Bangalore: The Annual Conference 'Drishtikon 2012' of Center for Software and Information Technology Management (CSITM) at Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) was held on May 26, 2012 at the institute campus. Theme of this year's conference was "Benefiting the masses profitably - An opportunity for Indian technology industry".

Inaugurating the day-long event, Mr Anand Sudarshan, MD and CEO of Manipal Global Education Services impressed upon the need for identifying the solution offering compelling value, developing scalable business model and engaging a patient investor being the key ingredients of success while embarking on creating solutions for the masses. Jasjit Singh, EVP Datawind Ltd spoke at length on the thought process behind conceptualization of Akash tablet, transformational impact of the firm's vision on the society and how the firm plans to evolve the business model to make it sustainable. Concluding the inauguration event, Professor Sourav Mukherji from IIM Bangalore described the reasons behind the economic expansion in India not reaching the masses and many efforts that are underway from both private and public sector in this direction to reduce the gap.

In the afternoon sessions, Mr Vir Kashyap, COO of Babajob explained firm's efforts in organizing the unorganized sector comprising of people from utility services like housemaids, carpenters and plumbers. He explained the current challenges related to IT infrastructure and firm's roadmap to offer multiple solutions in enhancing the employability people from this unorganized sector. Mr Ganesh Rengaswamy, Partner  - Lok Capital explained to the audience the broad outline of considerations made by investment community that goes behind funding the solutions for the masses. Audience listened with rapt attention when Ms Gunjan Krishna, IAS officer and Head of eGovernance Mission for Karnataka Govt highlighted number of technology led solutions that have been implemented and currently underway that will improve the governance and expedite delivery of citizen services in transparent manner. Mr Bhavish Sood, Research Director at Gartner provided the magnitude of digital divide that exists in India and underlined the trends that are shaping the market to address the problems of the masses.

Professor N M Agrawal, Chairperson of CSITM welcomed the audience and the speakers by highlighting the objective of conference. He explained the intention of the conference to bring wider attention to all important issue of the chasm between haves and have-nots and the role of technology industry in furthering its efforts in transforming the society. Speaking on the sidelines, Rajesh Pandit, Chief Manager of the center at IIMB said that India with over 40% of its population below international standards of extreme poverty line, inclusive business growth had become a compelling necessity and there is an urgent need for technology industry to look at this opportunity even from commercial perspective.

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