CIO & LEADER-Issue-10-January 2018 (1)

Face Off 

Is CIO's vertical specialization 

important? Pg 24 

Banking 

Why tech is the ultimate 

cash cow for farmers? Pg 38 

Volume 06 

Issue 10 

January 2018 

150 

TRACK TECHNOLOGY BUILD BUSINESS SHAPE SELF 

Skills 

CIOs will 

Develop 

& Hire to 

Conquer 

2018 page. 

16 

A 9.9 Media Publication

EDITORIAL 

Shyamanuja Das 

shyamanuja.das@9dot9.in 

Beyond the 

Hyperboles 

A 

For ensuring that 

the organization 

remains both 

competitive and 

responsible, one 

of the immediate 

priorities is 

drawing of an 

action plan 

for systematic 

reskilling 

At the time of writing this, the annual meeting 

of the World Economic Forum is on at Davos. 

India, of course, is getting a lot of mindshare, 

not just because of the plenary speech of prime 

minister Narendra Modi in which he reiterated 

India’s commitment to globalization but also 

because India’s role in global economy is now 

unquestionable! 

Technology has become one of the recurring 

themes in all global agenda setting. In a multidisciplinary, 

cross-cultural platform like WEF 

it is even more prominent—as technology now 

touches and impacts all aspects of life. 

What is somewhat new this year, however, all 

that tech talk is not one-sided optimism. Global 

leaders—including tech leaders—have started 

discussing the adverse impact of technological 

progress, incidentally one of the global risks 

that WEF has been trying to measure in its 

annual Global Risk Report (GRR). 

Talking of GRR, this year, two of 

the cyber risks—cyber-attacks and 

data theft/fraud—have been identified 

by thought leaders as two of the 

five most likely risks for the world 

in 2018. 

But the WEF discussion goes 

much beyond the immediate risks. 

Apart from cyber security, other 

impact of technology that has been 

discussed is the impact that technology 

has on children, on jobs, and on 

society in general. Who could have 

imagined a decade back that Cisco 

CEO would stand on one of the most important global 

platforms and urge the parents to control device 

use among children? 

This is but one example of the fact that the global 

tech community is becoming far more responsible. 

As an important constituent of that community, the 

CIOs should keep this aspect in mind. 

One of the more actionable items on that responsibility 

agenda is doing something about new automation 

making certain current functions redundant/ 

less important. For ensuring that the organization 

remains both competitive and responsible, one of the 

immediate priorities is drawing of an action plan for 

systematic reskilling. 

The recently released WEF report, Towards a 

Reskilling Revolution: A Future of Jobs for All introduces 

a new data-driven approach to identifying reskilling 

and job transition opportunities. 

But as a recent survey by us finds out—and our 

cover story is based on that—our CIOs are more 

than sensitized to the need of reskilling. The 2018 

agenda is primarily to act. We present ten top CIOs’ 

take on what skills they are looking at hiring and 

what skills that they are looking to acquire for themselves. 

And they explain why. 

Tell us about yours 

January 2018 | CIO&LEADER 

1

A 9.9 Media Publication 

Face Off 

Is CIO's vertical specialization 

important? Pg 24 

TRACK TECHNOLOGY BUILD BUSINESS SHAPE SELF 

Banking Volume 06 

Why tech is the ultimate Issue 10 

January 2018 

cash cow for farmers? Pg 38 

150 

16 

CONTENT 

JANUARY 2018 

COVER STORY 

16-23| 

Skills CIOs Will 

Develop & Hire To 

Conquer 2018 

advertisers ’ index 

Godrej 

Vodafone 

Skills 


Develop 

Conquer 

2018 page. 

& Hire to 

Cover Design by: 

Shokeen Saifi 

FC 

BC 

Please Recycle 

This Magazine 

And Remove 

Inserts Before 

Recycling 

COPYRIGHT, All rights reserved: Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission from 

Nine Dot Nine Interactive Pvt Ltd. is prohibited. Printed and published by Vikas Gupta for Nine Dot Nine 

Mediaworx Pvt Ltd, 121, Patparganj, Mayur Vihar, Phase - I, Near Mandir Masjid, Delhi-110091. Printed at 

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This index is provided as an 

additional service.The publisher 

does not assume any liabilities 

for errors or omissions. 

2 CIO&LEADER | January 2018

AROUND THE TECH 

04-07 

Colonels, Commanders & 

Cybersecurity 

www.cioandleader.com 

COLUMN 

08-09 

Essential Traits Of A 

New Leader 

By Priya Dar 

10-11 

How Enterprises Are 

Redefining Businesses 

With Big Data Powered 

By AI 

By Aashish Kalra 

INSIGHT 

26-27 

Artificial Intelligence 

Is Creating Happy 

Workplaces 

28-29 

Tech Job Trends In 

2018 And Beyond 

32-33 

When Cloud Gives You 

Wings 

SECURITY 

34-36 

Web Application 

Security In A Digitally 

Connected World 

MANAGEMENT 

Managing Director: Dr Pramath Raj Sinha 

Printer & Publisher: Vikas Gupta 

EDITORIAL 

Managing Editor: Shyamanuja Das 

Associate Editor: Shubhra Rishi 

Content Executive-Enterprise Technology: 

Dipanjan Mitra 

DESIGN 

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Art Director: Shokeen Saifi 

Visualisers: NV Baiju & Manoj Kumar VP 

Lead UI/UX Designer: Shri Hari Tiwari 

Sr Designers: Charu Dwivedi, Haridas Balan & Peterson PJ 

SALES & MARKETING 

Director-Community Engagement 

for Enterprise Technology Business: 

Sachin Mhashilkar (+91 99203 48755) 

Brand Head: Vandana Chauhan (+91 99589 84581) 

Assistant Product Manager-Digital: Manan Mushtaq 

Community Manager-B2B Tech: Megha Bhardwaj 

Community Manager-B2B Tech: Renuka Deopa 

Associate-Enterprise Technology: Abhishek Jain 

Assistant Brand Manager-B2B Tech: Mallika Khosla 

Regional Sales Managers 

South: Ashish Kumar (+91 97407 61921) 

North: Deepak Sharma (+91 98117 91110) 

West: Prashant Amin (+91 98205 75282) 

Ad Co-ordination/Scheduling: Kishan Singh 

PRODUCTION & LOGISTICS 

Manager Operations: Rakesh Upadhyay 

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OFFICE ADDRESS 

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Published, Printed and Owned by Nine Dot Nine Mediaworx 

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NOIDA (U.P.) 201301. 

Editor: Vikas Gupta 


3

WHAT 

CIOs ARE 

TIRED OF 

HEARING... 

around 

thetech 

SECURITY 

Colonels, 

Commanders & 

Cybersecurity 

In 1978, Transformational Leadership 

was introduced by expert, James Mc-Gregor Burns, 

in his book “Leadership”. There are close to a dozen 

CISOs in Indian industry—who have served in Indian 

the defense forces—namely the Indian Army and Indian 

Navy. Somehow, we do not see many ex-Airmen in the 

list. But what exactly is prompting India, Inc. to go for 

these defense personnel as CISOs? On the face of it, 

many say current cyber threats require a real combat 

mindset that comes naturally to the defense personnel. 

Whatever it is, at present fauji CISOs seem to be ruling 

the CISO-dom. Here is a list of a handful of CISOs. 

“The Chief 

Information Officer 

role is nearing 

extinction and may 

cease to exist a few 

years from now.” 

AK Anand 

Senior Vice President, Global 

Practice Head & CISO 

NIIT Technologies 

Colonel in Indian Army 

AJ Vijaykumar 

CISO 

Tata Communications 

Lt Colonel in Indian Army 

Brijesh Datta 

SVP & CISO 

Reliance JioInfocom 

Colonel in Indian Army 

Kaushal K Chaudhary 

Executive Director – Group Head 

IT & IS 

Lanco Infratech 

Jt Director Systems 

(Commander of Indian Navy) 

Manish Tiwari 

CISO 

Bharti Airtel 

Director – CERT, Indian Navy 

Murli Menon 

CISO 

Atos India 

Commander at Indian Navy 

Mukesh Saini 

Head, IT Security 

Essel Group 

Commander at Indian Navy 

Prashant Veer Singh 

SVP, CISO and CIO 

Bharti Infratel 

Officer Commanding 

Communications (Major) at 

Indian Army 


Around The Tech 

BY THE BOOK 

We recommend you to read Pedro 

Domingos’ The Master Algorithm, 

which gives us a peek inside the learning 

machines that power Google, Amazon, 

and your smartphone. The author 

paints a picture through machine 

learning's five major schools of thought, 

showing how they turn ideas from neuroscience, 

evolution, psychology, physics, 

and statistics into algorithms ready 

to serve you. Domingos, a Professor 

at University of Washington, is also a 

researcher in machine learning, creates 

a blueprint of The Master Algorithm, 

and discusses what it means for the 

future of business, science, and society. 

The quest for universal learning is one 

of the most significant, fascinating, and 

revolutionary intellectual developments 

of all time. A ground-breaking 

book, The Master Algorithm is the 

essential guide for anyone wanting to 

understand not just how the data revolution 

will happen, but how to be at its 

forefront. 

makingheadlines 

When people arrived in Las Vegas to attend CES in January this year, one of the 

first things they noticed was Google’s massive promotional campaign for its 

Google Assistant service. There were ads splattered on the sides of buildings, 

painted on trains, and displayed on the screens of hotel room TVs. The effort 

wasn't to make artificial intelligence a huge theme at this year’s show–mainly in 

the form of digital assistants. Google, on the other hand, is also using its network 

of Android devices and integrate its digital assistant service into millions of cars 

from companies such as Ford, GM, Volkswagen and Volvo. Likewise, Amazon 

left no stone unturned to showcase Alexa as the new wave in digital assistants. 

Alexa's history preceded itself since it was the star of last year's CES. At CES 

2018, Amazon's Alexa service has diversified into cookers from Whirlpool and 

GE as well as Bluetooth-enabled portable devices such as smartwatches, headphones 

and smartglasses. 

Only 17% of senior roles are held by women in India. 

The global survey by Grant Thornton – Women in business: 

New perspectives on risk and reward, of 5,500 

businesses in 36 economies further adds that 41% 

of the Indian businesses surveyed have no women in 

leadership roles, 7 points higher than the last year. 

India continues to rank third lowest in the proportion 

of business leadership roles held by women for the 

third year consecutively. 

At the global stage, Grant Thornton’s data shows 

developing regions continue to lead the charge on 

diversity with developed economies lagging behind. 

Eastern Europe performs best, with 38% of senior roles 

held by women in 2017 and just 9% of businesses 

with no women in senior management. Meanwhile the 

MINT economies (Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey) 

saw the most improvement, with the proportion of 

senior roles held by women rising from 24% in 2016 to 

28% in 2017. 

gender 

bender 


5


CES 2018 

SPECIAL 

matter of 

twitter 

Toyota president Akio Toyoda has announced e-Palette, the auto 

company's on-demand autonomous vehicle solution for business 

applications, which it said will essentially form on-demand cities. 

E-Palette is one example of Toyota's vision for autonomous business 

applications," Toyoda said at CES 2018. 

E-Palette will be fully electric, and will be powered by Toyota's 

autonomous technology. Or, if they prefer, partner companies can use 

their own automotive driving system instead. In either case, e-Palette 

will include Toyota's Guardian technologies, which will act as a 

safety net. It's an open, flexible platform that can be easily adapted to 

support a range of uses, including ride sharing, delivering, and retail. 

Announced at CES 2018, the e-Palette could enable on-demand 

use cases for retail experiences, personal shops, markets, showrooms, 

and office sharing while transiting to and from the workplace. 

Ride sharing transport could also share the space with on-demand 

meal deliveries. 

VITAL 

STATISTICS 

Digital business 

maturity has a 

direct impact on 

CIO position 

Percentage of CIOs reporting to the 

CEO by digital maturity 

70% 

0% 

31% 

No Digital 

Initiative 

(n=260) 

36% 

Desire/ 

Ambition 

(n=604) 

41% 

Designing 

(n=851) 

43% 

Delivering 

(n=799) 

48% 

Scaling 

(n=417) 

59% 

Harvesting/ 

Refining 

(n=94) 

Source: Gartner's CIO Agenda 2018 Survey 



CIO Movements 

Niranjan 

Bhalivade 

IS NOW 

CEO - Information 

Technology, 

Trident Group 

WAS 

CIO, CEAT 

Niranjan Bhalivade has 

joined as the CEO - 

Information Technology 

at Trident Group, a 

leading manufacturer 

of textiles and based 

in Ludhiana. Bhalivade, 

who has served as a 

jury member for annual 

NEXT100 awards by 

9.9 Media's IT NEXT 

for multiple years, was 

serving as the CIO of 

CEAT for last eight years. 

He will be leading the 

digitalization program at 

the group. 

Manish 

Tiwari 

IS NOW 

Senior VP and 

Global CISO, Bharti 

Airtel 

WAS 

CISO, Microsoft 

India 

Manish Tiwari has 

joined as Senior VP and 

Global Chief Information 

Security Officer (CISO) 

for Bharti Airtel, India's 

largest telecom service 

provider. Tiwari, an 

ex-defence personnel, 

who served as the 

director for Indian Navy's 

Computer Emergenecy 

Response Team (CERT), 

was most recently 

serving as the CISO for 

Microsoft India. 

Anand 

Thakur 

IS NOW 

Chief Digital Officer, 

Jubilant Foodworks 

Ltd 

WAS 

CTO, Koovs 

Anand Thakur has 

joined as the Chief 

Digital Officer of Jubilant 

Foodworks Ltd. This is a 

newly created position at 

the company. A techie, 

Thakur served in various 

IT companies including 

Infosys, Perot Systems, 

Adobe before having 

a stint in online retail 

companies including 

Lenskart and Koovs. 

His immediate last 

assignment was as the 

CTO of Koovs. 

Major Vikas 

Singh Yadav 

IS NOW 

CISO, Max Life 

Insurance Company 

WAS 

CISO, Government 

of India 

Major Vikas Singh 

Yadav, an experienced 

information security 

professional, who was 

with the Indian Army 

and was working most 

recently in a government 

assignment, has joined 

as the Chief Information 

Security Officer (CISO) at 

Life Insurance company, 

Max Life. 

Vikas is a dynamic 

professional with 

excellent academic 

record and cross domain 

experience. 

Arindam 

Singha Roy 

IS NOW 

CIO, East India 

Udyog 

WAS 

Head of IT, 

SPML Infra 

Arindam Singha Roy has 

joined as the CIO of East 

India Udyog, a major 

transformer, conductor 

and EPC company. 

Before this, he was the 

Head of IT at SPML 

Infra where he was 

responsible for setting 

up IT infrastructure, 

security and applications 

and was in-charge of the 

entire IT set-up. Arindam 

had spent more than 12 

years at SPML Infra. 


7

COLUMN 

By Priya Dar 

Essential 

Traits Of A 

New Leader 

Priya Dar, Chief Information Officer, 

Godfrey Phillips, writes about leadership 

in the digital age 

W 

“Who is a leader?” - My 13-year old son asked me one day. This 

got me thinking. Having spent some time in the leadership spectrum, 

this is a hard truth to live by. You have to constantly ask yourself: 

Are you a leader? A good leader? A conscientious leader? A 

just leader? 

Is he/she the one who stands front and center or is he/she the 

one who stands in the back ensuring everything goes well? After 

taking a scholastic approach, I think I have learnt a few things 

about leadership. 

In my opinion, anyone can become a leader. Are you a team 

player?; Are you decisive enough without letting your ego get in 

the way?; Do you communicate?; Are you approachable?; Do your 

people know you have their back? 

Know When To Change 

Sometimes you will need to lead the troops, and at other times you 

will have to nudge your people to take the plunge. Access the situation 

and decide. 

Be Decisive 

Not with an iron fist though. Any attempt to rule with an iron fist 

will go down like a lead balloon. 

The author is Chief Information Officer 

at Godfrey Phillips 

Keep Learning 

However, high on the career graph, you should be open to learning 

from anyone around you – irrespective of rank. 


Column 

1 

Promoting the 

company's vision 

2 

Operationalizing 

CSR 

3 

Obtaining top 

management 

support 

4 

Engaging diverse 

stakeholders 

5 

Empowering 

and developing 

stakeholders 

Sometimes you will need to lead the troops 

and at other times, you will have to nudge 

people to take the plunge 

6 

Communicating 

with stakeholders 

7 

Measuring 

performance 

8 

Setting ethical 

standards 

Source: Report by Russel Reynolds on Sustainable 

Leadership: Talent requirements for sustainable enterprises 

Be Appreciative 

Just because it is a job, does not mean, 

you cannot appreciate small things. 

I have learnt from experience that 

appreciation begets loyalty, which is at 

the core of a successful leader. 

Pace Yourself 

Just because there is a book called 

“First 100 days of a CXO” does not 

mean you have to complete everything 

within 100 days. Every organization is 

different and so the list of accomplishments 

will be different. 

Build Relationships/ 

Network 

Build your network - internally and 

externally. One of my mentors used 

to say this – a lot can be accomplished 

over a cup of tea. 

Delegate 

As you go higher up the corporate 

ladder, there are things you will 

have to delegate. Create the bandwidth 

for yourself by delegation and 

then let the delegate handle the day to 

day stuff. 

Lead by Example 

If you want people to respect policy 

– start following it yourself. I have 

seen people preach about the benefits 

of strong passwords while their own 

passwords are “abc123.” 

Don’t Forget to Enjoy 

You have earned it. Ultimately my 

answer to my son was on similar lines 

– a leader is not just someone who 

leads but someone who inspires others 

to follow 


9

COLUMN 

By Aashish Kalra 

How 

Enterprises 

Are Redefining 

Businesses 

With Big Data 

Powered By AI 

How these technologies is giving 

businesses a new lease of life 

T 

The author is Chairman, Cambridge 

Technology Enterprises Limited 

The world is transforming and 

economies like India and China that 

remained undiscovered in early 90s, 

hold the potential to be discovered as 

growth stories and creators of asset 

class because of their ability to create 

unstructured data sets. Data is the 

next natural resource, like air, 

oil, water, and the convergence of 

Big Data and Cloud powered by AI 

and ML is a potential multi-trillion 

dollar opportunity. 

Artificial Intelligence is no longer 

a theory, it is for real because of the 

availability of unstructured data, 

high bandwidth and affordable computing 

resources. 

Discovering AI is the 

new normal 

As the world transforms, businesses 

are going to need a lot of elements to 

implement AI. They need an element 

of Big Data and Cloud, then they need 

to manage data, followed by an ability 

to see panoramic view of data to 

innovate and help businesses leapfrog 

and most importantly, draw 

insights to take the decisions. Majority 

of the companies will not be able 

to articulate the problem or hire the 

people to execute. 

There will be businesses with the 

resources and capital to get to decisions 

while some may still be finding 

the way to cross the bridge. Discovering 

the power of AI for your business 

will be the new impact. Gartner 

recently estimated that the term “AI” 

ranked seventh in the most searched 

terms. This is significant jump compared 

to January 2016 when “AI” 

was not even in the top 100 for the 

same category. 

Artificial Intelligence is transforming 

the way businesses are defined, 

designed and delivered and enterprise 

value is captured. Asian economies 

like India and China are poised to 

leapfrog the world in Artificial Intel- 

10 CIO&LEADER | January 2018

Column 

ligence as the demography is not constrained 

by legacy usage of computers 

or tablets so they can move directly to 

the phone. Also, India and China are 

creating unstructured data at a very 

rapid pace and has datasets in volume 

that very few countries possess. 

In the Asian context, India is a 

country with inefficiencies and lack 

of infrastructure in financial services, 

retail, education, health services, 

insurance and manufacturing. Most of 

these sectors have limited innovation 

in technology due to the majority of 

transactions being done in cash. Now, 

with the increasing adoption of digital 

currency, it will create a treasure 

trove of data in every industry. With 

incredible advances in Artificial Intelligence, 

India Inc. will have the ability 

to upend, disrupt and create industryshaping 

companies from scratch. 

Mobility in India will drive digital 

adoption. As the next 700 million 

Indians get online – they will create 

data on how they live, move, transact 

and interact. This will in turn create 

opportunities in healthcare services, 

transportation, building better cities, 

retail, e-commerce and media. 

As we approach this future, we will 

see startups and big companies alike 

take advantage of Artificial Intelligence 

to re-invent and innovate. The 

vision of Digital India requires considerable 

investment and a sustained 

push to create better infrastructure 

and development of talent to support 

this transformation. If we can combine 

the efforts in government policy and 

innovation that young Indians are 

creating today, India will leapfrog the 

technologies of yesterday and emerge 

as the engine of global growth. 

On a larger context, application 

of Artificial Intelligence to crossfunctional 

departments can generate 

insights adding immense value to ingrained 

business processes in terms 

of improving performance on a proactive 

basis. For implementing Artificial 

Intelligence at an enterprise level, 

both AI and businesses have to ‘Think 

Gartner recently estimated that the 

term “AI” ranked seventh in the most 

searched terms 

Big, Start Small and Act Fast’. 

So, that’s the global context of what 

businesses should be trying to solve. 

The first thing is to capture the data 

and place it in databases that can 

handle that volume of data. This is not 

your traditional databases. The second 

part is how you analyse it. Today, the 

world analyzes it by brute force but 

tomorrow, we are convinced that the 

world will analyze large parts of data 

with Artificial Intelligence. Once you 

get to that point, the way we deal with 

information, the way the world works 

transforms itself. It is no longer transactional, 

it is relationship. 

Identifying hidden correlations is 

the aim of applying AI to business 

processes. Data-rich and digitally 

transformed organizations are going 

to have an advantage here compared to 

ones that are not capturing their data. 

Former organizations should start 

understanding the power of AI and 

start identifying different processes in 

business units where they can maximize 

results with the usage of AI. 

In the years to come, enterprises 

will scale new heights by exploring 

this untapped data and extract incremental 

value. AI powered by Big 

Data will affect almost all facets of our 

existence ultimately influencing the 

way enterprises chase growth, to 

positive effect. 

Whether businesses are ready 

or not, AI is going to take us overwith 

its disruption and it is going to 

work in the favor of those who are better 

prepared 


11

COLUMN 

By Rahul Kumar 

Cloud 

Security: 

A Case For 

Effective 

Encryption 

Having an effective encryption and key 

management solution is vital to the 

success of any security strategy 

I 

It has not yet reached epic proportions, but the number of organizations 

adopting cloud-based technologies is growing dramatically. 

Organizations of all sizes across industries are turning towards 

cloud-based infrastructure and cloud computing for better scalability, 

accessibility and a collaborative work environment. However, 

after moving to the cloud, many organizations mistakenly assume 

that it is the role of the cloud service provider (CSP) to secure data 

and ensure compliance. 

Even though the CSP may provide services for protecting data, 

organizations must understand the fact that virtual environments 

are not always fully secure and that they—organizations—too have a 

role in protecting the security and privacy of their data. Remember, 

the liability to notify those affected and remediate damages is on you 

should your company suffer a data breach! 

The author is Country Manager for 

India at WinMagic 

Knowing the levels of responsibility 

does matter 

When it comes to choosing between cloud infrastructure and cloud 

computing, companies must make the decision backed by a plan to 

implement the right security solution. The solution should effectively 

address issues such as securing data, managing risk related 

to unauthorized access, and meeting compliance and regulatory 

requirements. Remember, the cloud is subject to the same threats 


Column 

With increased sophistication of threats, cloud security is 

becoming even more dynamic as it evolves 

as a data center. Whether cloud or onpremise, 

organizations have to deal 

with human error, malicious breaches 

from internal and external sources, as 

well as system glitches. The massive 

amounts of data located on shared 

cloud servers always entice criminals. 

Things get a lot more complicated 

when a multitude of mobile devices 

are used in organizations. 

With increased sophistication of 

threats, cloud security is becoming 

even more dynamic as it evolves. 

Organizations continue to be responsible 

for security, privacy and compliance 

even when under different cloud 

service models. The need for consistent 

policies, password rules and 

specialized data encryption methods 

has never been greater. Both the organization 

and the CSP have roles that 

vary in scope, but then both also have 

different levels of responsibility that 

encompass the entire gamut of operations—from 

data classification, 

endpoint protection, identity and 

access management, application and 

network level controls, to host and 

physical security. 

There are clear boundaries defined 

and responsibilities identified for 

organizations and CSPs. For instance, 

in both on-premise and cloud models, 

the organization is responsible for 

ensuring that the data is classified 

and encrypted in compliance with the 

regulatory obligations. In the case of 

endpoint devices, CSPs may facilitate 

the management of these devices by 

providing secure device management, 

mobile application management, and 

PC management capabilities; however, 

the responsibility of implementing the 

security solution again lies with the 

customer organization. 

Who is responsible for 

a breach? 

There is no question about who is 

responsible when a breach occurs. For 

businesses, the vital consideration in 

securing the infrastructure and data 

relates to where the CSP’s responsibility 

ends and the organization’s begins 

so that a breach does not occur in the 

first place. This means that while the 

provider is responsible for protecting 

the hardware, software, physical facilities 

and other aspects involved with 

running the cloud services provided, 

businesses maintain control over a 

number of key security measures. 

Some key security measures for 


13

Column 

businesses include: 

Network configuration and security 

(such as firewalls) 

Data Security (including encryption) 

The use of third-party security tools 

such as encryption key management 

software 

Determining the type of content and 

data to store in the cloud 

Access control and management 

Making life simple with encryption 

There is abundant evidence to show 

the difference that encryption makes 

in containing the volume of loss and 

associated costs when a breach occurs. 

In fact, according to a study, extensive 

use of encryption is the second most 

impactful factor that can limit the costs 

of a data breach. Despite all pointers 

that emphasize its advantages, usage 

of encryption is limited in many businesses 

across industries. Although the 

adoption of encryption has increased 

over the last decade, only a mere 37 percent 

of businesses employ it as a cloud 

security strategy. 

Remember, encryption is the important 

first step for businesses that wish 

to take control of the ownership of 

data; better encryption key management 

follows next. 

While encryption renders data 

into a format that can only be read by 

authorized users, it does not make a 

powerful strategic tool if not combined 

with effective key management. Far 

too often, companies follow a laissezfaire 

approach to key management, 

which makes its utilization needlessly 

complex and cumbersome. Problems 

do get out of hand when there is no 

clear ownership of keys within the 

organization, when no skilled personnel 

is in charge of the keys, or when 

a siloed approach is followed for key 

management. 

Having an effective encryption and 

key management solution is vital to 

the success of any security strategy. 

Data encryption, when executed 

properly, ensures the protection of 

sensitive information. Although there 

are many myths surrounding data 

Encryption is the important first step for businesses 

that wish to take control of the ownership of data; 

better encryption key management follows next 

encryption (too expensive, too difficult 

to manage, etc), the surprising truth is 

that it is indispensable. In fact, encryption 

provides the foundational framework 

to any data security protection 

strategy. 

There are security options out there 

to help organizations in: 

Encrypting and managing data 

stored on virtual machines and 

Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) 

platforms. 

Encrypting files at the endpoint 

before they are synchronized to 

enterprise file sync and share (EFSS) 

services across a range of enterprise 

platforms. 

Managing encryption keys across 

the enterprise 

Whether data is stored in public, 

private, or hybrid cloud environments, 

organizations need a robust 

solution to ensure full control of 

encryption and its keys. Much of the 

encryption related problems can be 

alleviated with the adoption of file 

encryption software, and ideally with 

an intelligent key management system 

that encrypts virtual machines and 

removes encryption keys at the conclusion 

of each virtual instance. 

Using a single platform often is 

more effective as an organization can 

ensure the implementation of a unified 

encryption strategy across any 

endpoint, provide a virtualized or 

cloud environment with increased 

enterprise security, ensure encryption 

compliance, and reduce complexities 

of risk management and audits 


Skills 


Develop 

& Hire to 

Conquer 

2018 By 

Shubhra Rishi

Cover Story 

L 

et's address the elephant 

in the room: The world is 

staring at a talent crisis. 

The Fourth Industrial 

Revolution is disturbing 

the demand supply equilibrium 

- creating a shortfall 

of new skills. This is a classic Catch- 

22 situation where, on the one hand, 

CIOs are shifting their investments 

in favour of digital transformation. 

On the other hand, skilled IT workers 

are hard to come by. In a recent Skill 

Survey conducted by CIO&Leader, we 

found that 45% of Indian CIOs find it 

"hard" to hire the right skills for their 

department while 14% agree that it is 

rather "very hard" to fill in these highskilled 

positions. 

This is hardly a surprise because 

CIOs across the board identify the IT 

skills gap as a serious impediment to 

their growing digital ambition and 

they are under enormous pressure 

to help their organizations become 

agile and stay relevant in the current 

digital age. 

Every CIO is probably in a classic 

fear-of-missing-out moment with 

technology. One in every third CIO is 

either implementing an AI-powered 

digital initiative or leading the digital 

transformation initiative in the organization. 

According to recent Skill 

Survey, CIOs will hire skills in BI & 

Analytics, security, cloud, infrastructure, 

networking, vertical-specific 

skills, enterprise architecture, business 

consulting, among others. 

Today's business expect CIOs and 

their IT organizations to develop digital technology and 

business skills such as design thinking, data sciences, usercentric 

design and exposure to new technologies, such as 

IoT, Machine Learning, Big Data, and Blockchain, to drive 

transformation and sustain long-term benefits. 

Traditionally, CIOs have hired IT consultants, contrac- 

Vertical-specific 

skills 

10% 

Which specific skills will CIOs hire in 2018? 

Cloud/Infrastructure/ 

Networking 

17% 

Enterprise 

Architecture 

17% 

Business 

Analyst 

17% 

BI & Analytics 

17% 

Security 

48% 

Which leadership/business skills are CIOs planning 

to hone in 2018? 

3% 3% 

Marketing 

Vendor 

Mgmt 

14% 

Financial 

Mgmt 

21% 

Team 

Mgmt 

59% 

Business 

Transformation 


17

Cover Story 

Which tech skills are you planning to develop in 2018? 

10% 

IT 

Security 

26% 

Cloud 

Services 

33% 

Big 

Data 

64% 

Digital 

Technologies 

Which skill is more important to develop in 2018? 

“Every CIO is 

probably in the 

middle of a classic 

fear-of-missingout 

moment with 

technology” 

7% 

Leadership 

27% 

Technology 

66% 

All of the 

above 

What is the level of difficulty you face/have faced in 

hiring skills for IT? 

7% 

Easy 

27% 

Medium 

45% 

Hard 

14% 

Very Hard 

7% 

None of 

the above 

Source: Skills survey 2018 

tors and outsourcing services to meet this challenge. But we 

all know the reality of the modern world that this solution 

is far from sustainable, and is definitely expensive (even if 

companies can afford to spend on it) in the long run. Developing 

and retaining IT talent is a critical issue that organizations 

are already facing or likely to face in the future. CIOs 

find themselves tacking this problem head first. The other 

not-so-immediate solution is for CIOs to focus on reskilling 

and upskilling their workforce. This is definitely not an 

option, but is a necessity of modern times. 

Some of the leading CIOs in the industry are already 

advocating a radical new approach. They are identifying 

and incubating small technology start-ups within their own 

organizations. This way they are able to add new skills, 

capabilities and competencies to their teams and stay not 

only relevant to their organizations, and win from within. 

As they cultivate new skills, CIOs are not leaving any 

stone unturned to develop their own leadership and technology 

skills. CIOs today want to be in the know and get 

their hands dirty as new technologies get deployed within 

their organizations. In the survey, 65% of CIOs said that 

they want to develop skills in digital technologies namely 

IoT, artificial intelligence, and robotics, closely followed by 

big data (35%), cloud services (36%) and IT security (10%). 

Similarly, business transformation continues to be a top priority 

for CIOs. 

In order to dig deeper, we probed 10 leading Indian CIOs 

to tell us how they are finding top talent– and how they are 

planning to hone their leadership and technology skills and 

develop new competencies in 2018. Here's what they said: 


Cover Story 

Alok Khanna 

Executive Director – 

Information Systems 

Indian Oil Corporation 

Limited 

Skill I Plan To Hire in 2018 

At Indian Oil, a number of digital transformation projects are already 

under way. We are taking another step towards procuring a dealer 

management plus CRM system. There are primarily four areas where 

we plan to hire digital skills, namely big data and analytics, machine 

learning, IoT and chatbots. Artificial intelligence is an important area of 

investment for us. Last year, we deployed a chatbot as a downloadable 

application to serve as a digital assistant to all our delegates at a global 

conference. This year, we will also be focused on hiring predictive analytics 

and big data skills to drive positive business outcomes through 

actionable insights. Cyber security is an area where skills are hard to come by, and 

therefore our focus will be to deploy a service model supported on cloud or an onpremises 

model managed by experts. 

Alok wants 

to focus on 

developing big 

data analytics 

and cybersecurity 

skills in 2018 

Skill I Plan To Hone in 2018 

Considering there are a number of digital initiatives underway at IOCL, my main 

focus is to deliver them in a timely manner. Nevertheless, I am planning to hone 

my skills in mainly two areas namely big data & analytics and cyber security; the 

latter, I believe will come handy in probing complex and ever-evolving ransomware 

and IoT-related threats -- and thus, help me in identifying future threats and finding 

staff that can mitigate those risks. 

Ashok wants to 

focus on adopting 

and promting 

a culture of 

collective 

leadership in 

2018 


No business has been left untouched by the impact of technology. 

The Paints industry is undergoing a transformation. Therefore, 

in 2018, we will be hiring innovative skill set in artificial intelligence 

and social media for better reach to our consumers and 

mobility for helping us bring together all functions and complex 

processes. 

Skill I Plan To Develop in 2018 

In 2018, I will focus on adopting and promoting the culture of 

collective leadership. What it means is accepting the fact that no 

one is the master of everything, and we need to create more and 

more leaders in various IT sub-domains. CIOs need to break classical 

reporting structures, form a pool of expertise using multiple 

sources for innovation and distribute leadership role across business 

and technology. I will pay more attention to how business 

functions impact business performance and how technology can 

help. I will personally focus on learning more about blockchain 

and how it can be used in our business and industry. There will be 

an additional focus on understanding more about AI and Machine 

Learning which is the future. 

Ashok Jade 

CIO 

Shalimar Paints 


19

Cover Story 


2018 is the year of mobility and analytics. IoT will also be a 

prime area of focus. Therefore, we will focused on hiring talent 

in these digital technologies. Cloud computing is set to continue 

on its high-velocity path as business shifts from legacy to 

cloud-based systems. We are also in the process of adopting 

digital business strategies. Additionally, I believe that the selection 

of the right partner is extremely important if you choose an 

outsourced model. It is because you're outsourcing your business, 

and therefore, it is a critical part of the CIO's job today. 

Farhan Khan 

Head-IT 

Radico Khaitan 

Farhan's focus 

will be on 

hiring mobility, 

analytics and 

IoT talent 

Skills I Plan To Develop in 2018 

The changing technology dynamics warrant a new set of skills 

for a CIO. I believe that I wish to continue to develop my understanding 

of IT infrastructure and enterprise architecture. The 

CIO will have to showcase an intuitive understanding of finance, 

marketing, operations, HR as well as other functions. Additionally, 

I will also be looking at developing skills in business process 

reengineering, project management, and strategic planning. 

I believe that leading through that change is probably the 

most critical skill a CIO can possess. 

Glory Nelson 

Senior Vice President-IT 

Spice Jet 


In 2018, we will be focused on delivering an outstanding customer experience. 

However, getting UX skills is extremely hard. In order to do that, 

I will be hiring UX architects who play a critical role in understanding 

what the user expects from a product. A good UX specialist has a strong 

knowledge code, and should be well-versed in creating strategic plans 

that will help us improve overall customer experience. 

I will also be investing in hiring business consultants who are well-versed 

in business and technology. The other key area of skills investment will 

be broadly in Robotics Process Automation (RPA). As individual technology 

skills are very hard to find, we leverage partners who can provide advanced 

analytical and business intelligence skills in the RPA domain to eliminate a number 

of mundane and repetitive tasks. 


Data science is a field that has constantly piqued my interest. Mining large 

amounts of structured and unstructured data to identify patterns can help an 

organization rein in costs, increase efficiencies, recognize new market opportunities 

and increase an organization's competitive advantage. I will also be seeking 

certifications in developing UX skills and RPA. The idea is to gain knowledge 

as we advance our deployments in these technologies. 

Developing 

know-how in 

robotics, data 

science and UX 

will be Glory's 

main focus in 



Cover Story 

Jaspreet Bindra 

Senior Vice President – 

Digital Transformation, 

Mahindra Group 

Skills I Plan To Hire in 2018 

In 2018, my main focus will be to develop hard skills in digital 

technologies and not just legacy tech. I will work with my 

team to develop use cases that will help them implement 

digital initiatives with ease. I will also look for people with 

entrepreneurial experience and those who have exposure to 

new technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT), Machine 

Learning, Big Data, and Blockchain. Not only that, I will also 

look for people with soft skills such as design thinking, agile 

way of working, tolerance for failure, risk taking, storytelling 

and change management. 


The current times call for leaders to constantly learn something 

new. Whether it is for creating new business models or 

great customer experiences, leaders today must know how to 

make effective use of digital technologies available to them 

and foster innovation. We have used blockchain— one of the 

newest technologies—in our financial services sector. In 2018, 

my focus will be to develop design thinking capabilities, hone 

coaching, and coding skills. 

Jaspreet's 

main focus will 

be to develop 

design thinking 

capabilities in 


Kamal's focus will 

be on completing 

his research on 

Flexibility in IT 

systems from IIT, 

Delhi 


When it comes to hiring in 2018, our focus at RJ Corp will be to hire people 

who have worked in AI, machine learning and IoT skills. Our aim is to hire 

emerging talent for a number of ongoing digital projects in the organization. 

However, skill gap being one of the biggest obstacles of digital India, 

good skills are difficult to find. To tackle this issue, we are incubating startups 

or working with them to recruit fresh talent for our various digital projects. 

We are also hiring entry level professional from top engineering and 

management schools. 


CIOs must upgrade their skills every year. They must keep an eye on the 

latest digital technologies in the market. CIOs must focus on personal skill 

development. They must also know how to enable strategic innovation and 

disruption in their organization. For instance, I'm pursuing my research in 

Flexibility in Information Technology from Indian Institute of Delhi where I 

focus on how flexible Information technology systems can become such 

that the business can use it to drive flexibility strategically. In retail, flexibility 

of IT systems can increase the value of your overall business. As part of 

my research, I collected a lot of data and spoke to a lot of organizations. In 

a few months, I will be submitting my thesis. 

Kamal Karnatak 

Group CIO 

RJ Corporation 


21

Cover Story 

In 2018, Priya's 

main focus will 

be on developing 

greater business 

understanding 


We are experimenting with a lot of initiatives involving automation, 

bots, data, and dashboards. With such a barrage of digital projects 

commencing in 2018, there is a huge need to set aside a project governance 

plan in place In 2018, I hope to hire a digitally enabled project 

manager who understands enterprise IT, understands the new digital 

changes, and works with the team to ensure some of the initiatives 

are taken to implementation and acceptance by business. Data understanding 

will be a big part of all the job profiles that go out this year. 


As I grow to a more strategic role, technology understanding without 

business knowledge won’t be of any use or outcome. We need to 

concentrate more on business understanding, how technology can 

be used in a cost effective way to reduce some pain points of business 

starting from reducing cycle times, removing resources from 

mundane jobs to data-based decision making to increase profits. In 

an ever-changing technology world, everyone has to have basic understanding 

of data and some level of analytics. I plan on taking some 

courses, reading on this aspect of data, and encourage my managers 

to do the same. 

Priya Dar 


Godfrey Phillips India 

Suresh Kumar 


Grant Thornton 


As we embark on our Digital transformation journey, I will need to 

hire resources skilled in digital technologies. We plan to build our 

Digital data lake to be more agile and derive real-time business 

insights; mine value from unknown and large amount of data; 

enable data driven mindset across the organization and harness 

the power of big data in a cost effective manner. I will need to hire 

skilled resources for Hadoop, Yarn, Tableau and Power BI. 


I would like to hone my leadership skills further. With many millennials 

joining the team, it is imperative to change your leadership 

style. Instead of ‘managing’ people, one needs to empower people 

and lead from the front. I plan to spend time learning about each 

of the businesses of the organization in greater detail and ‘partner’ 

with them to not only provide solutions to meet their requirements 

but also help in developing new innovative services. My 

focus this year will be to learn digital technologies including Big 

Data, AI, Analytics and Robotics and use all possible avenues to 

acquire these skills. 

In 2018, Suresh 

plans to develop 

his leadership 

style , empower 

people, and lead 

from the front 


Cover Story 

Sunil Mehta 

Senior Vice-President 

& Area Systems 

Director – Central 

Asia 

JWT 


The shift to a digital economy is creating a talent crisis that is putting 

companies’ survival—and CIOs’ own careers—on the line. Today the nature 

of the skills that organizations need in IT is changing. Digital business is 

being built cloud-first and mobile-first, and is heavily dependent on analytics, 

automation and new security models. My main area of focus will be 

to create a culture of growth, empowerment, and transparency; and above 

all, making sure work is meaningful, challenging, and fun. Additionally, I will 

also be focused on sourcing good artificial intelligence skills available in 

the market. 


The IT skills gap is an ongoing concern for CIOs, particularly in the search 

for cyber security talent. Complex and ever-evolving threats, from the rise 

in ransomware to the emergence of billions of BYOD and IoT devices, 

mean the risks and staffing needs are always growing and changing Even 

though organizations are progressively looking for a modern business 

environment, CIOs today are concerned about having a proper security 

environment in place owing to the open nature of the Internet and increasing 

cyber threats. In 2018, I will focus on developing and honing security 

skills to prepare for modern security warfare. 

In 2018, Sunil's 

focus will be 

on developing 

cybersecurity 

skills 

Yateen has 

authored a book 

titled ' Life of 

CXO' - a skill 

development 

guide for the 

future 


Hiring has undergone a transformation in the last three years. In my book, Life of CXO, I 

have explained how the skills required for future have replaced the skills of the past. Given 

the enormous operational and strategic importance of IT today, CIOs should act as CEO's 

IT advisor who understands the business as well as the technology. CIO is no longer 

focused on just technical matters: they are integral to company strategy, security 

and risk management, and how companies and customers interact. In 2018, I will 

look for managerial level skills in core areas such as Strategic mindset, Risk management, 

Emotional Intelligence, Vendor management, Smart sourcing and negotiation 

skills. I will also look for technical expertise in areas such as Project and 

Operations management, Mobile, Web, Omni Channel application development, 

Data mining, Data Warehouse and Big data management, Next Gen Data centre 

technologies: Converged Infrastructure Rack management, and Cloud. 

Yateen Chodnekar 

Group CIO 

Writer Corporation 


The success or failure of a company is often linked to its highest level executives. Being 

the CIO I am at the driver’s seat as a custodian of data and technology decision maker. 

Therefore, I am rightly positioned to shape success of a business with use of latest technologies 

which can cross physical boundaries and achieve exponential business volumes. 

As part of my learning agenda in 2018, I wish to focus on developing strategic, financial 

and business orientation, BI and analytics, Blockchain, and Enterprise Architecture. 


23

FACE OFF 

//HOW IMPORTANT IS A CIO'S VERTICAL SPECIALIZATION? 

I have worked in the healthcare sector 

for only a decade as compared to my 

overall experience of over 20 years or 

so, and yet, I have been labelled as a 

healthcare CIO despite the fact that I 

come from a varied experience in organizations 

such as Microsoft (MS) and 

manufacturing in GE and Xerox. 

However, the market reality is that 

CIOs in specific industries such as 

Telecom, Healthcare and Banking are 

preferred due to their vertical specialization. 

It is slowly becoming a norm 

in order to reduce the learning and 

assimilation cycles. Today, the return 

of investment on most IT and digital 

projects is less than a year, thus making 

it necessary to hire people with 

relevant experience. 

However, in the organizations that I 

have worked in, I have hired IT Infra 

folks from retail space to allow cross 

pollination of people, ideas and innovation 

to flow. However, people in the 

core application had to be hired from 

the healthcare vertical. 

However, it is also true that due to a 

tight market situation, it doesn’t allow 

people to experiment and hire people 

from across industries, which is an 

unfortunate market reality. 

Quick View 

Rajesh Batra, VP-IT, 

Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani 

Hospital, says that CIO's 

vertical specialization is 

a necessary evil in the 

competitive age 

RAJESH 

BATRA 

VP-IT, Kokilaben 

Dhirubhai Ambani 

Hospital 

In my own view, I do NOT agree with 

silo mindset of the market. It would 

NOT have allowed me to experience 

various industries from manufacturing 

to cards (my days at American 

Express) to software company like 

MS and then Healthcare. It not only 

gave me a perspective of the industry 

but allowed ideas and practises to 

flow from one industry to another. For 

example, when I joined my previous 

organization, healthcare was ripe for 

workflow adoption but nobody had 

implemented. Despite not possessing 

a healthcare background, it took 

conviction and courage to implement 

the workflow system. My team and I 

succeeded in implementing it without 

prior experience, and today workflow 

management systems are a norm. 

However, keeping in mind current 

industry norms, I believe that 

CIO's vertical specialization is a necessary 

evil. 

“In certain sectors, 

CIOs with vertical 

specialization are 

preferred. It is 

slowly becoming 

a norm in order to 

reduce the learning 

and assimilation 

cycles” 


Face Off 

SUNIL MEHTA 

Senior VP & 

Area Systems 

Director – Central 

Asia – JWT 

related implementation is taking place. 

Let me give you another example. 

Until a few years ago, CIOs were in 

charge of enterprise IT, infrastructure 

and security. Today because of digital, 

if CIOs have not kept themselves relevant, 

they will lose their jobs and companies 

will hire people who are young 

with relevant skills. However, just hiring 

a digital expert doesn’t ensure that 

he will also be able to perform a CIO's 

responsibilities. 

“The truth is that 

a CIO's overall 

experience, and 

more specifically 

IT experience, 

matters more 

than his vertical 

specialization” 

At a CIO level, I do not believe that vertical 

specialization is important. Most 

CIOs I know in the industry today 

have worked across sectors – gaining a 

wide-range of domain expertise. 

In the past when CIOs were EDP 

managers, they were responsible for 

driving change with the help of technology. 

Today technology has enabled 

organizations to drive that change. 

At JWT, the IT department has put 

the mandate on the finance department 

to choose their finance solution. 

While the IT department deploys it, 

the finance department is empowered 

to select the right solution as per 

their needs. 

Times have changed. Today if a CIO 

is in charge of IT transformation globally, 

he can lead the transformation in 

any industry. The truth is that a CIO's 

overall experience matters more than 

his/her vertical specialization— which 

comes handy only when a domain 

Quick View 

Sunil Mehta, Senior Vice- 

President & Area Systems 

Director – Central Asia 

– JWT, says that CIOs 

primarily should know how 

to run IT 

The CIO role is transforming into a 

digital specialist and he/she doesn't 

have to be an expert overnight. However, 

he or she should be able to use 

the expertise in one area or vertical to 

make a difference in the other. 

If a CEO can be hired without any 

vertical specialization, so can a CIO. So 

if a CEO knows how to run the organization, 

CIOs know how to run IT, 

irrespective of which sector they work 

or have worked in. 

But at the same time, there are several 

CIOs who have evolved, but there 

are also those who won't transform, 

and will not even want to step out of 

their comfort zones. 


25

INSIGHT 

Artificial 

Intelligence Is 

Creating Happy 

Workplaces 

As per Gartner, by 2022, personal devices will know more 

about an individual's emotional state than his own family 

due to the impact of AI 

By CIO&Leader 


Insight 

EEmotion artificial intelligence (AI) 

systems are becoming so sophisticated 

that Gartner predicts that by 2022, 

personal devices will know more about 

an individual's emotional state than 

his/her own family. AI is generating 

multiple disruptive forces that are 

reshaping the way we interact with 

personal technologies. 

"Emotion AI systems and affective 

computing are allowing everyday 

objects to detect, analyze, process and 

respond to people's emotional states 

and moods to provide better context 

and a more personalized experience," 

said Roberta Cozza, research director 

at Gartner. "To remain relevant, technology 

vendors must integrate AI into 

every aspect of their devices, or face 

marginalization." 

The current wave of emotion AI 

systems is being driven by the proliferation 

of virtual personal assistants 

(VPAs) and other AI-based technology 

for conversational systems. As a second 

wave emerges, AI technology will 

add value to more and more customer 

experience scenarios, including educational 

software, video games, diagnostic 

software, athletic and health performance, 

and the autonomous car. 

"Prototypes and commercial products 

already exist and adding emotional 

context by analyzing data points 

from facial expressions, voice intonation 

and behavioral patterns will 

significantly enhance the user experience," 

said Cozza. "Beyond smartphones 

and connected home devices, 

wearables and connected vehicles will 

collect, analyze and process users' 

emotional data via computer vision, 

audio or sensors capturing behavioral 

data to adapt or respond to a user's 

wants and needs." 

Other personal device predictions 

from Gartner include: 

By 2021, 10% of wearable 

users will have changed 

lifestyles, and thereby 

extend their life spans by 

an average of six months. 

As AI emotion systems evolve there is 

huge potential for specialized devices, 

such as medical wristbands, which can 

anticipate life-threatening conditions 

and facilitate an early response system. 

At the same time special apps are also 

being developed for diagnostic and 

therapy services that will help to recognize 

conditions such as depression 

or help children with autism. 

"Even a basic wearable device could 

have a positive impact on the wearer's 

health," said Annette Zimmermann, 

research vice president at Gartner. "We 

are seeing growing numbers of users 

actively changing their behavior for 

the better with the adoption of a wearable 

device. Not only can this have beneficial 

influence on the amount of exercise 

they do but there is evidence that 

one or two out of 10 smart watch and 

fitness band users discover a condition 

such as sleep apnea or cardiac arrhythmia 

through wearing the device." 

By 2020, 60% of personal 

technology device vendors 

will use third-party AI 

cloud services to enhance 

functionality and services. 

Cloud-based AI technologies are driving 

compelling user experiences on 

a variety of connected devices. Cloud 

offerings from the big tech players, 

such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon, 

Tencent, Baidu and IBM, are starting 

to proliferate due to their attractive 

cost model, easy-to-use integration and 

potential to create complex services. 

A major catalyst for device vendors to 

use cloud AI services is the increased 

usage of VPAs and natural-language 

technologies, while the adoption of 

VPA-based, screenless devices such as 

Amazon Echo and Google Home is also 

on the rise, further increasing usage of 

cloud AI services. 

"We are starting to see adoption of 

these services from high-profile vendors 

that are using them to widen their 

reach," said Anthony Mullen, research 

director at Gartner. "Fitbit uses Alexa 

Skills to make user stats and functionality 

available through VPA speakers 

just as Netflix uses Actions for Google 

Assistant to voice control its service. 

Ultimately, vendors will compete on 

the best user experience and the smartness 

of their products, not the technology 

behind it." 

Through 2022, security 

technology combining 

machine learning, 

biometrics and user 

behavior will reduce 

passwords to account for 

less than 10% of all digital 

authentications. 

Password-based simple authentication 

is becoming less and less effective for 

personal devices. Even today's popular 

biometric technology — fingerprint 

authentication — is only around 75% 

successful due to contaminants such as 

dirt and sweat. 

"Users need more convenient and 

accurate options for unlocking their 

devices," said CK Lu, research director 

at Gartner. "Security technologies that 

combine machine learning, biometrics 

and user behavior will become necessary 

to improve ease of use, self-service 

and frictionless authentications. 

Within the next five years new security 

technology will recognize the user, 

prevent fraud and detect automation 

threats such as malware, remote access 

trojans and malicious bots." 


27

Insight 

Tech Job Trends In 

2018 And Beyond 

In-demand IT roles have started to shift towards including 

positions focused on advanced technologies, such as AI, 

IoT, AR and VR 

By Pradipto Chakrabarty 


Insight 

The transformation in the world 

is happening at a pace which we 

have not experienced in the past. 

Implementation of new cuttingedge 

technology is moving out from 

a drawing board stage to being 

practised by organizations 

TThe transformation in the world of 

technology is happening at a pace 

which we have not experienced in the 

past. Implementation of new cuttingedge 

technology is moving out from a 

drawing board stage to being practiced 

by organizations across the world. As 

more and more organizations undertake 

the process of digital transformation 

to offer tech-enabled products or 

services, IT roles and skills is undergoing 

radical shifts, something which we 

are already observing. This will affect 

the tech job scenario as we move into 

2018 and beyond. 

In-demand IT roles have started 

to shift towards including positions 

focused on advanced technologies, 

such as artificial intelligence (AI), augmented 

and virtual reality (AR and 

VR), and the Internet of Things (IoT) 

along with exciting positions within 

cybersecurity, cloud computing, and 

network technology. 

Through these observations we have 

identified the following as some of the 

key job roles companies require as 

they transform their businesses and 

processes for the future: 

Cybersecurity Analyst: This individual 

will manage risk for organizations 

through the use of relevant tools 

and techniques to gather vital endpoint 

and network host data with the 

goal of identifying vulnerabilities. 

Network Engineer: This role will 

encompass coordinating between 

cloud and traditional networking 

resources to make a business communicate 

efficiently. They will need 

to know how to map technical network 

elements (e.g., a router, an edge 

device, a micro datacenter) to a company’s 

business needs. 

Vulnerability Assessment Manager: 

The role of a penetration tester 

has matured. Today’s pen tester does 

more than hacking a server or using 

fancy security tools. Today’s pen tester 

takes a responsible approach and 

conducts strong, comprehensive tests 

to identify – and correct – unacceptable 

risks. 

Technical Support Specialist: Gone 

are the days when the help desk 

professional fixed PCs. The world 

needs more tech support specialists 

than ever before: today’s tech support 

engineer helps manage increasingly 

complex issues involving data 

management, authentication, and 

network troubleshooting. 

Machine Learning Engineer: 

Machine learning uses sophisticated 

programming, such as R and Python 

to develop AI machines and systems 

that can learn and apply knowledge 

to perform tasks. These professionals 

will also work with complex datasets 

and algorithms to convert machines 

to intelligent machines. 

Network Analysts: Businesses are 

investing more heavily in their networks 

as IoT is fast becoming critical 

to manufacturing tech-enabled products. 

A growing number of “things” 

need to be connected in an efficient 

way, and that's going to be a major 

driver of demand there. Network 

analysts in the coming years will 

combine their technical skill set with 

an understanding of how to apply it 

to provide real-time trending information 

on network traffic, and what 

those insights mean for the business. 

Cloud Engineer: Almost all businesses 

are mobbing their on-prem 

systems to cloud and are choosing 

a hybrid approach, with multiple 

vendors. In the coming years, cloud 

engineers will need to create solutions 

which are a mix of multiple 

technologies. Gone are the days when 

an Amazon engineer only worked 

on AWS or Microsoft engineers only 

knowing Azure 

–The author is Regional Director, 

CompTIA India 


29

Insight 

Consumers Are Ready 

To Say Goodbye To 

Passwords 

Indian consumers overwhelmingly favor use of 

biometrics as a faster, easier, and more secure alternative 

to passwords 



Insight 

VVisa have announced a survey, conducted on Indians 

exploring awareness and perceptions of biometric authentication 

confirms that consumers continue to have a strong 

interest in new biometric technologies that make their lives 

easier. New forms of authentication, such as fingerprint, 

facial, and voice recognition, can make unlocking accounts 

and payments much easier and more convenient than traditional 

passwords or PINs - which are difficult to type onto 

tiny keyboards, easy to forget, and can be stolen. 

“The payments ecosystem is witnessing a rapid change 

in adoption of new form factors of payments and modes of 

authentication. For financial institutions, the time has never 

been better to integrate biometric technology into banking 

apps and payments experiences for customers,” said TR 

Ramachandran, Group Country Manager, Visa, India & 

81% of consumers 

sweepingly perceive that 

biometrics are faster 

than passwords 

South Asia. “We are excited with the increased popularity 

of biometrics across Indian consumers. Today smartphones 

have advanced features increasing the accuracy and speed of 

biometrics, such that they can be used for financial transactions. 

Indian consumers too have discovered the ease of biometric 

authentication and are open to using this technology 

for transactions going forward, which augurs well for the 

Indian payments industry.” 

Authentication Survey Findings 

According to the Visa study conducted of 500 Indians by 

AYTM Market Research, 99% are personally interested in 

using at least one biometric method to verify their identity, 

and 99% are interested in using at least one biometric 

method to make payments. Higher income consumers are 

more interested than lower income consumers in facial 

recognition. Younger consumers (36 and under) are more 

interested than older consumers in vein pattern recognition. 

Findings from the survey illustrate consumers’ desire to see 

the implementation of biometric tools in payment authentication 

processes. 

Highlights from the survey include: 

Consumers were most familiar with fingerprint recognition, 

with 32% having used it once or twice and another 

63% using it regularly. By comparison, about 48% have 

used voice recognition in the past and 26% use it regularly. 

The top benefits associated with using biometric authentication 

for payments are the perception that it is more secure 

than passwords/PINs (48%) and that it gives consumers 

peace of mind that their payment is protected (46%). 

Indian consumers overwhelmingly perceive that biometrics 

are faster (81%) and easier (84%) than passwords. 

51% are concerned both about the risk of a security breach 

of sensitive biometric information. 

To help financial institutions and merchants more quickly 

adopt emerging biometric authentication solutions, the 

Visa ID Intelligence platform provides a curated selection of 

leading third-party authentication technologies. Visa clients 

can create, test and adopt new authentication solutions with 

simple integrations using Visa APIs and SDKs 


31

Insight 

When Cloud Gives 

You Wings 

As per Synergy Research Group, cloud services and infra 

market revenues reached USD 180 billion, a growth of 

24% annually 



Insight 

In 2016, cloud started 

dominating many IT 

market segments; In 2017, 

cloud was the new normal 

technologies, such as 

artificial intelligence (AI), 

augmented and virtual 

reality (AR and VR) 

NNew data from Synergy Research 

Group shows that across six key cloud 

services and infrastructure market segments, 

operator and vendor revenues 

for the four quarters ending September 

2017 reached USD 180 billion, having 

grown by 24% on an annualized basis. 

IaaS & PaaS services had the highest 

growth rate at 47%, followed by enterprise 

SaaS at 31% and hosted private 

cloud infrastructure services at 30%. 

2016 was notable as the year in which 

spend on cloud services overtook 

spend on hardware and software used 

to build public and private clouds, and 

in 2017 the gap widened. In aggregate 

cloud service markets are now growing 

over three times more quickly than 

cloud infrastructure hardware and 

software. Companies that featured 

the most prominently among the 2017 

market segment leaders were Amazon/ 

AWS, Microsoft, IBM, Salesforce, Dell 

EMC, HPE and Cisco. 

Over the period Q4 2016 to Q3 2017, 

total spend on hardware and software 

to build cloud infrastructure 

approached USD 80 billion, split evenly 

between public and private clouds, 

though spend on public cloud is 

growing more rapidly. Infrastructure 

investments by cloud service providers 

helped them to generate over USD 100 

billion in revenues from cloud infra- 

Cloud 

Infrastructure 

Services 

Other 

Cloud 

Services 

Infrastructure 

Hardware & 

Software 

Cloud Market Growth & Segment Leaders - 2017 

Iaas & 

Paas 

Hosted 

Private 

Cloud 

Enterprise 

Saas 

UCaas 

Public 

Cloud 

Private 

Cloud 

Dell EMC 

HPE 

Cisco 

Dell EMC 

RingCentral 

Mitel 

IBM 

Rackspace 

Microsoft 

Saleforce 

Amazon 

Microsoft 

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 

Annualized Revenue Growth - Q3 2017 

Source: Synergy Research Group 

structure services (IaaS, PaaS, hosted 

private cloud services) and enterprise 

SaaS – in addition to which that cloud 

provider infrastructure supports 

internet services, such as search, social 

networking, email, e-commerce and 

gaming. Meanwhile, UCaaS, while in 

many ways a different type of market, 

is also growing strongly and is driving 

some radical changes in business communications. 

“We tagged 2015 as the year when 

cloud became mainstream and 2016 as 

the year when cloud started to dominate 

many IT market segments. In 

2017, cloud was the new normal,” said 

John Dinsdale, a Chief Analyst and 

Research Director at Synergy Research 

Group. “Major barriers to cloud adoption 

are now almost a thing of the past, 

with previously perceived weaknesses 

such as security now often seen as 

strengths. Cloud technologies are now 

generating massive revenues for cloud 

service providers and technology 

vendors and we forecast that current 

market growth rates will decline only 

slowly over the next five years.” 


33

SECURITY 

Web Application 

Security In 

A Digitally 

Connected World 

According to a survey, 68% of organizations admit low 

confidence in information security posture 

By Nikhil Taneja 


Security 

GGlobal organizations stand on a cybersecurity 

precipice. Emerging technologies, 

such as Blockchain, Artificial 

Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things 

(IoT), along with the explosive volume 

of mobile, Web and cloud apps creates 

uncharted, highly lucrative pathways 

to revenue generation, optimized productivity 

and enhanced brand value. 

At the same time, the speed and sophistication 

inherent in these technological 

advances exposes application vulnerabilities, 

security risks and skills deficiencies. 

These compromise sensitive 

company and customer data, devalue 

the brand, and severely impact financial 

performance. 

The conundrum for any organization 

is how to take the leap towards 

these new technologies that help 

breakdown barriers to consumer 

engagement and deliver substantial 

economic reward while successfully 

protecting corporate assets, Intellectual 

Property (IP), and personal customer 

information. 

It is important to uncover other 

aspects such as the challenges these 

new technologies and rapid-fire application 

deployments present, ascertain 

how organizations in different 

industries identified application-layer 

and API vulnerabilities, measure the 

impact that bots have on organizations, 

how companies combat applicationlayer 

attacks (like those listed in the 

OWASP Top 10) and construct a security 

roadmap for today and tomorrow. 

Also, vital to understand how the 

exponential number of security breaches 

against the application layer (such as 

the recent Equifax attack) would alter 

the financial and operational actions 

these companies would take. 

Based on a survey conducted with 

over 600 Chief Information Security 

Officers (CISOs) and other security 

leaders across six continents, the following 

key findings came forth: 

68% of organizations admit low 

confidence in information security 

posture 

Organizations often leave sensitive 

data under-protected. 45% report 

they suffered a data breach while 

52% do not inspect traffic being 

transferred to and from APIs. 56% 

do not have the ability to track data 

once it leaves the company. 

Bot traffic represents more than half 

(52%) the amount of Internet traffic, 

exceeding 75% of the total traffic 

among some organizations. 49% of 

all bot traffic is bad bots, yet 33% of 

organizations cannot distinguish 

between good and bad bots. 

API security is often overlooked. 

While 60% both share and consume 

data via APIs, including personally 

identifiable information, usernames/ 

passwords, payment details, medical 

records, ., 52% don’t inspect the data 

that is being transferred via APIs 

and 51% don’t perform any security 

audits or analyze API vulnerabilities 

prior to integration. 

Application-layer DDoS is a greater 

fear than network-level DDoS 

assaults. Only 33% feel confident 

they can mitigate application-layer 

attacks compared to 50% that feel 

confident they can protect agains 

tnetwork-layer DDoS attacks. 

Seven out of ten businesses (72%) 

are not fully aware of the frequent 

change made to in-house applications 

and APIs within their organizations’ 

software development environment 

40% of respondents claim their 

organization updates applications at 

least once per week, posing a great 

challenge for organizations 

Everyone wants the speed and agility 

that continuous delivery provides 

but few feel they can achieve 

it securely. Half (49%) currently use 

the continuous delivery of application 

services and another 21% plan 

to adopt it within the next 12-24 

months. However, 62% reckon it 

increases the attack surface and 

approximately half say that they 

don’t integrate security into their 

continuous delivery process. 

Less than a year prior to the due date 

(May 2018) for General Data Protection 

Regulations (GDPR) compliance, 

68% of organizations are not 

confident they will be ready to meet 

these requirements in time 

#1 Conundrum: The 

Confidence Crisis: 

Protecting Applications 

Against Data Theft and 

Bot Attacks 

As the rate and number of new technologies 

materialize at an accelerated 

pace, many security professionals 

face the unprecedented challenge of 

mitigating a wide swath of threats and 

attacks that often are by-products of 

the evolving IT landscape. Existing 

security strategies, plans and measures 

may not measure up to quickly 

developed malware, floods and other 

threats. The result is a “crisis ofconfidence” 

that can overwhelm skills, 

deplete budget and resources, chip 

away at brand equity and fracture customer/partner 

relationships. 

Take the recent Equifax breach, 

which exposed over 145 million individuals 

and their personal information 

because of a Web application 

vulnerability. While there may have 

been governance and accountability 

plans in place, there may have been 

other actions, such as a Web Application 

Firewall (WAF), which could 

have mitigated such a massive attack 

had it been updated properly against 

known vulnerabilities. A simple question 

may have been: did the company 

have the confidence they could protect 

against a probability of attack or was 

false confidence in the “impossibility” 

of such an attack their strategic 

approach. 


35

Security 

The growing prevalence of attacks is 

a known fact; thus, the more alarming 

finding is the uncertainty within these 

companies that they could even detect, 

prevent or contain these attacks, 

especially when it comes to emerging 

threats such as Layer 7 DDoS 

attacks. Research shows that 64% of 

financial services institutions, 62% of 

healthcare organizations and 58% of 

retailers acknowledge the difficulty in 

mitigating Layer 7 DDoS attacks. 

Bot Attacks 

Automated attack programs, such as 

‘bad’ bots, are the main force behind 

the majority of the attack landscape 

today. In fact, bots conduct more than 

half of all Internet traffic flow. For some 

organizations, bots represent more 

than 75% of their total traffic. This is 

a significant finding considering only 

one in three (33%) organizations cannot 

distinguish between good bots and bad 

ones. Good bots serve critical functions, 

such as price aggregators to customer 

service chatbots and search engine 

spiders. However, for every good bot 

in the world, there is a bad bot wreaking 

havoc. Bots make traditional attack 

vectors more effective, faster and larger 

than anything humans can accomplish 

on their own. 

1 in 3 organizations cannot 

distinguish between good bots and 

bad ones 

#2 Conundrum: 

Continuous Delivery 

Security Challenge 

Organizations are looking for ways to 

optimize the deployment of application 

services. Many try to fully automate 

the cycle of application development, 

QA, testing, modifying and deploying 

in staging, and the production environment 

in what is known as continuous 

delivery. A successful continuous 

delivery implementation can yield a 

competitive edge and save operational 

expenses. For some of the more dynamic 

application services, the fast pace is 

critical as they are required to deploy 

multiple versions into production per 

day. The challenge, on the other hand, 

is to ensure accurate application security 

throughout the process, as almost 

two-thirds (62%) believe it increases 

the attack surface. Continuous delivery 

is high priority for many organizations 

with half of respondents currently 

using this approach and another 

20% planning to do so within the 

next two years. 

Research indicated that security executives 

and other experts understand 

the impact continuous delivery is having 

on their organizations. While 62% 

believe continuous delivery increases 

the attack surface, risks and vulnerabilities, 

only 25% are confident that 

security is integrated with continuous 

delivery of in-house, Web or cloud. 

#3 Conundrum: GDPR 

Preparedness Effect 

Organizations around the world that 

do business in or with the European 

Union (EU) will soon need to meet 

stricter data privacy laws with the 

GDPR taking effect in May, 2018. 

Any organization that offers goods 

or services to EU residents, monitors 

personal behavior or processes or 

handles personal data of EU residents 

will be impacted by this law. Those 

who do abide by the regulation will be 

subject to hefty fines. This is a particular 

challenge for large multi-national 

corporations that do business in the 

EU as well as companies that may be 

headquartered there. 

It is advised that whatever WAF 

solution an organization is evaluating, 

it covers critical security solution fundamentals 

- complete OWASP Top 10 

vulnerabilities, effective API security, 

HTTP DDoS mitigation. By evaluating 

existing security processes, systems 

and security tools, and implementing 

application security solutions and 

practices that augment and enhance 

these capabilities, organizations will 

build the foundation for an application-secure 

infrastructure 

—The author is Managing Director - 

India, SAARC & Middle East, Radware 


BANKING 

Farm All The Way To 

The Bank 

Adequate and timely access to agricultural credit plays a crucial 

role in improving farm production and productivity and thereby 

livelihood of the farmers 

By MS Rama Rao 


Banking 

AAdequate and timely access to agricultural 

credit plays a crucial role in 

improving farm production and productivity 

and thereby the livelihood of 

farmers. Nearly 80% of our agriculturists 

are small and marginal farmers, 

heavily dependent on credit for carrying 

on their seasonal agricultural 

operations. The over hundred year old 

Cooperative Credit System (CCS) in the 

country has been a major provider of 

agricultural credit, mainly short-term 

loans for raising crops, serving an 

estimated 50% of all farmers served by 

institutional credit agencies, with over 

75% of the its credit disbursal being for 

small and marginal farmers. 

The rural cooperative banking system 

in our country is well over a century 

old, having taken birth in around 

the first decade of the 20th century 

during the British period. Although 

the system was intended to be shaped 

along the lines of the Raiffiesen Cooperatives 

in Germany, as autonomous 

self-reliant institutions, over time it 

took shape as a government supported 

mechanism for providing credit to 

the farmers in the rural areas. 

Over the decades and right into 

the early 90’s, the cooperative credit 

and banking system shored up as the 

mainstay for providing credit to the 

agriculturists, with the Reserve Bank 

of India right from its own inception 

detailing a policy of productionoriented 

systems of lending for agriculture 

and providing concessional 

refinance to the cooperative banks, 

towards supplementing their resources 

in meeting the credit requirement of 

agriculturists in the rural areas. 

The rural cooperative credit mechanism 

in India essentially comprises 

two parallel structures viz. the three 

tier short-term credit structure for 

dispensation of short- and mediumterm 

credit for crop production and 

agriculture allied activities; and the 

long-term credit structure for providing 

long-term credit for investments 

in agriculture e.g., land development, 

farm mechanization, horticulture, etc. 

These institutions have been supported 

both by way of policy and refinance 

supported for a considerable time 

by the RBI and later by the ARDC 

and NABARD. 

The short-term credit and banking 

structure in most states comprises State 

Cooperative Banks (St.CB), District 

Central Cooperative Banks (DCCB/ 

CCB) at the District level, and Primary 

Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) at 

the village level. Some smaller states / 

UTs have only State Cooperative Banks 

and PACS. The State and District level 

institutions which are part of the shortterm 

credit structure are recognized as 

banks by the RBI and carry out various 

banking activities in addition to 

providing agricultural credit through 

the PACS at the grassroots level. However, 

the PACS which are actually the 

last mile connect to the farmer, are not 

recognized as banking institutions. 

They are,however, exempted from the 

provisions of the Banking Regulations 

Nearly 80% of our 

agriculturists are 

small and marginal 

farmers, heavily 

dependent on credit 

for carrying out their 

seasonal agricultural 

operations 

Act, giving leeway for them to undertake 

banking activities. Many PACS 

undertake basic banking services for 

members along with credit and various 

other functions, such as input distribution, 

running consumer stores, warehousing, 

procurement & marketing, 

Public Distribution System (PDS), etc. 

The foray of commercial banks into 

agricultural credit post nationalization, 

setting up of RRBs, adoption 

of the multi-agency approach and 

directed credit programmes, saw 

in their wake the fall in the share of 

amount disbursed by rural cooperative 

banks for agricultural credit. In 

the euphoria of expanding credit supply 

by commercial banks, the need 

to shore up these institutions that up 

until then had played a major role and 

are geographically positioned for a 

better outreach, had been lost sight 

of. Central regulatory and financing 

agencies are observed to have maintained 

an arm’s length in this regard. 

Notwithstanding this, the short-term 

cooperative credit and banking system 

continues as a potent instrument in 

meeting the credit and related needs of 

the farmers. Around 5.5 crore farmers, 

mostly small and marginal farmers, 

continue to be dependent on the PACS 

supported by DCCBs, numbering 380 

with around 14000 branches and 32 

state coop banks for their agricultural 

loans. There are around one lakh 

PACS spread across the rural areas 

of the country, with over two-third of 

them being operationally viable. 

However, the grassroots level operations 

of this century old structure 

continue to be driven by outdated 

manual systems and processes, standing 

in the way of timely and adequate 

provision of credit to the farmers. As 

the PACS are not considered a part of 

the banking and payments system, 

the benefits of technology and digital 

payments environment is as yet to be 

positioned for ensuring timely and 

hassle free credit to their members. 

Given the vast geographic outreach 

of the Cooperative Credit Structure, 


39

Banking 

The ideal tech solution must facilitate 

Rupay card based ops through ATMs 

there is urgency in mainstreaming 

the PACS into the emerging technobanking 

digital environment in a big 

way towards providing agricultural 

credit, other loans, agricultural inputs, 

basic banking facilities, procurement, 

warehousing and marketing and a 

host of other services. In the context of 

renewed signals of distress from farmers 

across various parts of the country, 

it is imperative to rejuvenate PACS 

through technology and provide them 

the interface to the mainstream banking 

environment and enable digital 

banking and payments related services 

at their end, so that their outreach 

can be fully harnessed in meeting the 

various needs of the farmers. 

The ideal technology solution must 

facilitate Rupay Card based operations 

through ATMs and micro-ATMs 

on KCC Accounts by farmer members 

on their accounts with the PACS, in 

tune with RBI/NABARD guidelines. 

The technology solution needs to be 

a cost-effective centralized solution 

with extensive parameterization to 

support the local usage and custom; 

be easy to use by grassroots level 

staff, preferably being picture/icon 

driven and having online help facility 

as well as being available in local 

languages. It should be expected to 

cover the entire functionality of all 

types of agricultural credit, covering 

short, medium- and long-term loans 

in a wide spectrum of parameterized 

options of loan products, origination 

and sanction systems-covering 

processes that span across different 

tiers of the credit system; cover different 

reporting system requirements to 

district level, state level, NABARD and 

GOI levels; handle various national 

and state level schemes, such as crop 

insurance ,interest subsidy and subvention, 

etc. The coverage of solution 

should include basic banking like 

savings bank, term deposits, recurring 

deposits, pigmy deposits, different 

types of non-agri. loans, personal 

loans, consumer loans, gold loans, 

etc. which PACS do. It should handle 

under the automated environment, 

various other functions handled by 

PACS, such as seed, fertilizer and 

other inputs supply, consumer stores, 

PDS, outlets for other items of business, 

as also warehousing, procurement 

and marketing, etc. On positioning 

such solution, online access to 

ground level information is expected 

to enhance inputs for policy formulation 

and facilitate timely monitoring 

of the progress of various schemes. 

The state of Odisha, in which the 

cooperative banks have a share of 

around 65% in agricultural credit, 

has been the early mover and taken 

the lead in adoption of technology in 

all the three tiers of the cooperative 

credit structure from the state level to 

village levels on the above lines. The 

implementation, currently in the final 

stages, provides Rupay Kisan cardbased 

operations to the farmers across 

the state. The adoption of technology 

in the cooperative credit system has 

also facilitated direct benefit transfer 

of money into farmers’ accounts of 

proceeds of paddy procurement made 

by state agencies running into several 

thousands of crores. 

Such technology led transformation 

of this important segment of our 

rural eco-system across the country 

is expected to go a long way to help in 

mitigating the problems of our farmers. 

It is in recognition of this imperative 

that the GOI in the Union Budget 

for 2017-18 has made its policy and 

financial commitment towards computerisation 

of all viable PACS in the 

country over a span of three years. It 

expected that technology adoption on 

the lines adopted by Odisha state will 

find favor for replication across the 

country for the benefit of a huge segment 

of farmers in our country comprising 

mostly small and marginal 

holders who are wedded to the cooperative 

banks for their credit and other 

needs. This would further the cause of 

financial inclusion of the excluded and 

marginalized segments of the rural 

population in a big way 

—The author is Chief Product Officer, 

VSoft Technologies

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