CAII Annual Dinner & Awards 2021

C P Gurnani

Managing Director & CEO, Tech Mahindra Ltd

Digital India has been forty years in the making and we are fortunate to have a ringside view of C P Gurnani’s numerous contributions to it.

India could not afford mainframes and it was his work with NIC that made HCL mini-computers, the first scale deployed multi-user systems ubiquitous in the government projects at the time. Even today, he continues to lead Digital India’s growth story from the forefront with strategic projects on various smart cities, GSTN and so on.

Besides his pioneering work in HCL, Gurnani led Tech Mahindra’s transformation journey into becoming a global digital powerhouse. He is also credited with one of the biggest turnarounds of Indian corporate history – the acquisition and merger of Satyam – and his passion for nurturing a digital future-ready talent pool.

Gurnani is known as a people person, who has significantly contributed towards realising the Digital India dream. He has contributed to society through various initiatives such as reskilling, child education and helping underprivileged children.

Geetu Bhatnagar

Senior Director – Marketing, Oracle India

She is a person of high ‘emotional quotient’, working in an industry which is supposedly not very high on emotions – Information Technology. It comes from the conviction that ‘people don’t buy facts, they buy feelings’, that Geetu Bhatnagar believes in. She is one such marketing professional who is equally at ease working in a carpeted environment as in the treacherous heat of the blazing sun. This is what has made her a leader in customer experience and marketing strategy from the demand side.

Highly motivated, creative and a versatile global leader, Geetu has worked with organisations like Microsoft, HP, Compaq, Telstra V-Comm and Primera Networks to name a few. It was in mid-1990s while being at Telstra V-Comm she took the challenge to provide multipoint connectivity, starting with enterprises, which gradually managed to convince the government to adopt it soon. With Compaq, in 1999, she led the project to set up LAN for the Post Office system across the country.

She has played a pivotal role in setting up large infrastructure and system integration projects like UID, GST, Indian Railways and National Highways modernisation and high security projects for Ministries of Defence and Home Affairs.

Her mainstay has been communication and innovative marketing with a focus on ICE for enhanced competitive advantage.

Prakash Rane

Founder & MD, ABM Knowledgeware Ltd

What started as a maiden implementation of ERP systems at Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) during the early 2000s, has flourished into a statewide implementation across over 275 municipalities in Maharashtra. Prakash Rane, holding spanner and personally seen at work helped him to quickly establish himself as a force to be reckoned with in the e-Municipalities domain.

Soon, ABM Knowledgeware grew as IT Software and Services Company and was listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). It is one of the few IT companies in India with an exclusive focus on e-Governance and is currently delivering nearly 40 million citizen services per year as compared to 42 lakhs in 2010.

Today, more than 1,000 ULBs count themselves as beneficiaries of ABM services and this accounts for 27% of the smart cities. SAP Digitisation is the conversion of analog documents and information to digital formats. The impact of this project is to be understood in terms of greatly augmented citizen services delivery and organisational efficiency, bolstering the administrative value chain.

Akhilesh Tuteja

Global Head – Cyber Security Consulting & India Head – Digital Consulting, KPMG

Cyber security is crucial for Digital India. It has attained growing importance for national security and is considered an essential element of national power. Akhilesh Tuteja has been instrumental in moving the government and corporate perspective from risk mitigation to cyber security.

The solutions developed at the age of 27 covering Cyber Security, Data Analytics and Shared Services Outsourcing for KPMG has helped the firm to grow the $1 billion revenue mark. Being ahead of his times in decades, made him an undisputed leader in Cyber Security. Little wonder, Akhilesh Tuteja today partners with over 50 countries in improving business resiliency and risk management.

Akhilesh’s expertise is relied upon by the industry to protect mission-critical business assets as well as incubate and manage high-growth businesses.

He is an ardent advocate of digital transformation and leveraging technology to address business needs, but with security embedded in the design. It was he, who led corporates to involve CISOs in strategy development and investment decision making.

Neel Ratan

Regional Managing Partner – North, PWC

What started as an informal paper architected by Neel Ratan on the adoption of e-Governance practices by a state in India at the turn of the century got ramped up to a formal e-Governance programme rolled out nationwide.

The credit squarely goes to Neel for being a rare individual in the private sector yet an integral and intrinsic part of the rise of Digital India as we see it today. Being a key stakeholder in India’s journey of e-Governance, he consulted not only with the central ministry but also state governments. The development of MyGov crowd-sourced platform has been his brainchild.

Neel has long championed the cause for development and change while being mindful of the impact of policies on people. Early days, while overhauling the passport services infrastructure, with rampant strikes and substandard services, he led his team to choose to evaluate the root cause of the issues.

It was found that the working conditions, lack promotions, zero incentives and harsh criticism were the causes. His recommendation to create positive working conditions differentiate between low-value and high-value work got Cabinet nod for performance-based incentives for the first time in a non-revenue department.

Tanmoy Chakrabarty

Group Government Affairs Officer, Tata Sons Limited

Tanmoy’s association with the rise of digital India since the inception of the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) can be traced back to the first-ever Mission Mode Project under the Atal Bihari Vajpayee administration – MCA21 – which completely overhauled and revolutionised the way the corporates would engage with the government. Registering a company with the Registrar of Companies became a day-long process with minimum paperwork, down from months of toiling at the government offices.

The Ministry of Corporate affairs dealt with more than a million companies, quite a few of which did not exist. Tata Consultancy Services executed the computerisation project under Tanmoy’s leadership in less than 12-months. Over 3 million files were digitised, freeing up an incredible amount of departmental storage space.

The scale and success of MCA-21 resulted in the Passport Seva project. 37 SLS were performed by Tanmoy while implementing the project. It was TCSs responsibility to keep technology concurrent. Even though it was hurting commercially, he stood up as a company in the interest of this national transformation initiative. Not only he ensured that the sovereignty of data was maintained, but the systems also becomes speedy and transparent.

It was due to his efforts that the mindset at the time began shifting from what one can get from intelligent IT solutions rather than how much IT needs to be put into government systems.

Bishakha Bhattacharya

Leader, Public Policy (APAC), AWSG

Working across sectors including IT, ITeS, Cloud, Startups, MedTech, semiconductor manufacturing and advanced IC facilities as a defence scientist, Bishakha Bhattacharya has worn several hats. All across, public policy has remained the core and close to her heart. Years ago, her efforts working closely with Rangachary Committee, laid the foundation of the Advance Pricing Agreement (APA) regime for the IT sector. As a public policy leader, she led NASSCOM’s work on net-neutrality and the Startup India programme and encouraged R&D and IPR, urging DPIIT, Patent Office and MeitY to streamline software IP guidelines.

Bishakha worked closely with the Ministry of Finance to develop clarity in the GST regime, improving Ease-of-Doing business, market expansion, business competition and innovation, with a specific focus on the IT industry. During the early 2000s, she had the vision to conceptualise industry platforms for industry-led-academia partnered to research, set up the task force on Clinical research to focus on ethical practices and safety and coordinated promotion of the Indian Clinical Research industry in the US – something that remains unparalleled till date.

Shweta Khurana

Director Asia Pacific & Japan Intel Corporation

The crux of her work has been focused on facilitating access to technology skills and accelerating digitalisation to meet different societal needs. Shweta Khurana has been driving large-scale Public-Private Partnerships in India for well over two decades now.

She has worked on the CBSE-Ministry of Education’s AI-Ready Generation in India programme, which has helped 113,487 students till now. The ‘Responsible AI for Youth’ programme with the NeGD-Ministry of Electronics & IT (MeitY) has helped 52,628 students in government schools across India and is another example of Shweta’s commitment to empowering humanity through technology.

The AI For All programme one of the biggest AI public-awareness efforts in the world, looking to skill one million Indian citizens in the first year itself.

Shweta has also worked with NITI Aayog and the Ministry of Education to incorporate tech-based innovations in schools and build the first 10 lighthouse Atal Tinkering Labs. Shweta’s programme ‘Intel Teach’ that runs with the Ministry of Education and state governments has upskilled over 1 million teachers in the use of ICT in Education.

Satish Kaushal

Executive Director – Government Advisory, Ernst & Young

Satish Kaushal has been central to the digital enablement of a New India, serving as the strategy leader for the Aadhaar citizen ID programme and developing algorithms, biometric solutions and logistics.

His vast experience in administrative niches and e-Governance can be seen from projects like the digital tracking of grains and essential commodities transported from FCI, Government of Gujarat storage to public distribution points. Over 700,000 MTs of grains and goods are managed monthly using a system of econometric modeling for smart surveillance, geospatial location and route management.

Being part of the National e-Governance Plan implementation and roll-out between 2004-07, he was instrumental in rolling our mission mode projects. Some of the projects that benefited from his expertise include JNNURM, airport modernisation and Intelligent Transport Systems.

Satish has played a pivotal role in developing solutions for Government customers in India and the Middle East. His experiences and expertise afford him unparalleled insight into the present, future and potential of the Digital India vision.

Vishal Jain

Joint Managing Director, Inspira Enterprise

From Cyber Security to Digital development of North Eastern Region and Micro Small and Medium Enterprises, Vishal Jain is at the forefront of building capacities and self-sufficiency in an area crucial for India’s security and its economy.

Vishal has helped enterprises develop resilience through forensics, investigations, threat hunting, threat intelligence, and response planning. He launched the first next-gen Global Security Operations Centre (G-SOC) facility to provide end-to-end security solutions affordably.

This has helped small and medium enterprises to use customised, cost-effective solutions to protect their businesses from cyber vulnerabilities.

Having taken the lead for decades in Digital transformation of BFSI, Defence, Healthcare, Oil & Gas, and City Governance areas with numerous project implementation successes, Inspira today is known for and relied upon for its top-ranking managed security services.

Subi Chaturvedi

Chief Corporate & Public Affairs Officer, Zupee

With over two decades’ experience as a strategic advisor, public policy and corporate affairs and communications expert, Subi Chaturvedi has been at the front-and-center of some of the most pressing developmental debates of the time. From the digital economy, entrepreneurship and start-ups to diversity and sustainability, Subi has pushed for inclusive, intentional growth alongside governments, multilateral institutions and international organisations.

She had recommended, as part of the Committee under MeitY that the private cloud be used by the state and public sector undertakings. She has served as the Global Co-Chair of the Netmundial Initiative, on the Boards of UK India Business Council (UKIBC), & IGFSA and as a Member of the UN Internet Governance Forum (MAG), appointed by the UNSG for a three-year term. She has been the bridge in bilateral negotiations between nations resulting in MoUs in ICT, financial, digital and health services worth over $100 Mn.

She is an academic at heart and is passionate about shaping a development-friendly regulatory ecosystem and empowering younger generations with the right tools to succeed in a digital-first world.