SMAC to drive the future of Indian IT

The 21st Convergence India 2013 was inaugurated by the Honorable Minister of State, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, Mr. Manish Tewari.

In his inaugural address, the Honorable Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, Shri Manish Tewari said, “The government of India sees the telecom evolution as a continuum, and it is not going to stop because of anything that has happened in this space in the past couple of years. We remain fully committed to bring further growth to the telecom, media & entertainment sectors.”

One important take away from this expo, as pointed out by Shri Tewari, is that convergence is going to be a big key word for the industry over the next few years.

The 21st Convergence India is being held at Pragati Maiden, New Delhi from 16th to 18th January, 2013.

While welcoming the Honorable Minister and the delegates and the media, Mr. Prem Behl, Chairman Exhibitions India Group said, “For more than two decades, the information and communications technology sector has played a vital role in the success of economies across the globe. The ongoing development  of the ICT industry in India is due to the government’s and industry’s commitment to create and support the policy framework, and the infrastructure, create a capital pool, encourage partnerships and support the creation of the skill base in the country. The growth of the industry is also driven by another factor – the convergence of communications and IT, where knowledge can be disseminated in real time. “

This year, the theme for the 21st Convergence India is “Enriching Billion Lives”.

Another take away from the session was the importance of Social Networks, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud Computing (Smac).  In recent years, leading companies have been capitalizing on digital ecosystems that are expanding due to the confluence of Smac. In his presentation, Debdas Sen, Technology Consulting Leader and Eastern Region Managing Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers India pointed out that the convergence between these four trends viz. social media, mobile, analytics and cloud computing is increasing  and it will be the key highlight of the industry.

Data services are seen to be the second revolution in the telecom space after privatization of this sector.  “About twenty percent of telecom customers are already using data services and there is a 25-26% growth in data traffic,” added Mr. Gupta from Bharti Enterprises.

With increasing convergence and sharply changing consumer preferences, businesses are compelled to innovate.  Industry data suggests that 50% of US CEOs surveyed are innovating to save money. Social media has gained momentum and user preference for the medium has shot up massively over the last couple of years. This has resulted in large amount of information being generated on this medium. This is a huge opportunity for consumer businesses, and if organizations can identify the patterns through this information, it will help the organization to serve the consumer better.