This was the crux of the APAC 3rd PSU Conclave involving 50+ PSU and technology leaders discussing their digital transformation roadmaps.
The 3rd PSU Summit organized by APAC News Network in New Delhi brought together business and technology decision makers from around 50 PSUs to discuss various facets of digital transformations of their organizations. The crux of the discussion was on making the the Indian PSUs more globally competitive through digitization and most of them highlighted they were indeed walking the talk on this.
Leaders like Nauman, Manish Grover, Executive Director (Strategic IS & IS), Indian Oil Corporation, Dr Prashant Atrey, Executive Director (IT), NHPC, Prabhakar and Dr Rajneesh Kumar Srivastava, Executive Director – Solar & PPS III Bawana, IPGCL & PPCL emphasized the critical role of technology and focused on some of key projects undertaken at their PSUs leveraging technology.
At HSCC, we are trying to create a prototype of what a hospital will look like in the future, informed Nauman. The other initiatives included creating virtual 3D models of hospitals in HSCC studios and then handing over these designs to the civil contractors. HSCC has also created a cloud based comparative modeling mechanism. “We cannot chase the technology as then we will always be behind. We must always be ahead of technology” concluded Nauman.
Manish Grover was more emphatic about adoption of technology by PSUs and Indian Oil particularly. “Indian PSUs have embraced technology not only as a procedure but instilled it in the DNA itself,” he remarked. Indian Oil covers 225 initiatives digitally today empowering its people and has made use cases and business cases out of these. These include leveraging augmented reality for plant and refinery safety, utilizing marquee tracking tools to change the way LPG delivery is being done. On April 1, IOCL has launched a sustainability hackathon on 6 themes subdivided into 19 groups which can be converted to business ideas. “Our Hackathon generated about 300 GenAI ideas internally,” Grover proclaimed proudly.
NHPC has embraced both technology and sustainability as long term goals, as elucidated by Dr Prashant Atrey. “NHPC is the largest green PSU in India with a target of reaching 50,000 MW by 2047,” he informed. That NHPC built its own data center in Faridabad in 2020 and deployed an early flood warning system in all the power plants across India in 2022, has been a testimony to NHPC’s mission. Lots of AI and BI-based solutions are being used by NHPC for predictive plant maintenance. The power PSU plans now to deploy IoT devices to monitor the work of its contractors. “We are constantly upgrading our cybersecurity levels and accordingly planning to deploy many confidential devices,” added Atrey.
The technology showcases of the Airport Authority of India were highlighted by Prabhakar. The Airport Operations Control Center was launched simultaneously for 6 airports and later upgraded t 10 airports. This has not been done anywhere in the world, claimed Prabhakar. To follow it up, AAI started Digiyatra in 4 AAI managed airports and 3 private airports. “AAI uses IT tools to not only increase the operational efficiency but also improve the passenger experience,” summed up Prabhakar.
Dr Rajneesh Kumar Srivastava highlighted that IPGCL has 2000 MW gas based power stations and all its processes today are digital. This PSU has onsite monitoring system of the commercial dynamics of the plants themselves. “However, it is important to make our regulators understand the new technology innovation dynamics,” opined Srivastava.
This general theme of making Indian PSUs globally competitive in the era of digital transformation continued in an interesting fireside chat that followed. Golok K Simli, Principal Advisor & CTO, Passport Seva Program (India/Global), Ministry of External Affairs, GoI and Aditi Mathur, Head—Business Development & GTM, Meta discussed about elevating citizen engagement and outcomes with the power of digital technologies. The focus was on empowering masses with the useful outcomes of digitization to improve the quality of their lives. Conversational messaging platforms like WhatsApp allows for real-time proactive communications enabling PSUs to stay closely connected with their ecosystem.
Digital democratization is critical for technology leverage by the citizen masses with no barriers for demographics, rural-urban divide or economic condition, emphasized Simli. “We need to focus on making it simple and look at digital. We need to use technology to derive insights for our policy making,” he added. Mathur agreed with Simli while clarifying that technology is already there but there is no standardization on the reach to every citizen. She cited Meta’s example to illustrate the point. “WhatsApp can have customized solutions to create that reach to every citizen,” she highlighted.
Besides Meta’s Mathur, the role of technology OEMs in supporting the PSUs in their digital transformation was also highlighted by Anuj Kapur, VP & Head of India Region, Iron Mountain. He informed that Iron Mountain works with PSUs in both physical and digital storage. “We have created 3D images of Elephanta Caves, Gaeway of India and the temple in Mahabalipuram to restore historical data digitally.” Kapur also informed about Iron Mountain’s first net zero warehouse in New Delhi. Other than Meta and Iron Mountain, the 3rd PSU Conclave was also supported by Neosoft.
An esoteric panel consisting of Manoj Tandon, Director Project O&M , Railtel Corporation of India, Lay Smrity, VP, CSC e-Governance Services India, Debasis Satapathy, Chief General Manager – HR, NBCC (India), Sandip Trivedi, Group GM – HRD, IRCTC, Hemant Verma, CGM ( IT ) and CTO, Punjab National Bank, Salman Mahmood, DGM (General), Food Corporation of India and Anuj Kapur, VP & Head of India Region, Iron Mountain deliberated on the leading role of PSUs in the digitalization of economy and the importance of new age technologies. All the panelists advocated the PSUs to be aware of emerging technologies and adopt them as and when they enhance the business processes.
Cybersecurity leaders from PSUs discussed about creating a protection framework against the malicious attacks in the PSU ecosystem. The high-voltage panel concluded that high value data, large attack surfaces, decentralized IT environment, limited cybersecurity policies, regulatory compliance challenges, limited funding and insider threats are some of the pain points of security among PSUs.
The panelists included Sandeep Khanna, Director – Information Security & CISO, UIDAI, L K S Rathore, Director (Cyber Security), Central Electricity Authority, Ministry of Power, GoI, Anwaya Bilas Sengupta, Chief Manager & Alternate CISO, Grid Controller of India, Manmeet Sain, Head IT & CISO, Indian Energy Exchange and Virander Singh, DGM & CISO, Indraprastha Gas Limited (IGL).
Cloud enabled digital infrastructures pose both challenges and opportunities for PSUs. Both sides of the coin were highlighted by esteemed panelists including Vijay Devnath, GGM /Infra-Sec, CDG & ITSG, Center for Railway Information Systems (CRIS), Pawan Kumar Sharma, CGM (Digital Education System), EdCIL , Abhijit Bora, GM (Strategic IS), Indian Oil Corporation, Ajay Kumar Nema, GM-IT, HSCC (India), Debasis Satapathy, Chief General Manager – HR, NBCC (India), Deepak Soni, Deputy General Manager (IT & ERP) & CISO, Delhi Transco and Dipesh Jain, Deputy General Manager-IT, Infrastructure and Cyber Security, Power Finance Corporation. The discussion was ably shepherded by Suneel Wattal, Principal Consultant, Noida Centre of Excellence, MPseDC, Madhya Pradesh.
Last but not the least Amal Krishna, CDTO & CISO, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Mousumi Deka, CGM-ERP, Oil India Limited, Ritu Narang, Senior GM (BIS), Container Corporation of India, Haritima Jaipuriar, GM (IT Projects), Railtel Corporation of India, Avneesh Vats, GM-IT, Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), Bharati, DGM IT & CISO ,The Oriental Insurance Co, Abhay Mehrotra, CM (Digital Strategy), Hindustan Urvarak & Rasayan, Harsh Nisar, Advisor IT, National Highways Authority of India and Sumit Kumar, Nodal Officer, Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Ltd. (BECIL) joined heads to design their digital transformation roadmaps in the era of innovation.
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