Inside India’s Biggest Summit on DE&I in Tech & AI

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 THE WEEKLY NEWSLETTER OF AIM.  Sunday, Apr 7, 2024 | Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here  By Amit Naik   The future belongs to those who wholeheartedly embrace diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) at both individual and organisational levels. Emphasising the significance of DE&I in AI, AIM recognises its crucial role now more than ever in harnessing a wide range of talents from diverse cultures, genders, races, and skills so we can drive innovation and shape a more inclusive future.   The sixth edition of the Rising, which lasted two days in Namma Bengaluru with esteemed leaders and industry stalwarts such as Kiran Bedi, Anisha Padukone and others provided an excellent opportunity for companies and leaders to underscore the importance of DE&I and mental health, alongside discussing and addressing challenges in building an inclusive future for all.   The event witnessed close to 50+ speakers and 1000+ professionals attending the conference.    This year, it went beyond being merely a women-centric event, evolving into a comprehensive forum on diversity and inclusion in AI — it was a groundbreaking platform, offering leaders and practitioners from various AI and tech disciplines to explore and address a wider spectrum of diversity and inclusion issues, alongside empowering diverse groups and transcending traditional gender-focused dialogues.   At the Rising keynote, Genpact's chief technology and transformation officer, Vidya Rao, emphasised how AI will impact 1.1 billion roles. She said that the roles must be fulfilled by a diverse range of people from different cultures, genders, races, and skills, signifying clear opportunities for all.   Tesco’s Priyadarsanie Ramasubramanian also had an interesting perspective. "It's not about creating reservations, but about looking for colleagues with different backgrounds and giving them a slightly elevated platform. We need not lower the bar, but we could do different things to ensure we seek more diversity,” said Ramasubramanian.  “A key element of my success has been the support of male allies. It’s crucial to leverage this network. Engage with your male colleagues and embrace their support,” she added.   Ramasubramanian said that many of her male friends and colleagues recognised more potential in her than she saw in herself. “This kind of support network is vital and should be actively fostered within your own companies,” she added.   Manjula Nanjappa, the director of architecture and compute engineering at Allstate India, shared the importance of coaching in personal and professional development, the need for self-awareness, and the role of coaching in organisational growth and innovation.   "If organisations are not investing in people to develop them, they cannot be innovative,” she said, highlighting the benefits of coaching.   DBS Tech India’s head of data, AI, and cloud, Vijaya Kadiyala’s talk, touched upon the essence of “embracing failures” and learning from them. In it, he shared practical strategies and success stories, demonstrating how organisations can harness the power of big data to stay ahead in today’s competitive landscape.   In another interesting session—Encrypt Data, Not Empathy—Eventbright’s Aditi Sharma shared a unique perspective on the importance of diversity and inclusion in teams.  Many such insightful discussions and talks resonated across the event, which included keynotes, fireside chats, panel discussions, and tech talks alongside mentoring sessions, quizzes, awards, expos, and much more.  Congratulations to all the winners of the DE&I in Tech & AI Leadership Awards at Rising 2024. Check out all the winners here >>>  “The key [to successful leadership] is to listen actively and openly. Empathy is not a magic mantra. It’s a conscious choice by leaders to invest time and effort in building trust with employees. This eventually adds up to organisational success, increased innovation, and increased employee engagement,” said Sharma.   The Rising 2024 also celebrated organisations for their diversity, equity and inclusion best practices. The winners of the Best Firm for DE&I in Tech include ANZ, Eventbrite, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company Limited, InfoCepts, L&T Technology Services, MathCo, Moody’s, Quest Global, Unisys, Verizon, Chubb, Allstate India, and DBS Tech India.   AIM is grateful to everyone for making Rising 2024 a grand success. It was also significant for all of us, as it was the first large-scale DE&I event. 🙏  See you in our upcoming events soon >>  DE&I in Tech Report 2024 – India >>  AIM Research, in collaboration with CHUBB, recently released a report on DE&I in Tech 2024 – India, where we touch upon the DE&I representation within the Indian technology sector. Check out the full report here >> Google Cracks Bengaluru’s Traffic  Bengaluru’s traffic gets a green light thanks to Google’s Project Green Light. This initiative is helping the city, notorious for its jams and bottlenecks, improve traffic flow at intersections and reduce stop-and-go emissions. Learn more about Google’s initiative to reduce carbon emissions here.   AGI is Just ‘A Guy in India’ Amazon recently decided to phase out its checkout-less grocery stores equipped with a ‘Just Walk Out’ technology. This system allowed customers at the store to skip the checkout process by just scanning the QR code when they entered the store. However, it was entirely true and came with a desi twist. Read more here. Prisma AI Has an ‘Eye on You’ at Adani Airports Last year, Prisma AI, a global company providing visual AI-based solutions, partnered with Adani airports to set up ‘Desk of Goodness’, which aims to provide swift assistance to passengers in need by alerting their support staff through monitoring. In an exclusive interview with AIM, Amitabh Chowdhury, executive director and COO of Prisma AI, shared the details of the project, challenges, how they are ensuring data security and more.   Read the full story here.   Wipro appointed Srinivas Pallia as its new CEO following Thierry Delaporte's departure, aiming to drive further growth and profitability. An Indic LLM leaderboard is finally here. CognitiveLab recently released its Indic LLM Leaderboard for the growing number of Indic Language Models entering the scene without a uniform evaluation framework. Check it out here.  Google researchers found that smaller AI models can be more efficient than larger ones in image generation tasks, challenging the belief that bigger models are always better. GitHub recently announced that it has enhanced GitHub Actions with new updates like Azure private networking and GPU-hosted runners, aiming to bolster security and efficiency for enterprise customers. Cloudflare unleashes a new ability for developers to deploy AI applications globally in one click from Hugging Face, optimising ease of use and reducing the need for infrastructure management.  HCLTech expands its partnership with Google Cloud to integrate Gemini to enhance its AI Force platform and offer advanced AI solutions in manufacturing, healthcare, and telecom industries. BMW Group and Tata Technologies recently partnered to develop advanced automotive software solutions, with plans for a significant software and IT hub in India focusing on software-defined vehicles. Meta plans to set up its first data centre in India at the Reliance Industries campus in Chennai, enhancing local data processing for Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, as well as improving user experience and advertising efficiency in the country.  Anand Mahindra recently praisedSwaayatt Robots for their efforts towards achieving Level 5 autonomy, using a Mahindra Bolero in their demonstrations.

                                                           

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