MUMBAI, December 5, 2018 – World AI Show marked its grand entry into the Indian sub-continent with another eventful show this year. Hosted by Trescon, the conference took place at The Lalit Plaza in Mumbai on the 22-23 November, to support the government’s AI vision that enables enterprises and industries to implement the latest innovations across multiple domains.
In support of the developing Artificial Intelligence industry in India, the event commenced with an opening keynote delivered by Shri Ajay Prakash Sawhney, Secretary for the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India, followed by a special address by Shri Kaustubh Dhavse , Joint Secretary & Officer on Special Duty to the Hon. Chief Minister, Govt. of Maharashtra, who touched upon the topic of making governments ready for the advent of AI.
Speaking at the event, Kaustubh said, “The key here is that when you are going to see the magic of AI being delivered, it is important to also monitor how effectively you can use it in your applications.”
The event was officially supported by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India; Government of Maharashtra Maharashtra State Innovation Society along with NITI Aayog. The event was also powered by Microsoft.
Apart from numerous discussions and tech-talks at the event, the most popular among them was regarding the scope of business opportunities for Artificial Intelligence in India being discussed at length. Founder of Swades Foundation, Dr. Gaurav Pradhan was also present on the panel.
During the panel discussion, Dr. Pradhan said, “Technology is not an expense; it is a capability for the competitive advantage which can only be effective when simplified.”
The insightful sessions were followed by two engaging workshops held by Microsoft and IBM respectively. ‘Startup World Cup – Regional Competition’ featured 18 startups showcasing their ideas and innovations to an esteemed panel of judges. ‘Facilio‘ won the competition, who will now receive a free trip to compete at the grand finale ‘Startup World Cup’ 2019 in San Francisco, for US$ 1 Million grand prize.
The event played host to some of the notable personalities from the AI industry such as Chetan Krishnamurthy, Asia Pacific Business Leader, Watson AI, IBM; Aparna Gupta, GM India, Commercial Software Engineering (CSE), Microsoft, and Dinis Guarda, CEO & Founder, Ztudium – Block Dna – Intelligenthq among others.
At the event Dinis Guarda ecstatically exclaimed, “Artificial Intelligence is as revolutionary as Fire or Electricity before. AI is now the driving force technology together with Blockchain, Big data and IoT. The governments and businesses that will lead this will be the next global leaders in a fast shifting connected industry 4.0 economy.”
After the event, Mohammed Saleem, CEO of Trescon said, “We are really excited about how the Mumbai edition of World AI Show shaped up. It’s about time that India becomes self-compliant, keeping up with the race for technical parity. This show provided a platform to government functionaries and key industry experts to explore new possibilities in the realm of AI and Machine Learning in order to improve and enhance.”
Following the Mumbai edition, the global AI series is set to touch-down in Mauritius later on this month, thereby concluding the series for the year 2018.
