Experts at IAMAI Digital Transformation Summit: Investment in Healthcare infra, Digitization, Vital for India’s Growth Story

Investment in healthcare infrastructure and digitalization would play a crucial role in India’s growth story in the coming years, industry stalwarts opined at the Digital Transformation Summit, organized by IAMAI.

Digital Healthcare at IAMAI Digital Transformation Summit

MR Rangaswami, Managing Director, Sandhill Group, stressed on increasing investment in health infrastructure. In his keynote speech, he also talked about giving a boost to the health tech sector of the country.

“India’s healthcare model is too frugal" he said. Pointing to the shortcomings, Rangaswami said, "it does not have the support mechanism, it does not have features and technologies that one could use today".

He further said, "at present, the government spends 1.2% of the GDP on healthcare infrastructure". He hoped that if this percentage could increase, there could be a health center in every village in India.

Further, he added, "with the rollout of 5G, the entire healthcare system may undergo a change". He said that the need of actually visiting in person will reduce over the time. Rangaswami also lamented the loss of traction caused by COVID-19.

However, he also highlighted the silver lining amid the pandemic. He said, “In a way, I believe this disruption would help us increase productivity and take us to a new level".

Needs of the Hour

Business leaders believe that the need of the hour is to apply digital technology to internal processes (R&D, supply chain, finance, HR, IT). This will help generate a premium to the business and decrease costs of functions. Digital leadership, digital talent, digital culture would form the pillars of a digital organization moving ahead.

Echoing similar sentiments, C K Venkataraman, Managing Director, Titan Company, opined, “Our digital journey started many years back, with our over 15K sales staff across the country.  As a result, navigating to the online platform entirely was quite smoother this time".

He talked about the role of digitization in sales. "We have about 20 million customers and with video calling", he said. Venkataraman noted that Titan did about 100 crores of sales as early as July 2020.

Talking of leveraging technology to reinvigorate travel and tourism, which has been the hardest hit on account of the pandemic, Aloke Singh, CEO, Air India Express, said that we are on a cusp of a legacy change, ushering into the deep internet age. As we come out of this pandemic, we will see the entire landscape getting changed, with a change in demand and supply chains.

However, the rising digital usage will lead to a spike in cybercrimes, experts warned at the summit. Nappinai N. S, Advocate, Supreme Court of India and Founder, Cyber Saathi, said, “Covid has increased cybercrimes".

He further said, "as our reliance on digital will increase, it would give birth to more and more cyber perpetrators”.

Furthermore, experts noted that to avoid cyberattacks, the country requires a robust cybersecurity framework.

The two-day event, which concluded on Thursday, saw about 2,000 delegates. These included CDOs, CTOs and CIOs who spoke across 25 sessions.