IIM Udaipur Hosts D'Future - India Digital Conclave 2026, Spotlighting Technology-Led Growth, Resilience, and Inclusion

PRNewswire
Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], February 3: The Indian Institute of Management, Udaipur (IIMU), successfully hosted the third edition of the D'Future: India Digital Conclave at the T-Hub, Hyderabad, a flagship platform that brought together leaders from government, academia, industry, start-up and sports to deliberate on the role of digital technologies in shaping India's future. The Conclave focused on building an inclusive nation through technology-enabled systems and growth (resilient systems, and inclusive nation-building through). A very meaningful dialogue, research insights, and real-world success stories were the basis for the deliberations between the delegates and the speakers.
The Conclave opened with inaugural remarks by Prof. Ashok Banerjee, Director, IIM Udaipur. Prof. Banerjee highlighted how contemporary industry increasingly expects professionals to be proficient in artificial intelligence and advanced technologies. He spoke about IIM Udaipur's response to these evolving demands through the introduction of specialised MBA programs in technology and the active alignment of faculty research and teaching with the rapidly changing global landscape. Speaking on the vision behind the India Digital Conclave, he emphasized the institute's aim to engage with major cities across India, enabling continuous interaction between academia and industry to exchange ideas, strengthen academic relevance, and foster future-ready learning.
The keynote address was delivered by Shri Jayesh Ranjan, Special Chief Secretary, Government of Telangana. Reflecting on the decade-long journey of the Digital India initiative, Mr. Ranjan spoke about the formation of a state driven by the aspiration to create better opportunities through technology-led growth. He referred to strategic decision-making exercises undertaken at leading institutions and noted that the state's rapid progress, strong institutional ecosystem, and governance reforms were outcomes of a sustained focus on technology and efficiency. He highlighted Telangana's commitment to digitising governance and public services, including optical fibre connectivity to households, and shared examples of using technology to address long-standing inefficiencies, particularly in agriculture and rural development. He also spoke about initiatives supporting deep tech, startups, academic institutions, and women entrepreneurs, and emphasised that in an emerging economy, technology-led development is central to growth and requires collaboration between government and independent entities.
Prof. Ramayya Krishnan, Dean Emeritus, Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University emphasised the importance of generating value from artificial intelligence in ways that benefit both business and society. He spoke about AI's role in enabling conversational fluidity across languages and highlighted initiatives such as AI-driven learning platforms developed in partnership with the Gates Foundation. While acknowledging AI's potential to contribute significantly to economic growth, he also stressed the need for people and processes to evolve alongside technology. His address covered AI governance, operationalising AI through robust evaluation mechanisms, redesigning organisational workflows, and the role of ambient AI, particularly in healthcare applications, with a special focus on rural contexts. He concluded by underlining the importance of workforce adaptation and upskilling in an AI-driven future.
The Indian research track was led by Probal Mojumder, Chairperson (PhD), IIM Udaipur. Prof. Mojumder spoke on building societal resilience through technology-enabled crisis response. Drawing on research conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, he discussed analysing SOS communications on social media, particularly those related to oxygen cylinder requests in the Delhi NCR region. He explained the data collection and validation process and shared findings showing that online engagement patterns, such as hashtags and replies, significantly increased the likelihood of receiving help. He further explored the potential of large language models to augment disaster response by detecting bias, replicating human urgency, and enabling human-AI collaboration in healthcare resource allocation during crises.
A panel discussion on Resilient & Inclusive Nation Building brought together Lalitha Indrakanti, CEO, JLR Technology and Business Services India; Mukund Rajan, Chairperson, ECube Investment Advisors; Phani Mitra B, Global CIO & CDO, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories; Sanket Atal, Country Head and Senior Vice President, OpenText India; and Sujith Nair, Co-founder, Beckn & FIDE. Moderated by Shyam Srinivasan, Senior Advisor, TVS Capital Funds, the discussion linked the vision of Viksit Bharat with the need for resilience, inclusion, and long-term societal impact. Panelists emphasized embedding responsibility within businesses, expanding access to education and healthcare, democratizing technology, unlocking enterprise data, and leveraging India's digital public infrastructure to raise the baseline of inclusion while improving quality of life.
The Corporate Success Story segment featured Kamlesh Gosai, Executive Director - Traffic Commercial (General), Ministry of Railways. He shared insights into the GatiShakti program and the Tech Vision 2035 roadmap, highlighting integrated infrastructure planning, ambitious connectivity goals, AI-enabled optimization of freight and passenger movement, reduced logistics costs, and the role of digital planning tools in accelerating execution across rail, road, and waterways.
The Conclave also showcased student-led innovations from IIM Udaipur's 1-Year MBA (GSCM) program. Sriharan Natarajan presented a conversational agent designed to streamline inventory management through natural language interaction, enabling faster data access, task automation, and informed purchase decisions. Bhagawath K U demonstrated an AI-powered demand forecasting chatbot integrated with an interactive dashboard, enabling multi-SKU forecasting and improved operational visibility.
The Conclave concluded with a fireside chat featuring Viren Rasquinha, CEO, Olympic Gold Quest and former India hockey captain, and Rahul Nagar, Co-founder, str8bat, moderated by Prof. Arun C R, Faculty, IIM Udaipur. The speakers discussed the growing role of data and technology in sports performance, from video analytics and wearable devices to real-time decision-making, while emphasizing the need to democratize access to sports technology and extend these capabilities to grassroots athletes across India. Viren Rasquinha mentioned about how countries like Australia and Germany used technology in Hockey to strategise players' positions and enhance the team's performance in Olympic matches, and linked it back to training needs in India that had not developed their curricula on the game which has become faster and more aggressive.
India Digital Conclave also hosted start-up companies from across India to make a pitch to VC. Start-Up presented very interesting ideas on which India's future can develop into a global powerhouse in fields of quantum computing and hi-speed devices; low-cost sustained energy systems and rocket launching.
Through D'Future - India Digital Conclave 2026, IIM Udaipur reaffirmed its commitment to fostering dialogue, research, and collaboration at the intersection of technology, policy, and society, contributing meaningfully to India's digital and developmental journey.

About IIM Udaipur
IIM Udaipur is well on its way to becoming a globally recognised B-School. It has broken new ground by focusing on world-class research and transforming students into tomorrow's managers and leaders. The Institute arrived on the global education stage by securing accreditation from the AACSB (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) in merely eight years of its establishment. IIMU has been listed on the Financial Times (FT) Global MIM Ranking 2025 for the 7th consecutive year, making it the only IIM to have achieved this feat. In the QS Global MIM Ranking 2026, IIM Udaipur continues to maintain its listing for the 7th year in a row, reinforcing its global standing. Additionally, IIM Udaipur ranks 4th in India for research in management, according to the UT Dallas methodology, which tracks publications in leading global journals, showcasing its excellence in academic research.
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