies especially from India should come to the US market for growth and expansion. The pace at which the experiment regarding the employee attrition is very slow because of the structure in a big company. There are 4M’s- mentors, markets, money and manpower for a business venture to focus on. There are almost 2 trillion dollars of capital selling in Silicon Valley to go somewhere and it’s an opportunity for India to grab some of that. The risk reward is much skewed in a start-up and lot of them comes from middle class background.

The other Speakers of the session included: 

• Mr. Vikash Sharma, Co-Founder and Director, NrXen IT Technologies Private Limited, shared his perspectives on Boosting Innovation Startup Ecosystem in Bengal. 
• Mr. Manjit Nayak, Director, STPI-West Bengal addressed on Opportunities in Innovation and Start Up in India. 
• Mr. Shashank Randev, Founder, 100X.VC addressed why this is the best time to get funded? 
• Moderator: Mr. Sarbajit Das, Founder & CEO, Sun Dew Solutions Pvt. Ltd; Mentor, WEBEL-BCC&I Tech Incubation Center and Member, IT Committee, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry. 

The Session- Security- a constant in digital transformation was graced by international Speakers apart from India-

• Mr. Charly Graf, Managing Partner, Defendeer – Data Centric Security, Bluecoons Group LLC , Switzerland
•  Mr. Konstantin Stassinakis, Cyber Security Expert, Senior Business Consultant, Senior Project Manager and Portfolio Manager, Bluecoons Group, GmbH, Switzerland
• Mr. Scott E. Augenbaum, Cybercrime Prevention Trainer, Author and Retired FBI Supervisory Special Agent for Cyber Crime Fraud Division,, USA 
• Mr. Christopher Nanchengwa, Information Security Manager, Zambia Electronic Clearing House Limited, Zambia.

 Mr. N K Ghosal, Director, NKG & Associates; Mentor, WEBEL-BCC&I Tech Incubation Center and Member, IT Committee, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry moderated the session.