CEO's Roundtable on Digital Economy with Shri Nitin Gadkari, President, Bharatiya Janata Party

The Centre for Digital Economy Policy Research (C-DEP) and the Centre for Knowledge Sovereignty (CKS), in partnership with Amcham, NASSCOM, FICCI and ICA organized a CEO’s interaction on Digital Economy Policy with Shri Nitin Gadkari, National President, Bharatiya Janata Party, on 3^rd May 2012 at the ITC Maratha, Mumbai.

 

With a cumulative industry support worth $800 billion through participation from both domestic and international multinationals, industry captains enriched the day’s deliberations, and ensured that discussions revolving around the issues pertaining to the IT/ITES, telecom and e-Governance sectors were highlighted successfully. This was the first time that any such structured attempt had been made by top industry captains to reach out to a national political party, and Shri Gadkari was extremely pleased by the interaction.

 

During the keynote address, Dr. Jaijit Bhattacharya, President, C-DEP, estimated the Indian Digital Economy to be of USD 180 billion (Rs 540,000 cores), which pegged the Digital Economy at over 20% of the Indian economy. He mentioned that the Digital industry provided employment to over 20 million (2 crores) people and led to many more jobs indirectly. This view was supported by Mr.Som Mittal, President, NASSCOM, and Mr. Ajay Singha, Executive Director, AmCham.

Participants included industry thought leaders like Ms. Debjani Ghosh, Managing Director, Intel South Asia, Ms. Naina Lal Kidwai, President FICCI and Managing Director, HSBC India, Ms. Kaku Nakhate, President, President and Country Head, Bank of America, Mr. Sanjeev Gupta, President, Accenture India, Mr. S Ramakrishna, Chief Corporate Offices, Nokia India, Mr. Arijit Sen, Lead Advisor, Global Government Policy, Hewlett-Packard, Mr. Ravi Gupta, Managing Director, CSDMS, Mr. Pradeep Gupta, Managing Director, Cybermedia, Prof. Rajanish Dass of IIM-A.

 

Addressing the gathering of CEO’s, Shri Nitin Gadkari stated that private organizations need to make fair and impartial recommendations for policy makers. He asked that these recommendations should be made in simple language, understandable to all stakeholders, and should be classified suitably into issues for a single MP, for a specific ministry / department, for a specific state. Shri Gadkari assured the industry that if the cases / recommendations were found worthwhile, the follow up conversations with respective committees or state governments would be organized.