New Delhi, Delhi, India | 13th February 2020: The flagship annual summit of IAMAI, is the India Digital Summit which was held on the 5th and 6th of February 2020. The 14th year of the summit with the theme ‘The Next Digital Leap’ was inaugurated by Amit Agarwal, Country Manager, Amazon India, and Chairman, IAMAI who spoke about how India should focus on ‘removing friction and bottle necks’ and added that the target of USD 1 trillion digital economy is not far-fetched for a country that is seen as a digital powerhouse.
Agarwal further advocated a clear focus on skilling, grassroot entrepreneurship, driving equal opportunity through greater women & participation as well as Artificial Intelligence backed solutions, and said a multi-pronged approach can enable India to meet its target of USD 5 trillion economy. He exuded confidence that bold reforms of last few years and India & rising tech clout globally backed by success of Aadhaar, UPI and other initiatives will help the country scale new highs.
Another highlight of Day 1 was the launch of a report titled ‘Intelligent Automation – A Key Catalyst for India’s Economic Growth’ by Smt. Aruna Sundararajan, Former Telecom Secretary and Chairman of the Telecom Commission. Launching the report, she said the report seeks to address what can catalyse the India’s economy growth. She further stated that investment is the next driver of growth. As the digital footprints in India grows across sectors it will help in benefiting several of India’s fastest growing companies from Intelligent Automation, she added. According to the report by ‘Automation Anywhere’ and IAMAI, Intelligent automation will catapult Indian economy to USD 5 trillion in the next five years, up from USD 2.7 trillion.
The second day of the summit was followed by an address by Chief Guest Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister for Communications, Electronics & IT and Law who discussed in the last five years, India has evolved digitally, and observed that IAMAI has a big role to play in the process. “In the process of reform, perform and transform; technology plays a crucial role,” he added.
He said that transformation is the essence, and technology will play an important role. Technology is not only an enabler or facilitators but also that of empowerment, he observed. Citing the power of home-grown technology, the Minister cited the example of the growth of the digital payments industry. He said low cost technology has helped digital payments to grow on a larger scale that it has set to become the most powerful syndrome. Highlighting the growth in the digital payment sector, he informed the gathering that in five years, digital payments have clocked 3.50 billion in Nov 2019, from 918 million in 2016.
The major emphasis of the conference was on topics like Marketing, Technology, Start-ups, Mobile and other Digital Trends.
The summit had a gathering of over 2500 delegates, from across the various sectors of the internet industry. Some of the key speakers at the two-day conference included Amit Agarwal (Country Manager, Amazon India and Chairman, IAMAI), Dhruv Shringi (Co-Founder & CEO, Yatra and Vice-Chairman, IAMAI) Vijay Sekhar Sharma (Founder, Paytm), Sapna Chadha (Sr. Marketing Director – India & Southeast Asia, Google), Mohit Bhatnagar, Sanjeev Bikhchandani (Founder and Executive Vice Chairman, Info Edge) among others.
The 14th India Digital Summit coincided with the 10th India Digital Awards and the awards were given with an aim to recognize and promote the efforts of the talented Indian developers and creative honchos who have made an outstanding contribution towards ground-breaking advancements and rose above their peers.
The awards this year had 7 categories, and the categories for the same were Digital Advertising, Digital Content, Digital Social and Economic Empowerment, Mobile and App Awards, Payment and Fintech Awards, Social Media Awards and Technology Awards.
Wherein, Dinesh Agarwal, Founder & CEO, India Mart was adjudged as the Digital Person of the Year, Interactive Avenues – A Reprise Network Company was declared as the Digital Agency of the Year, while cure.fit was awarded as the Digital Start-up of the Year.