Suhana Bhatia

You're probably reading thisfeature, while keeping aneye on your mobile phone,waiting for that urgent email,

a Whatsapp message from home ora comment on your post on socialmedia. Who knows, you're probablyreading this on our e-paper on yourphone? Simultaneously, you havealso this same device to pay yourelectricity bill online, and will have aSkype meeting with yourSingapore-based client in an hour'stime. As kids, we used to readabout such fascinating technologiesin sci-fi comics and now we live inthis reality. Artificial intelligence hasturned things around on their head,and no one's complaining.

The fifth edition of The EconomicTimes Telecom Awards presentedby GTL Infrastructure Limited washeld on 11 March, 2016 in NewDelhi. As has become the normover the last four years, the awardsnight witnessed the convergence ofsome of the most eminentpersonalities and leaders from theIndian telecommunicationsindustry. These awards, an initiativeby The Times Group and GTLInfrastructure Limited are aimed atproviding a platform that celebratesthe excellence displayed by industrymembers and also highlights thebenchmarks and standards ofbusiness and of innovation that area hallmark of the highly competitivetelecommunications industry inIndia. The telecom sector of Indiahas perhaps the most tangible andimmediate impact on the daily livesof millions of Indians. Its policies,decisions and business generateinterest from the consumer in avocal way. From mobile numberportability to the lowering of thevoice call; from call serviceproviders transforming into theinternet service provider; thetelecom operators in India not onlyprovide a voice service for the

Indian consumer but they alsobecome an agent of change andgrowth for the consumer and thenational economy.

TELECOM 2020 The evening began with awelcome address by Arunabh DasSharma, President, Bennett,Coleman and Company Limited.He said that these awards aim tocelebrate excellence and setbenchmarks for the higheststandards of innovation in thetelecom industry in a market whichis ever evolving and thus poses itsown set of challenges. “Throughthis initiative, The Economic Timeshas created what we believe is acredible platform that trulyhonours the achievers in thetelecom sector,” he further added.These awards recognise those whoventured into the unknown -telecom is still a relatively newindustry - and created productsand services that are bothinnovative and competitive.Telecommunication services are

recognised globally to be reallygood barometres of economicdevelopment in a nation. They arealso one of the prime supportservices needed for rapid growthand modernisation of varioussectors of the economy.

The government of India

recognises this fact and has takenseveral major initiatives to providea business friendly environment forfostering growth in this industry.Driven by a reasonably high 3Gpenetration and the 4G rollout, a

fairly large M2M (Machine toMachine) growth is expected inIndia, especially when allied withother smart government initiativessuch as the Smart Cities Project.India is already set to become the2nd largest global market for smartphones. According to a study byGSME, which really represents theinterests of mobile operators, webelieve that by 2020 smart phoneswill account for 2 out of every 3phones in India. And that can havea transformative impact on theeconomy. “This year we haveintroduced a new platform -Telecom Vision 2020, which is toidentify and recognise visionaryideas which will enable thetelecom industry to thrive in anenvironment of change andaccelerate India's position on theglobal map by setting newbenchmarks and trends,“ heinformed the audience.

TELECOM TRANSFORMATIONJS Deepak, Secretary, Departmentof Telecommunications,Government of India andChairman – Telecom Commission,

who was the chief guest for theevening offered his insightfulencapsulation of the remarkablegrowth of mobile networks in Indiain his speech.The chief guesthighlighted the change in the

telecommunications experience inIndia via his own experiences. Herecalled how in the early 80s,making a 'lightning call' to aneighbouring town barely 40 kmaway, took more time than typingthe contents of the message andsending it via road. In contrast,India today boasts of the world'ssecond largesttelecommunications network.Deepak credited thistransformation to the huge andcontinuing partnership betweenprivate enterprise and thegovernment, helped along by a lotof innovators and great policies.The next phase of the growth andexpansion of the telecom sectorwas the Internet. Internet beingmostly mobile in India, its rapidand widespread growth has beenphenomenal! It took 18 years totouch the first 100 million internetconnections, 3 years for the secondhundred million, 18 months for thethird 100 million and a mere 12months to touch 400 million usersin December 2015.

What is even more incredible isthe multitude of ways that mobile-based technology aided by

internet connections, has done torevolutionise education, banking,agriculture, socio-economic reformand awareness in the remotestsectors and areas of the nation.

THE AWARDS PROCESSThe awards were preceded by anaudio-visual presentation by Ernst& Young, the official tabulators ofthese awards. The process offinding the final awardees is arigorous and intense journey withsome of the most respectednames in the industry screeningover a hundred nominees in 13hotly contested categories.

The jury looks for not justinnovation but innovation thatwill have an impact on the socio-economic fabric of thecommunity and was alsosustainable. The awards this yearlooked for projects andinnovations that also havescalability in the future. Last butnot least, they had to be relevantto India and for India. The ETTelecom Awards ultimately, werea toast to innovation, socio-economic revolution andchanging technologies. While theawardees have gone hometreasuring their trophies, work isunderway already for innovationsand technologies that will seek tofurther transform thetelecommunications horizon forIndia because the vision is totransform India into a digitallypowered Knowledge Economy by 2020.

A CONSUMER CONNECT INITIATIVE

Excellence & Innovation in Telecommunications: All the winners at the fifth edition of The Economic Times Telecom Awards, an initiative supported by GTL Infrastructure Ltd.

The fifth edition of The Economic Times Telecom Awards seeks to honour and acknowledge theexcellence and innovation in the Indian telecom sector as a result of which this key infrastructure sectorhas grown by leaps and bounds and is close to connecting a billion Indians

TELECOMMUNICATIONSTHE FUTURE OF

I think, as you all know, that data isexploding. It is a big revolution andthe biggest hindrance towards adop-tion of data is really around ruralareas, especially around the women-folk. So it's about 'how do we reallygo about and engage the women and

get them into the internet fold?' So, we said we willgo down to the block level... to the rural areas...speak to them, train them on it and then bring theminto the data fold. That's what we did really. We wentto almost 128 block levels and today, we have onelakh fifty thousand women who we have been ableto make 'internet-saksham' (internet-skilled). That'swhat 'stree-shakti' is all about.

Vir Inder Nath CEO, Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh, Bharti Airtel

Today, broadband offers the biggestopportunity. Internet is offering thebiggest opportunity. Affordableinternet for the masses is a big chal-lenge that we are facing. On one sideit is a huge opportunity, on the otherside it is a huge challenge to deliver

affordable, good quality internet.

Sridhar Krish Chief Operating Officer, Tikona Digital Network Pvt. Ltd.

These kinds of events are extremelyimportant if you want a particularindustry to progress. Fortunately,everyone in this country has under-stood the importance of communi-cation, and appropriate supporthas come from the government. If

you see, all the important operators in the worldare today part of this industry in India.

Milind Naik Wholetime Director & COO, GTL Infrastructure Ltd.

The ET awards have been a very spe-cial area for us... so applying for theaward, going through the rigour andgoing through the entire jury processwas a challenge. It was a tremendousachievement and I take my hat off toeach and every one of my communi-

cations team member who has seen this throughand actually this award is for them. I'm just taking iton their behalf.

Rajat Mukarji Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Idea Cellular

It is about making sense of the datathrough intelligence, so we wouldcall ourselves a Machine Intelligence/ Artificial Intelligence company fortelecom networks. That's what we do- where you can build a layer of intel-ligence upon the data that is coming

in, from various sources, both human created aswell as machine.

Avinash Ambale Founder & CEO, Pervazive Automations Systems

The growth of the sectorhas been due to huge

and continuing partnershipbetween private enterpriseand the government... helpedalong by a lot of innovators.

JS DEEPAKSecretary, Department of Telecommuni-cations, Government of India & Chairman– Telecom Commission

QUOTE UNQUOTE

Arunabh Das SharmaPresident, Bennett, Coleman andCompany Limited

Catch the coverage of the ETTelecom Awards on ET NOW -Saturday,April 2,2016 at 7:30

p.m. Repeat telecast on Sunday,April 3,2016 at 6:30 p.m.

GAMECHANGER OF THE YEAR — PAYTM

L to R: JS Deepak, Secretary, Department of Telecommunications, Government ofIndia & Chairman–Telecom Commission and Kiran Reddy - Vice President, Paytm

USE OF TELECOM FOR SOCIAL GOOD (FOR NON-PROFIT COMPANY) — IMMUNIZE INDIA CHARITY

L to R: JS Deepak, Secretary, Department of Telecommunications, Government ofIndia & Chairman–Telecom Commission; Dr. Pramod Jog, President - Indian Academyof Pediatrics; Rajan Kumar Pejavar - Managing Trustee and Gopala Krishnan - Trustee

USE OF TELECOM FOR SOCIAL GOOD (FOR PROFITCOMPANY) — BHARTI AIRTEL LTD.

L to R: JS Deepak, Secretary, Department of Telecommunications, Government ofIndia & Chairman–Telecom Commission; Vir Inder Nath, CEO, Madhya Pradesh &Chhattisgarh, Bharti Airtel and Puneet Gupta, Head Corporate Communications,MP&CG, Bharti Airtel

THE ECONOMIC TIMES, MUMBAI, THURSDAY, MARCH 31, 2016

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A CONSUMER CONNECT INITIATIVE

THE FINAL JURY

Aditya GhoshPresident - Indigo

Madhavan MenonChairman & MD -Thomas Cook

Atul JayawantSenior President &Group CIO - AdityaBirla Group ofCompanies

V. VaidyanathanChairman &Managing Director- Capital First Ltd.

Sanjay JainGroup CFO - Future Group

R.S. SodhiMD - Amul India

Munish MittalCIO - HDFC Bank

Avinash Ambale of Pervazivegave a presentation titled"Looking at The Future". The

focus was on how to useinformation and lessons from thepast to help design the future.

The numbers and facts that heshared with the audience stunnedthe mind. The world today is awashin a flood of data with 5 hexabytes ofdata being created each day.Whether it is uploading videos,posting images on social media,industrial data transfer, etc., we areliterally walking and breathingthrough a mine of informationinvisibly travelling past us. The global

mobile data traffic has gone up by274 per cent in just one year. Butwhat does that do for us? Is itpossible to quantify and analyse thishumongous information? How do

mobile operators use this data tomake smarter decisions?

"While we're talking about 4G, 5Gis already on the way... it is a 'movingtarget'. The more speeds you giveconsumers, the more data is beingused, generated and consumed. Oneway is to take the data beinggenerated by the cellular networksand observe the decisions beingmade by consumers - to look atpatterns of the past and makeinformed decisions about thefuture," Ambale said. The point ofMachine Learning and ArtificialIntelligence is to be able to usealgorithms to learn from data and

patterns that are constantly changingand then adapting the technologiesto suit the consumer.

He made a relevant case in pointabout using the scenario of poornetwork service and call drops. Insuch a situation, a high-valuecustomer can be offered a month'sfree subscription to a preferredchannel instead of just free talk-time.This information which has beengenerated from data analysis hasthus helped companies retain valuedcustomers. He also made a strongand valid case for using PredictiveAnalytics to inform networkoperators about what to do next."Different people have differentethical, moral, legal complicationswith machine-learning but we arenot here to replace generalconsciousness. We are not replacinghuman intelligence by a machine,"he pointed out.

Looking Ahead: Avinash Ambale, Founder &CEO - Pervazive

L to R: Saurav Mukherjee, Director, BCCL; JS Deepak, Secretary, Department of Telecom-munications, Government of India & Chairman–Telecom Commission; Jayant S. Moghe,Head Mobile Broad Band, Engagement Practice and Arvind Gupta, Director MobileBroadband, Engagement Practice

EXCELLENCE IN MOBILE CUSTOMER SERVICE —AIRCEL — AIRCEL SEWA KENDRAS

L to R: Sachin Kumar Das - Vice President & Head Customer Service Operations; MilindNaik, Wholetime Director & Chief Operating Officer – GTL Infrastructure Ltd.; JS Deepak, Secretary, Department of Telecommunications, Government of India &Chairman–Telecom Commission; Alok Kumar, Head-Customer Services; Sarika Singhal,Manager- Consumer Insights and Vaibhav Chaturvedi, AGM - Call Center Operations

BEST TELECOM SERVICE PROVIDER — AIRTEL

L to R: Milind Naik, Wholetime Director & Chief Operating Officer – GTL InfrastructureLtd.; JS Deepak,Secretary, Department of Telecommunications, Government of India &Chairman–Telecom Commission and Vir Inder Nath, CEO, Madhya Pradesh &Chhattisgarh, Bharti Airtel

INNOVATION IN CLOUD BASED TECHNOLOGY FORTHE TELECOM INDUSTRY —TECH MAHINDRA LTD. — CLOUD AGGREGATION PLATFORM

L to R: Milind Naik, Wholetime Director & Chief Operating Officer – GTL InfrastructureLtd.; JS Deepak, Secretary, Department of Telecommunications, Government of India& Chairman–Telecom Commission and Manish Sharma, Platform Head - Cloud Aggregation

MARKETING CAMPAIGN —IDEA CELLULAR LTD. — IDEA INTERNET NETWORK

L to R: Milind Naik, Wholetime Director & Chief Operating Officer – GTL InfrastructureLtd.; JS Deepak, Secretary, Department of Telecommunications, Government of India& Chairman–Telecom Commission; Rajat Mukarji, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer andManoj Kumar, Vice President, Service Delivery

LOOKING AT THE FUTUREHere is how to use the information generated to design the future

EXCELLENCE IN TOWER DEVELOPMENT —ERICSSON INDIA PVT. LTD. — ERICSSON ZERO SITE

L to R: Milind Naik, Wholetime Director & Chief Operating Officer – GTL InfrastructureLtd.; JS Deepak, Secretary, Department of Telecommunications, Government of India &Chairman–Telecom Commission and Rakesh Deshmukh - CEO

INNOVATION IN DEVELOPING OEM PRODUCT —OS LABS - INDUS OS LTD.

L to R: Saurav Mukherjee, Director, BCCL; JS Deepak, Secretary, Department of Telecom-munications, Government of India & Chairman–Telecom Commission; Sridhar Krish,Chief Operating Officer, Tikona Digital Network Pvt. Ltd. and Sidharath Parimoo,Associate Vice President, Tikona Digital Network Pvt. Ltd.

EXCELLENCE IN BROADBAND PRODUCT — TIKONADIGITAL NETWORK PVT LTD. — TIKONA 4G HOME BROADBAND

L to R: Saurav Mukherjee, Director, BCCL; JS Deepak, Secretary, Department of Telecommunications, Government of India &Chairman–Telecom Commission; Amit Kumar, Director, Samsung R&D Institute, India; Tasleem Arif, DGM, Samsung R&D Institute, Indiaand Manoj Kumar - Lead Engineer

EXCELLENCE IN MOBILE DEVICE & EQUIPMENT —SAMSUNG INDIA ELECTRONICS PVT. LTD.—ULTRA DATA SAVING MODE

L to R: Saurav Mukherjee, Director, BCCL; JS Deepak, Secretary, Department of Telecommunications, Government of India &Chairman–Telecom Commission; Aishwarya Manikachhal, Deputy General Manager; Neeraj Kumar, Manager - Energy and IndranilChaterjee, Deputy General Manager - Energy

EXCELLENCE IN ENERGY MANAGEMENT — INDUS TOWER LTD.

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES, MUMBAI, THURSDAY, MARCH 31, 2016