Star Nite Awards 2015 – The Bigger, The Better

The Star Nite Awards 2015 will be best remembered for three things – the presence of a host of distinguished dignitaries, IT honchos, senior bureaucrats and government officials, the Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) from the industry and last but not the least the top performers from the field of ICT. The 14th leg of the Awards that was organized by Kalinga Digital Media lived up to the tradition of its predecessors and the reputation it has gained during its primitive years. With the theme of the event being "CHANNEL FIRST", this event was entirely dedicated to the Indian Channel Partners from the ICT industry.

The Star Nite Awards 2015 will be best remembered for three things – the presence of a host of distinguished dignitaries, IT honchos, senior bureaucrats and government officials, the Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) from the industry and last but not the least the top performers from the field of ICT. The 14th leg of the Awards that was organized by Kalinga Digital Media lived up to the tradition of its predecessors and the reputation it has gained during its primitive years. With the theme of the event being "CHANNEL FIRST", this event was entirely dedicated to the Indian Channel Partners from the ICT industry.

The auspicious lamp lighting ceremony marked the beginning of the event that was graced by the Chief Guest, Shri Anil Swarup, IAS, Secretary – Coal, Government of India, and other high-profile guests and distinguished delegates like Shri Navin Verma, IAS, Secretary, DONER, Government of India; Shri S. N. Tripathy, IAS, A.S. & Development Commissioner, MSME, GoI; Shri Vipin Tyagi, E.D., C-DoT, Government of India; Shri Rajesh Janey, President, EMC - India & SAARC; Shri Vineet Goenka, Member, IT Task Force, Ministry of Surface, Transport & Shipping, GoI; Shri Kishore Badami, CMO, CISCO Systems India & SAARC; Shri Amarjeet Manchanda, Director, Consulting Services, Red Hat India; Shri Sudarshan R, Head – Marketing, Dell India Pvt. Ltd; Shri B. S. Rao, V.P. – Marketing, CtrlS Datacenters Ltd; Shri Rajesh Kumar Jindal, CMO, SAP India Subcontinent; Shri Parag Amalnerkar, Director – Marketing, NetApp India; Shri Sandeep Aurora, Director – Marketing, Intel India; Ms Jayanthi Sethuraman, Global Head – Marketing, Tally Solutions; Shri Alok Gupta, President, PCAIT; Shri Champak Raj Gurjar, Chairman, FAIITA; and Shri Kshitij M. Kotak, President – ASIRT, among many others.

The unveiling of the SPOI magazine was another highlight of the evening. SPO India is an initiative towards CSR that is aimed at creating a sustainable growth for the organizations in the country. The formal inauguration was done in the presence of the Chief Guest and other dignitaries. In his welcome address, Shri Deepak Sahu, Publisher, VARINDIA, reiterated the fact that the industry has changed from every perspective and it is upon us how we take in those changes with our innovative ideas. “Today, communication has grown as the backbone of infrastructure; security is the spine of all intelligently-orchestrated devices; open-source software is under way to enable digital infrastructure and IoT will ride in the cyber world to transform the way people communicate and connect the world for a better tomorrow. The current high valuations, in spite of losses, perhaps are indicative of the future potential.”

Taking a cue from how the industry is fast changing, Rajesh Janey said that the world is moving faster the way we could have ever imagined. “The way things have been evolving in the current IT industry is an interesting topic to begin this evening. It was way easier for me to start with my first job since there were very few products, which used to come out every 6–8 months. From then to now, when there are thousands of products, solutions and a much wider dimension of customer requirements, it is in itself a perfect example to indicate how things have changed. Infrastructure is no longer the point of discussion. It is about applications, and it is about the outcome that matters more. The point I want to make is that we have to change the way we have been servicing our customers.”

The Chief Guest, Shri Anil Swarup, IAS, Secretary – Coal, Government of India, stressed on the usability of technology and how it can be used for the good of the society. “After all these years of experience, I have come to the conclusion that we do not need to be as such a technologist in order to use technology. What is most important is your ability to understand the implications, nuances, and utility – and not the futility – of technology. In some of the cases, I have found that if you are a technologist, you might put some other technologies and eventually its users are in trouble. To my mind, for someone like me, the job would then be to balance the imbalance and let technology do the good job. I had my brush with technology from a very early stage of my career. The biggest moment for me was when we introduced a Health Insurance Scheme for the poor in the country, where a poor man can carry this smart card issued to him to any Government hospital and get treated. This happens to be the only paperless initiative in the world so far.”

Commemorating the role that Chief Marketing Officers play in the industry, VARINDIA this time took the opportunity to felicitate them during the event with a token of appreciation. A total of nine CMOs were recognized and they were asked to give a 60 seconds marketing pitch to the audience, on their efforts and success in transforming their respective organizations.

The Star Nite Tech Byte Session saw a few eminent speakers from the industry talk about the present and future technologies that their respective companies endorsed and were given a time-limit of 5 minutes each. The speakers who spoke during this session were Shri Amarjeet Manchanda, Director, Consulting Services, Red Hat India; Shri Vipin Tyagi, E.D., C-Dot; Shri Girish Gargeshwari, Director – Commercial, SMB & Channels, Intel Security-McAfee; Shri Rupendra Bhatnagar, Head of Industries, SAP India Subcontinent; and Shri Vineet Goenka, Member, IT Task Force, Ministry of Surface, Transport & Shipping, GoI.

Then came the most-awaited part of the evening – the gala Award ceremony that, as usual, was an extravagant affair, taking everyone present in the hall by storm. A total of close-to 63 categories were announced this year and more than 50 vendors were awarded for their remarkable contribution in their respective field. Three associations were also recognized for their contribution to their respective regional channel community.

There was also a Lucky Draw contest sponsored by EMC during the event where three lucky winners walked away with an iPhone 4 model each. Overall, the event was a grand success. It did drew inspiration from Modi’s Digital India and Make-in-India campaigns as most of the presentations and speeches were centred around these, but the ultimate goal was to play a part in building a more Connected, Informed and an Empowered India.