• 15TH Star Nite Award 2016

    Guests present in the event : (From Left to Right): Mr. Sudarshan R, Country Marketing Head, INDIA-DELL India Pvt. Ltd., Mr. Alok Gupta, President-PCAIT, Mr. Shrikant Sinha, CEO- NASSCOM Foundation, Mr. Jaijit Bhattacharya, Partner, Infrastructure & Govt. Services-KPMG, Mr. Vishal Dhupar, M.D.(India & SAARC)-NVIDIA Graphics Pvt. Ltd., Ms. S Mohini Ratna, editor-VARINDIA, Mr. D. K. Sahu, Publisher cum Chief editor-VARINDIA, Hon’ble Minister Shri P.P. Chaudhary, Hon’ble Minister of State, Law & Justice, E & IT, GOI, Dr. Bibek Debroy, Member, NITI Aayog, Mr. S. N. Tripathy, IAS & D.C.- Department of MSME, GoI, Mr. Vipin Tyagi, E.D.- C DOT, Govt. of India, Shri. Amit Jain, President & CEO- Prysm Inc., K K Shetty- V.P.- Commscope India, Mr. L K Pathak, V.P.-Mktg. & Corp..Comm.-Sterlite Technologies Ltd. and Mr. Champak Raj Gurjar, President-FAIITA.

  • Theme: "Digital & GST Impact on Business Ecosystem"

15TH STAR NITE AWARDS-SETTING NEW BENCHMARK IN THE ICT INDUSTRY

The evening commenced with the lamp lighting ceremony and was graced by the Chief Guest, Shri P. P. Chaudhary, Ho’ble Minister of State, Law & Justice, Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India. Other dignitaries who joined in the celebrations are Dr Bibek Debroy, Member, NITI Aayog, Government of India; Shri S. N. Tripathy, IAS, A.S. and Development Commissioner, MSME, Government of India; Shri Vipin Tyagi, Executive Director, C-Dot, Government of India; Shri Savitur Prasad, Addl. CGDA, Ministry of Defence, Government of India; Shri Amit Jain, President & CEO, Prysm; Shri Vishal Dhupar, Global Head (Business Development), NVIDIA Graphics; Shri Jaijit Bhattacharya, Partner, Infrastructure & Government Services, KPMG; Shri K. K. Shetty, Vice-President, Commscope India; Shri Krishnan Chatterjee, Head – Marketing, India Subcontinent, SAP INDIA; Shri Sudarshan R, Country Marketing Head, India, Dell India Pvt. Ltd; Shri A. L. Jagannath, Director – Marketing, VMware Software India Pvt. Ltd; Shri Sandip Aurora, Director – Marketing, Intel India Pvt. Ltd; Shri L. K. Pathak, Vice-President – Marketing & Corp. Communication, Sterlite Technologies; and Shri Deepak Kumar Sahu, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, VARINDIA.

Lamp Lighting Ceremony

Shri Deepak Kumar Sahu, Publisher & Editor-in-Chief, VARINDIA, started his keynote address by complimenting the Indian talent and the impact that Indian entrepreneurs have had on Silicon Valley. India’s start-ups “will disrupt the world” for sure. Experts predict that India – comprising 15% of the world’s population and with a growth rate of 7% to 8%, could be the second-largest economy by 2030. The Government’s commitment for a digital economy as a major growth enabler is among the top priorities for the Central and State governments both and the opportunity seems very much promising.

The Tech Talk Session saw five eminent speakers from the industry talk about emerging technology and the way industry is shaping up amidst its adoption. The idea of this tech talk is that, in five minutes, a speaker needs to tell the audience on the present and future technologies that his respective company is endorsing. There were a multitude of topics capped, on which these leaders shared their ideas and concepts with the audience. The speakers who spoke during this session were Shri Amit Jain, President & CEO, Prysm Inc.; Shri Vishal Dhupar, MD, South Asia, NVIDIA India; Shri K. K. Shetty, VP, Commscope India; Shri Jaijit Bhattacharya, Partner, Infrastructure & Government Services, KPMG; Shri Rohit Oberoi, Director Channel – India & Middle East, Seclore Technology; and Shri Vijayraj Rajit, Chairman, QBITKOLUD.

In keeping with the tradition of this flagship event, the gala awards ceremony which always is the most-awaited attraction of the evening took place amidst much celebrations and grandeur. The biggest names in the ICT industry have been named winners in 40 different categories that have been chosen on the basis of the feedback received from the VARs and channel partners from the metros, A-, B- and C-class cities through an extensive electronic voting system.

VARINDIA also took this opportunity to recognize 15 CMOs from the Indian ICT industry. As another attraction of the event, CMOs gave a 60 seconds pitch on their efforts, success and sharing their experience how they have transformed the business of their respective organizations and later these veterans came up on the stage and were felicitated with a token of appreciation.

There was also a Lucky Draw contest organized by Seclore, Epson, Seagate and Fitbit in between the event where lucky winners walked away with exciting prizes.

Speakers in the Event



Dr. Bibek Debroy

Member, NITI Aayog, Government of India

"There are major challenges facing the education sector today. When we talk of education, everybody tends to focus only on higher education. But higher education is only one side of the coin. Education probably begins with school education. It expands primary education, secondary education, farther up vocational education and even higher education. Today if you look at school enrolment, across the country whatever be the state that we are talking about, we are getting children into schools. The number of students who have dropped out of school has dropped phenomenally in spite of having problems with drop-outs, retention and quality of education. The education sector is up for reform, but they do not happen only when they are supply-driven."

Shri P.P Chaudhary

Hon’ble Minister of State, Law & Justice, Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India

"We might not have been a witness to Industrial Revolution, but our young generation and even we would be able to see the country taking a leap to Digital India. The biggest challenge before India today is that of infrastructure because our 83 crore population reside in rural India. And today when there is a big Digital Divide, our Honourable PM is trying his best to bring India on the world map as a digital country. Once we reach around 2, 50,000 gram panchayats getting connecting through optical fibre or high speed internet and giving wi-fi connectivity to villagers, we would know that we have lived up to our aim."

Shri S. N. Tripathy, IAS

A.S. and Development Commissioner, MSME, Government of India

"When we were talking about bottlenecks to make India digital, we were afraid of many things not falling into place. Today the entire eco-system is set – so how can Digital India be made successful? What is it that we expect from the government? We have used Digital in the Dept. of MSME and one scheme where we have used is a recent project that will give sufficient scope to the players in that industry. We have been promoting ICT among micro & small enterprises, and see in what ways they can use the digital platform. We are sure of 2 things – we are not going to support disruption but go for neutralization."