24th Star Nite Awards: Helping shape the Digital Future by celebrating Tomorrow’s Leaders

The 24th edition of the VARINDIA Star Nite Awards (SNA) that served as a prestigious platform to recognize and celebrate leading figures in the technology sector, concluded recently in New Delhi. Known for its scale and influence, the annual event brought together top industry leaders, innovators, and key stakeholders from across the world of technology, underlining remarkable accomplishments and inspiring a culture of innovation. 

This year, SNA 2025 hosted over 30 leading IT Associations, Federations, and Corporate leaders and celebrated the theme - Partners: The Catalyst for Rapid Innovation. The event stood as a tribute to the vision, resilience, and contributions made by the Indian VARs and partners, who continue to shape the nation’s digital growth story.

A distinguished group of esteemed guests graced the event that included names like Devesh Kumar Rastogi, Chairman-FAIITA; Navin Gupta, President-FAIITA; Dr. Arindam Sarkar, Asst. Professor & Head of Computer Science and Electronics - Ramakrishna Mission Vidyamandira – Howrah; Akshay Balaganur, Co-Founder & CEO- LINKEYE; Shantanu Ghosh, Chief Transformation Officer- Airowire; Sumitha Sunil, Account Director (Large Enterprise) – GOTO; Jithesh Chembil, Head Channels India - Pure Storage; Pranab Mohanty, Chief Business Officer- Data Safeguard Inc.; Rajeev K Abichandani, Head-Enterprise Channels (India & SAARC) - Fortinet Technologies; Gopal Krishna, Director (Sales) MX, APAC- Barco; Amit Jain, Founder & CEO- Integrated Tech9Labs Pvt. Ltd.; Magan Gangani, President- TAIT; Alok Gupta, President- PCAIT; Puneet Singhal, President- CMDA (Delhi); Amarnath Shetty, MD- LDS Infotech Pvt; Ltd; S Mohini Ratna, Editor- VARINDIA and Dr. Deepak Kumar Sahu, Publisher & Editor-in-chief, VARINDIA.

Dr. Deepak Kumar Sahu, Publisher & Editor-in-chief, VARINDIA presented the welcome address, setting the stage for the day-long event. In his speech, Dr Sahu highlighted how generative AI, services, and platforms are redefining business and is paving the way to a new age of innovation and transformation. “We stand at a pivotal moment where AI, cloud, and automation are redefining technology. The Star Nite Awards honour OEMs and partners driving innovation in AI, cybersecurity, data privacy, and deepfake detection—turning today’s challenges into tomorrow’s transformation. Our OEMs and partners continue to drive progress with vision and resilience. This is a golden era for India’s VAR community as investments shift from infrastructure to intelligence. In 2025, AI moved from pilot to production—now powering security operations across 90% of Asia-Pacific organizations.”

In his keynote address, Naveen Gupta, President - FAIITA welcomed the IT Associations and partners from across the country who were present at the event, while outlining the contributions made by FAAITA in promoting the growth and development of the IT ecosystem by keeping the interests of its members in mind.

Sumitha Sunil, Account Director (Large Enterprise), GoTo and Saurabh Mittal, Senior Solutions Consultant, GoTo shared the dais to give an insightful presentation and shared the unique value proposition of GoTo.

CHANNEL EMPOWERMENT SESSION

In the Channel Empowerment sessions, Dr. Arindam Sarkar, Asst. Professor & Head of Computer Science and Electronics - Ramakrishna Mission Vidyamandira – Howrah took to the stage to explain how FACEOFF TECHNOLOGY, a trust verification and a "Make in India Engineered for the World" solution could shape the future of responsible AI. Through his insightful speech, Dr Sarkar cited the urgency of digital integrity in today’s era and how emerging threats like deepfakes and synthetic media are redefining risks for individuals and enterprises alike.

The next speaker, Ashutosh Tandon, Pre-Sales Solution Architect- Check Point Software Technologies gave a brief presentation on how enterprises can strengthen digital resilience through advanced threat prevention, zero-trust strategies, and secure digital transformation initiatives.

Next, Amit Jain, CEO of Integrated Tech9Labs spoke about Intelligent Cloud and on how Tech9Labs champions the vision of a sovereign, intelligent, and future-ready cloud powered by IBM, Cisco, and Nutanix.

VAR SYMPOSIUM SESSION

In the VAR Symposium session that resumed in the afternoon, Rohit Sharma, Head Technical Sales (India/SAARC)- Micron Technology was invited to speak on how Memory and Storage are the two true catalysts for innovation and they continue to drive growth across the industry.

Next, Pradyut Mohapatra, Systems Engineering Manager - Channels), Versa Networks addressed the audience on Versa Unified SASE. Through his impactful presentation, he empowered partners through secure, agile network solutions and digital transformation.

The next speaker, Gaurav V Saxena, Director-Channel & Alliance- Veeam Software spoke on data resilience in the modern era and how Veeam ensures its customers data security & business continuity with its security and AI-enabled Veeam solutions.

Rajeev K Abichandani, Head-Enterprise Channels (India & SAARC) - Fortinet Technologies India spoke on how the Future can be secured through the power of Partnerships and where Fortinet as a channel friendly brand stands when it comes to empowering VARs to safeguard their future.

Shivam Chandel, Channel Business Manager, Channel Sales, SentinelOne India enlightened the VARs on reimagining cyber security in the age of AI and how AI-driven cybersecurity is an opportunity for them to empower enterprises with autonomous threat detection, adaptive defense, and intelligent automation, enabling response, and stronger resilience against evolving cyber threats.

Gopal Krishna, Director (Sales) MX, APAC - Barco spoke on the growth that the video conferencing market is witnessing, driven by innovative wireless solutions and rising demand for seamless, secure hybrid collaboration.

Taking the VAR Symposium session forward, Anant Deshpande, Regional Vice President, India & ASEAN at DigiCert shared his insights on how Partnerships and Digital Trust are indispensable strategic levers to drive agility and resilience.

This was followed by a presentation by Jithesh Chembil, Head of Channels, India, Pure Storage in which he discussed Enterprise Data Cloud and how Pure Storage empowers partners to drive innovation and enterprise data transformation.

The event also featured two panel discussion sessions, featuring distinguished leaders from India’s tech landscape. The first panel discussion was brought together leading IT associations where they shared their perspectives on how the associations are addressing and resolving key issues across the ecosystem — involving OEMs, vendors, partners, distributors, and regulators — to strengthen collaboration and drive industry growth. Moderated by S. Mohini Ratna, Editor-VARINDIA, the panelists in this session were Alok Gupta, President- PCAIT; Kaushik Pandiya, Governing Body-FAIITA; S Karthikeyan, Charter President, Confed ITA; Magan Gangani, President- TAIT; Vinod Kumar, Chairman- ISODA and Bharat Chheda, President- ASIRT.

The second panel discussion that addressed the VARs of the industry was titled – Lead the Leap and was moderated by Dr. Deepak Kumar Sahu, Publisher & Editor-in-chief, VARINDIA. The discussion delved into the preparedness of Indian VARs to redefine global competitiveness as India stands at the cusp of a global transformation. They stressed collaboration, AI adoption, and ecosystem innovation as growth drivers, urging partners to stay agile, customer-focused, and sustainable in building inclusive, future-ready businesses. The panelists invited to join this session were Ranjan Chopra, MD - Team Computers; Himanshu Chawla, Director- IRIS Global Services; Neel Shah, Chairman-Insight Business Machines Pvt. Ltd.; Ashish Khanna, CEO- Intensity Global Technologies Ltd. and Dinesh Kumar, Sales Director – India & SAARC, SOTI.

AN EVENING DEDICATED TO PARTNERSHIP, INNOVATION, AND EXCELLENCE!

The evening unfolded with a welcome speech by S. Mohini Ratna, Editor, VARINDIA in which she spoke about the Channel Leadership Survey (CLS) 2025, while also giving an overview of Indian IT Industry and how it is helpful in finding the ultimate winners at this awards night.

The evening thereafter witnessed the unveiling of the one of its kind Channel Policy Handbook. The book provides insights into industry best practices for channel partnerships and aims to strengthen collaboration between vendors and partners, driving growth and innovation in the IT ecosystem.

During the Corporate presentations, Akshay Balaganur, Co-Founder & CEO, LinkEye spoke on the topic Manage Large Networks with Small Teams and shared a wonderful presentation on how his company is transforming the world of networks.

Next, Dylan Chadha, Retail Lead-MENA, Context addressed the audience and shared his insights on Building India’s Data-Driven Channel Future. His valuable insights on shaping India’s data-driven channel future and inspiring transformative retail innovation was quite encouraging.

The Guest of Honour for the evening, N R Panicker, Chairman - ACCEL Ltd took to the stage and through his inspiring words, he threw light on the vision that he has for the future IT industry.

K. Subramaniam, IAAS, Director General, Comptroller and Auditor General of India presented the evening keynote address. He enlightened the audience with his valuable insights on governance, transparency, and on how to strengthen India’s audit and accountability framework.

AWARDS & FELICITATIONS

In line with its traditions and standing firm to its name, the 24^th Star Nite Awards honoured the exceptional achievements of VARs, partners, vendors, and IT associations. The first set of awards celebrated India’s leading IT Associations for their exceptional contributions to the technology industry. The associations felicitated are - PACT (Punjab Association of Computer Traders), PCAIT (Progressive Channels Association of Information Technology), TAIT (Trade Association of Information Technology, Mumbai), ISODA (Infotech Software Dealers Association) and ASIRT (Association of System Integrators & Retailers in Technology).

In the VAR Symposium session, more than 100 Eminent VARs of India were honoured in 20 different award categories. The winners were selected with over 6,935 votes cast on www.varindia.com from more than 30 cities nationwide.

This year, VARINDIA also took the initiative to recognize 10 Channel Chiefs of the Indian Technology Industry, who play an important role in transforming the Channel market by being a visionary and an architect in executing strategies and empowering channel partners.

The awards ceremony that took place in the evening witnessed the recognition of the Transformational Business Leaders 2025 and Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) who are instrumental in shaping the future of the Indian ICT industry.

The most eagerly anticipated segment of the evening was the Channel Leadership Survey (CLS) 2025 Awards, where vendors selected and voted for by their channel partners and VARs were honoured in more than 40 different categories.