26, Jul 2024
Bengaluru Retail Summit 2024: Unveiling the Future of Retail
Bengaluru, July 24th, 2024: The Retailers Association of India (RAI) successfully held the second edition of the Bengaluru Retail Summit, a premier event that brought together the brightest minds and influential leaders from the retail industry. Held at the Sheraton Grand Bangalore, the summit emerged as a melting pot of transformative ideas, emerging trends, and invaluable networking opportunities. Against the vibrant backdrop of Bengaluru’s retail culture, it served as a pivotal platform for retailers and brands to engage in impactful discussions, collectively shaping the future of retail in India.
Speaking about the summit, Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO, Retailers Association of India (RAI), said, “India’s retail sector stands at the cusp of profound transformation. The dynamic discussions on strategies for retail success, the seamless integration of digital innovations, and the latest retail ideas have highlighted how industry leaders are navigating this constantly evolving market. Our focus on mastering the market and innovating is diverse. With a burgeoning middle class, expanding digital infrastructure, and strategic government initiatives, we anticipate a dynamic era of growth and innovation. These advancements position the retail sector as a pivotal driver of economic vitality and consumer empowerment in the years ahead.”
Highlights of the Bengaluru Retail Summit 2024 by RAI was the keynote address on ‘Revolutionize Retail with AI Everywhere’ by Ganesan V P, Consulting Business Leader for Retail, CPG, Travel, Transportation, Pharma & LS Industries – India South Asia, IBM.
The summit also hosted two stimulating Fireside Chats with Rajneet Kohli, CEO & Executive Director, Britannia Industries Ltd, and with Nirupa Shankar, Jt Managing Director, Brigade Group.
Expressing delight at the second edition of BRS, Rajneet Kohli, CEO & Executive Director, Britannia Industries Ltd said, “The future of retail lies in seamlessly blending technology with the human touch. Using data-driven insights to understand consumer preferences and deliver tailored experiences will drive growth and foster deeper customer loyalty.”
Hari Menon, Co-Founder & CEO, Bigbasket said, “The retail industry is at a pivotal point where digital transformation is crucial. Integrating online and offline channels is essential to meet evolving consumer demands. Innovation in logistics and personalized services will be the key drivers of future retail success.”
Karan Mehta, CEO, Easybuy, Landmark Group said, “Understanding and responding to diverse customer needs is more important than ever. By harnessing advanced analytics and staying ahead of emerging trends, retailers can create personalized and engaging shopping experiences, ensuring sustained growth and competitiveness.”
The summit witnessed captivating discussions on topics such as “Strategies for Retail Success: Navigating a Constantly Evolving Market” “Tech Adoption: Integrating Digital Innovations with Physical Presence” “Retail Technology: Powering Business, Enabling Growth” & “Mastering the Market: Transforming Insights into Growth Opportunities.”
industry leaders speaking at the summit included:
Johnson Verghese – Managing Director – Fossil Group India
Karan Mehta – CEO, Landmark Group
Rajneet Kohli – CEO & ED, Britannia Industries Ltd
V Muhammad Ali – CEO, Retail, Prestige Group
Manohar Chatlani – MD Retail India Pvt Ltd, Soch Apparels Pvt Ltd
Subhash Chandra – MD Sangeetha Mobiles
Mrunmay Mehta – CEO, WOW Skin Science
Ashim Ashok Patel, MD & CEO, i – TEK RFID
Hari Menon – Co-founder & CEO – Big Basket
Dr Shashank Sinha, CEO, Drolls India Pvt Ltd
Chandru Kalro, Managing Director, TTK Prestige
Chintan Mehta – Founder, Italian Colony
David R Stanley – Founder & Managing Director, Healux International Pvt. Ltd
Deepak Singh – Director & CEO Saturo Technologies
Sumit Jasoria, Co-Founder & CEO, NEWME
These thought leaders shared their insights on the latest trends, challenges, and opportunities within the retail sector, fostering a rich environment of knowledge exchange and collaboration. The event’s successful execution has set a benchmark for industry gatherings, reaffirming Bengaluru’s status as a central hub for retail excellence.
About RAI:
Retailers Association of India (RAI) is the unified voice of Indian retailers. RAI works with all the stakeholders for creating the right environment for the growth of the modern retail industry in India. It is a strong advocate for retailing in India and works with all levels of government and stakeholders to support employment growth and career opportunities in retail, promote and sustain retail investments in communities from coast to coast, and enhance consumer choice and industry competitiveness.
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- By Rabindra
27, May 2024
Women Role Models in STEM Shine at myAvtar Career Conference, 2024
Bengaluru, May, 2024: Avtar Group, India’s leading Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Solutions firm, hosted the myAvtar Career Conference (MACC) at Karnataka Trade Promotion Organization (KTPO), Bengaluru today.
myAvtar Career Conference (MACC), the career extravaganza brought together inclusive companies and a vast pool of women talent from the field of Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) under one roof. Participating Companies included, Aditya Birla Group, Publicis Sapient, Broadridge Financial Solutions India Limited, Moody’s, Renault Nisan Tech, IBM India, Google Cloud, HDFC ERGO, ACT, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Gallagher, Happiest Minds Technologies Limited, Stryker, Verisk, AKJ Somaiya Institute Of Management, among many others.
Tailored for Women in Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM), MACC offered a unique platform to connect, collaborate, and converse with like-minded professionals, industry-leading companies, and renowned experts in the industry. The conclave was an ecosystem designed to foster learning, sharing, and networking for women in the STEM field; an opportunity to explore new horizons in the STEM field, to grow personally and professionally, and to unlock a world of possibilities. The conference witnessed a large gathering of students, educators, professionals, and industry leaders who shared their knowledge, experiences, and insights.
Avtar Group also announced the winners of their inaugural “Women in STEM” Awards. This Awards recognize and celebrate the outstanding achievements of women who are making significant strides in the STEM fields. In STEM Icons 15 plus years of work experience category, Vaijayanthi Srinivasa Raghavan Senior Director, UPS India Technology Centre, Priya Kanduri, CTO, SVP – Cyber Security Services, HappiestMinds Technologies Limited, Deepti Singh, Deputy General Manager- Head of Department System Installation, Renault Nissan Tech have received top 3 awards. In STEM Divas 8-15 years of work experience category, Subbulakshmi Ramkumar, Deputy Manager, RNTBCI, Yogita Bhanwaria, Senior Manager, Biocon Biologics Limited, MuthuSusithra Devarajan, Team Manager, Broadridge Financial Solutions have received top 3 awards. In STEM Stars 2-8 years of work experience category, Nishtha Mahendru, Consultant, Applied Innovation Exchange, Capgemini, Nidhi Raut, Sr. Engineer, Renault Nissan Technology Business Centre India (RNTBCI), Indujaa Thangavel, Broadridge Financial Solutions have received top 3 awards.
“One of the key sectors that has the potential to boost women’s workforce participation, is the STEM industry. While 43%of STEM graduates are women, they make up only 28% of the STEM workforce. Moreover, women drop out of the workplace due to childbirth, childcare and elder care. Consequently, only 3 percent of women hold CEO posts in the STEM Industry. While research has established that improving women’s workforce participation can boost India’s GDP by 27%, more women in STEM would set the stage for inclusive innovation and solution designs that are equitable for all. Women have historically been underrepresented in STEM, yet they bring invaluable perspectives and ideas to these fields. MACC awards recognizes the exceptional talent, the brilliance, and diverse perspectives of women in STEM,” said Dr Saundarya Rajesh, Founder – President, Avtar Group announcing the awards at the myAvtar Career Conference today in Bengaluru.
“Through MACC, we are acknowledging the remarkable work being done by women in STEM and also addressing the systemic barriers they face. Our goal is to create an environment where every individual, regardless of gender, has the opportunity to thrive and drive progress,” added Dr Saundarya.
At the conference, three organizations with the “Best Programs for enabling women in STEM” – Biocon Biologics Pvt Ltd, Kyndryl and Molecular Connections Pvt Ltd were also recognized.
In addition to the awards, the myAvtar Career Conferences hosted a series of panel discussions, skilling tracks conducted by IBM, Google Cloud, Johnson & Johnson and Publicis Sapient exclusively for women. The event also provided a platform for knowledge exchange, mentorship, collaboration, further strengthening the presence and influence of women in the STEM field.
The conference hosted in the hybrid mode –saw an attendance of over 3000 women at the on-ground event, while there were over 2000 attendees virtually. Companies opened up jobs from entry-level to senior-level positions across India – Bengaluru, Chennai, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Pune, Bhubaneshwar, Madurai and Coimbatore.
15, Feb 2024
59% of Indian Enterprises have actively deployed AI, highest among countries surveyed: IBM report
INDIA, February 15, 2024 — New research commissioned by IBM (NYSE: IBM) found that about 59% of enterprise-scale organizations (over 1,000 employees) surveyed in India have AI actively in use in their businesses. The ‘IBM Global AI Adoption Index 2023’ found early adopters are leading the way, with 74% of those Indian enterprises already working with AI, having accelerated their investments in AI in the past 24 months in areas like R&D and workforce reskilling.
Ongoing challenges for AI adoption remain, including hiring employees with the right skillsets and ethical concerns, inhibiting businesses from adopting AI technologies into their operations. Therefore, in 2024 addressing these inhibitors would be a priority, like providing people with the relevant skills to work with AI and having a robust AI governance framework.
“The increase in AI adoption and investments by Indian enterprises is a good indicator that they are already experiencing the benefits from AI. However, there is still a significant opportunity to accelerate as many businesses are hesitant to move beyond experimentation and deploy AI at scale,” said Sandip Patel, Managing Director, IBM India & South Asia. “To harness its full potential in the coming months, data and AI governance tools are going to be critical for building AI models responsibly that enterprises can trust and confidently adopt. Without the use of governance tools, AI can expose companies to data privacy issues, legal complications, and ethical dilemmas – cases of which we have already seen plaguing many across the world,” he added.
Highlights for India from the ‘IBM Global AI Adoption Index 2023’ conducted by Morning Consult on behalf of IBM:
Over the last several years, AI adoption has remained steady at large organizations surveyed:
- Today, 59% of IT professionals at large organizations report that they have actively deployed AI while an additional 27% are actively exploring using the technology.
- Similarly, around 6 in 10 of IT professionals at enterprises report that their company is actively implementing generative AI and another 34% are exploring it.
- 74% of IT professionals at companies deploying or exploring AI indicate that their company has accelerated their investments in or rollout of AI in the past 24 months in areas like R&D (67%), reskilling/ workforce development (55%) and building proprietary AI solutions (53%).
Easier to use AI tools and the need to reduce costs and automate processes are driving AI adoption among surveyed companies:
Advances in AI tools that make them more accessible (59%), the need to reduce costs and automate key processes (48%), and the increasing amount of AI embedded into standard off the shelf business applications (47%) are the top factors driving AI adoption.
The skills gap remains the biggest barrier to AI adoption in India:
The top 5 barriers hindering successful AI adoption at enterprises both exploring or deploying AI are limited AI skills and expertise (30%), lack of tools/platforms for developing AI models (28%), AI projects are too complex or difficult to integrate and scale (27%), ethical concerns (26%) and too much data complexity (25%).
The need for trustworthy and governed AI is well understood, but barriers are making it difficult for surveyed companies in India to put into practice:
IT professionals are largely in agreement that consumers are more likely to choose services from companies with transparent and ethical AI practices (98% strongly or somewhat agree) and 94% say being able to explain how their AI reached a decision is important to their business (among companies exploring or deploying AI).
However, despite understanding its importance only a minority are taking key steps towards trustworthy AI like reducing bias (36%), tracking data provenance (46%), making sure they can explain the decisions of their AI models (52%), or developing ethical AI policies (46%).
The top barriers for developing trustworthy and ethical AI are the lack of an AI strategy (57%), lack of company guidelines (55%) and lack of AI governance and management tools that work across all data environments (55%).
Among surveyed organizations in India, AI is already having an impact on the workforce:
- Among companies citing AI’s use to address labor or skills shortages, they are tapping AI to do things like reduce manual or repetitive tasks with automation tools (63%), automate customer self-service answers and actions (63%) or using AI to improve recruiting and human resources (56%).
- 46% are currently training or reskilling employees to work together with new automation and AI tools. 51% said that employees at their organization are excited to work with new AI and automation tools.
24, Nov 2023
IBM Consulting opens new Client Innovation Center in Gandhinagar
India, Gandhinagar, November 24, 2023 – IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced the opening of its new IBM Consulting Client Innovation Center (CIC) in Gandhinagar, India. This is a continuation of the ongoing expansion by IBM Consulting into non-metro and emerging cities across the country. In addition to gaining access and offering expanded opportunities to a broader talent pool, the Center will also help further fast-track the digital transformation and economic growth in the region.
Speaking about the opening of the new IBM Consulting Client Innovation Center in Gandhinagar, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Gujarat Shri Bhupendra Patel said, “Gujarat has consistently set milestones for the country as it progresses in its digital transformation journey and contributing to the realization of the Digital India vision. Our collaboration with industry leaders like IBM has been a key driver of this success and has been a testament to the effective value proposition of Gujarat’s forward-thinking policies. IBM’s expansion of its operations to Gandhinagar through the new IBM Consulting CIC will further strengthen our IT ecosystem and unlock the potential of Gujarat’s rich talent pool.”
IBM Consulting plans to leverage the Center to focus on key technology areas including generative artificial intelligence (AI), hybrid cloud, and cybersecurity. It will also leverage the security engineering talent pool to build cybersecurity platforms and accelerators for automating threat management, improving regulatory compliance, and proactively preparing clients against various attack planes.
“India continues to play a key role in our growth strategy,” said John Granger, Senior Vice President, IBM Consulting. “The expansion of our CIC network to Gandhinagar will scale our asset-led delivery of IT services and enhance our value proposition to our clients and partners across the world. This will help us address the growing client demand for productivity powered by generative AI and cybersecurity, that is fundamentally changing how businesses operate.”
The expanded presence in Gandhinagar will also create opportunities for existing employees as well as enable IBM to harness the potential talent including graduate hires from the educational ecosystem in and around the city.
IBM Consulting will now operate from twelve CIC locations in India, including Bhubaneshwar, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, National Capital Region, Pune, Mysuru, Kochi and Coimbatore.
