An interactive session with Shri Nitin Gadkari, President, Bharatiya Janata Party
3rd May 2012: 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 (BJP), on 3rd May 2012 at the ITC Maratha in 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 leaders to reach out to a national political party with the objective of furthering the national interest in the digital economy sector.
Digital Economy is a rapidly growing sector critical to India’s future. 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 it at more than 20 per cent of the Indian economy. He mentioned that the Digital industry provided employment to more than 20 million (2 crores) people, and led to the indirect creation of even more jobs. This view was supported by Mr. Som Mittal, President, NASSCOM, and Mr. Ajay Singha, Executive Director, AmCham.
The list of participants included industry thought leaders such as Ms. Debjani Ghosh, Managing Director, Intel, South Asia, Ms. Naina Lal Kidwai, President FICCI and Managing Director, HSBC India, Ms. Kaku Nakhate, 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, and 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 said that these recommendations should be made in simple language, understandable to all stakeholders, and should be classified suitably to address issues concerning a single MP, a specific ministry/department, or 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.