WIITF Getting Bigger, Better and Brighter
Kalinga Digital Media organized its Third Western India Information Technology Fair (WIITF)- 2013 on 15th March, 2013 in Mumbai. At a time when the economy is facing a staid slowdown and businesses needs an edge over to be buoyant and rising. Here is an attempt by VARINDIA to bring together the IT ecosystem onto a common platform and give allay an imperative need of the hour, which is Business Innovation.
Inaugural session( From right to left )- Mr. Abhijeet Ghosh, GM - Commercial BU - Neoteric Infomatique, Mr. Vishal Sriwastav, CMO - Defnex Software, Mr. Meheriar Patel, CTO, Head IT & Ecommerce- Globus Stores, Mr. Rushabh Shah, President, TAIT, Mr. Savitur Prasad, Principal Controller of Defence Accounts, Indian Navy- GOI, Mr. Champakraj Gurjar, Chairman - TAIT, Mr.Kersi Tavadia, CIO- Bombay stock Exchange, Mr. Deepak Kumar Sahu, Publisher- VARINDIA, Mr. Sanjay Mehta, CEO- MAIA Intelligence, Mr. Rajesh Aggarwal, IAS, Secretary IT- Government of Maharastra, Mr. Devesg Aggarwal, Vice President-ISODA, Mr. Kshitij M Kotak, President-ASIRT, Mr. Bhaskar B, Regional Director India & SAARC - Checkpoint India, Mr. Shilpesh Shah, Business manager - West – Converged Infrastructure & Cloud solutions- HP India and Mr. Anil K. Sahu, Regional Head - VARINDIA
The event was marked by the presence of representatives from the SI fraternity, government and PSUs, Corporates, heads of IT associations and IT experts. The event was inaugurated by eminent IT personalities who included Shri Savitur Prasad, IDAS, Principal Controller of Defence Accounts, Indian Navy, Government of India; Rajesh Aggarwal, IAS, Secretary-IT, Government of Maharastra Kshitiz M Kotak, President, ASIRT; Sanjay Mehta, M.D, MAIA Intelligence; Pratik Raj Sharma, Security Consultant, Checkpoint Software; Harold D'Costa, CIO-Intelligent Quotient Security System; Kersi Tavadia,CIO-Bombay Stock Exchange Limited; Meheriar Patel, Head Technology and online- Globus Stores; Bhaskar B, Regional Director India & SAARC - Checkpoint India; Champakraj Gurjar, President- TAIT.
Awards Ceremony
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Mr. Savitur Prasad
PCDA, Indian Navy- GOI gives the award of the best Software Services - Western India |
Mr. Rajesh Aggarwal
IAS, Secretary - IT, Govt. of Maharastra gives the award of the best Reseller - Western India |
Mr. Meheriar Patel
CTO - Globus Store gives the award of the best Support -
Western India |
Mr. Rajesh Aggarwal
IAS, Secretary-IT, Govt. of Maharastra gives the award of the best VAR- Western India |
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Mr. Savitur Prasad
PCDA, Indian Navy-
GOI gives the award of the best IT Brand -Western India |
Mr. Pramoud Rao
MD - Zicom Electronic Security gives the award of the best Network Integrator- Western India |
Mr. Meheriar Patel
CTO - Globus Store gives the award of the best VAD -
Western India |
Mr. Pramoud Rao
MD - Zicom Electronic Security gives the award of the best System Integrator -
Western India |
Welcoming the august guests, Deepak Kumar Sahu, said, "With globalization, the world has gotten smaller; markets have become more competitive; and this has enabled effective communication with the customers and colleagues crucial - requiring accuracy, timeliness and impact. Today we have amongst us, experts from the Industry who are leading brands in India and we also have the top VARs (Distributors, System Integrators and Partners) with us. Thus, this is an opportunity to meet up with them and pick their brains for enhancing the business eco- system."
Giving a thought-provoking speech Shri Savitur Prasad, IDAS, Principal Controller of Defence Accounts, Indian Navy, Government of India said that he feels that a sort of inferiority complex has developed in the IT sector, especially in the Defence sector. He addes that he wonders why cannot all the people from the IT fraternity come forward and start raising their voice. He also empasised on the impoortance of e-procurement and e-tendering.
Rajesh Aggarwal, IAS, Secretary-IT, Government of Maharastra, said, "A year back I wrote a paper called e-Gov 0.0. At the time when everybody was talking about e-Gov 2.0 and 3.0, I thought lets talk about e-Gov 0.0. I believe, minimum governace is good governance." He added that good infratructure is important and that has to be managed well using IT tools.
Speaking at the Forum, Kshitiz M Kotak, President, ASIRT, said, "I am a System Integrator since 22 years. 19 years out of these I have been dealing in business. Key innovations in technology may be Cloud, BYOD, BigData, Social Media for the enterprise, but they are not the key trends driving innovation. They are the key trends in Technology. Innovation refers to the use of a better technology and as a result a novel idea or a method. But the cause of innovation however funny it may sound is still orthodox."
Sanjay Mehta, M.D, MAIA Intelligence, said, "We should start accepting that we are creative. Creativity is not innovation but thinking of new ideas, and innovation is execution of those new ideas. How much new ideas can we generate, do we have a method about getting those ne ideas, how do we manage our ideas so well so that it becomes innovative to help us grow the business that is the whole perspective."
Pratik Raj Sharma, Security Consultant, Checkpoint Software, said, "In the security industry there are only two elements that exists- 'knowns' and 'unknowns'. And the entire security industry revolves around these two angles. We talk about what are the 'known knowns', there are certain components which we are aware of. And then we have some as 'known unknowns', which we are aware that we don't know and the third very important component is 'unknown unknowns', which we don't know whether they exist or don't exist. In 2012, maximum vendors who have released common vulnerability exploits, it has grown upto 16-18%. Similarly the kinds of threats have been much more sophisticated. At the same time we have seen a lot of innovation and how consumerisation is growing in the last couple of years.
Shilpesh Shah, Business manager-West – Converged Infrastructure& Cloud solutions- HP India said, "There is a shift happening with the innovation in IT, how we compute and how we deliver the outcomes. For that all those technologies driving that shift into how we do our day to day IT related operations and how we deploy our IT and how we use IT. So in the mainframe arena all the access devices were dumped. Whereas, in today's scenario with mobile, Social Media, BigData and Cloud, what we have is that the access devices are all smart. With all smart devices in the end users hand we need to really think differently as to how we define IT."
The event concluded with a Vote of Thanks by Deepak Kumar Sahu. The Fair has been well received by the big corporates like the previous show and was celebrated with great flamboyance. The platform provided an opportunity to entrepreneurs, VARs, SIs, corporates, resellers and government officials to interact with each other and establish an advantageous and consequential alliance.
Panel Discussion
Key Drivers Driving Business Innovation

The event comprised of an interesting and interactive panel discussion. The theme of the panel discussion was "Key Drivers Driving Business Innovation". The panel discussion was moderated by Deepak Kumar Sahu, Chief Editor, VARINDIA, he said, "The Indian economy is subjected to global slowdown, hope the economy will see a growth of 6%. Innovation can help us in discovering what opportunities exist now or are likely to emerge in the future. Successful business not only respond to the current customers but often anticipate future trends and develop an idea, products and services that allow us to meet the future demand rapidly."
Talking on cyber security, Harold D'Costa, CIO-Intelligent Quotient Security System, said, "Innovation definitely is important. Innovation at the end of the day should relate to smart which means simple, manageable, reliable accountable and transparent. When we talk about innovation, it has to there and specifically on the cyber domain. Innovation has to go with it. The only thing is that people has to be made aware how to use the cyber space. More than 90% of people using the internet domain actually don’t know that they could become a soft target of cyber crime. Given the awareness point of view, I believe that innovation can help the nation, the citizens and more or less the people to achieve the communication barriers to become smaller and smaller. Innovation definitely has to be there and cyber consciousness should be there from the school level."
Kersi Tavadia,CIO, Bombay Stock Exchange Limited, opined, "Today atleast in the stock exchange world, we always say that we not just run IT but we also do stock exchange business, it is ancillary for us, because for us everything is technology. If we don’t have the technology, stock exchanges today would just close down. So for us having a robust technology is very important. The biggest challenge for us being a CIO is to ensure that the integrity of the exchange is paramount. For us having IT security is of top most priority.

Meheriar Patel, Head Technology and online, Globus Stores, asserted, "As a CIO one area is very clear that to continue business, you need to innovate. Business today looks at innovation as a key criteria which has to be delivered very quickly. Business innovation is key criteria for business transformation. But the framework when you innovate has to be within the boundaries as you cannot go beyond the boundaries and look at innovation which will not be supported very well.
Bhaskar B, Regional Director India & SAARC, Checkpoint India, said, "Change is very important to take innovation forward. When threats are evolving day by day, technology should also evolve. Thus right selection of vendors and partners is very important."
Champakraj Gurjar, President- TAIT said that the world is changing and we need to change with that. In the IT industry if we cross more than 15 years than we are out. Things are changing very fast as we see how desktops have given way to laptops and laptops to tablets.
Meheriar Patel, Head Technology and online, Globus Stores, asserted, "As a CIO one area is very clear that to continue business, you need to innovate. Business today looks at innovation as a key criteria which has to be delivered very quickly. Business innovation is key criteria for business transformation. But the framework when you innovate has to be within the boundaries as you cannot go beyond the boundaries and look at innovation which will not be supported very well.
Bhaskar B, Regional Director India & SAARC, Checkpoint India, said, "Change is very important to take innovation forward. When threats are evolving day by day, technology should also evolve. Thus right selection of vendors and partners is very important."
Champakraj Gurjar, President- TAIT said that the world is changing and we need to change with that. In the IT industry if we cross more than 15 years than we are out. Things are changing very fast as we see how desktops have given way to laptops and laptops to tablets.
For more information log on to : www.varindia.com
Thank You !