Technocrats at CII, IT/ITES Panel Annual Conference bat for a Centre of Excellence 

Mysore/Mysuru: If everything goes as per plans, Mysuru is all set to become a cyber security hub in the country.

At the Annual IT Conference 2022 virtually hosted on Jan. 19 by CII Mysuru and IT/ITES Panel with the theme ‘Accelerated Digital Transformation’, C.N. Meena Nagaraj, Managing Director of Karnataka Innovation and Technology Society (KITS) and K-Tech spoke about starting co-working spaces in colleges, allotment of land near Nanjangud and hinting to start a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Mysuru.

Meena Nagaraj, who is also the Director, IT/BT, Government of Karnataka, spoke about Mysuru taking initiative on research grants. She said the Government would fully support a Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Mysuru.

The objective of the conference was to help companies understand the impact of the accelerated digital transformation and how the Government and industry are playing their roles to use the digital transformation in the post-pandemic new normal.

Delivering the keynote address, Infosys Co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan, who is also the past President of CII and Chairman of Axilor Ventures, spoke about branding Mysuru as the ideal location for a cyber security CoE. He emphasised on change that older companies should look into digital transformation and also briefed about how Infosys started in Mysuru and having a state-of-the-art campus.

CII Mysuru Chairman Pavan Ranga highlighted SEZ in Mysuru along with Karnataka Digital Economy Mission (KDEM) and said a letter of request has been submitted to initiate an SEZ for small and medium IT/ITES companies in Mysuru along with the letters of intent from more than 12 IT/ITES companies.

Digital technology driving business

Shaji Mathew, Head of Infosys Mysuru Development Centre, spoke about how digital technology is driving the business models of various industries.

Sanjeev Gupta, CEO and MD of LAHARI and CEO, KDEM, spoke about the initiative of the co-working space in Mysuru and about bigger companies setting shops. He said IBM has already come to Mysuru and a few more big companies are in the pipeline.

Scion of Mysore royal family Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar spoke about his Berunda Foundation and how they are teaming up with KDEM and CII for a CoE in cyber security.

Positioning Mysuru in the global IT field

The conference also focused on the importance of positioning Mysuru in the global IT field. The CII has entered into an MoU with KDEM and as part of its Beyond Bengaluru initiative to position Mysuru as the next best destination in Karnataka, apart from Bengaluru.

Dr. R. Balasubramaniam, author and public policy advocate and Founder-Chairman, Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement, delivered a talk on the Government of India’s approach to capacity building using digital technology. Incidentally, Dr. Balu is the member of Human Resources of the Capacity Building Commission of the Central Government.

Chaitanya Ramalingegowda, Founder, WakeFit, presented a talk on leveraging digital transformation in building Wakefit. Vinayak Hegde from Infosys and Mohan Ramaiah from Wipro also spoke about digital transformation.

Later, former Advisor to PMO, Government of India, Dr. M.S. Vijayaraghavan spoke about cyber security initiatives in India and mentioned how Mysuru can become a pioneer by setting up the CoE. The session on “Digital Talent for Future” was addressed by Harish Mysore, Director, India Operations, IEEE, Anand Subramanian, VP, Theorem, K.S. Sundar from Infosys and Mahesh Jambardi,                     COO of Excelsoft.

Rajesh Kutnikar, CEO, IT Champs Software and Dr. Navin Shankar Patel from Infosys, Convenor and Co-convenor of CII IT/ITES Panel, planned and executed this virtual event.