 As you can see, he's already there on screens and what a great spirit you are in. Thank you so much for joining us. Ladies and gentlemen, here we have Mr A. Bala Subramanian, Managing Director and CEO for Aditya Billah Sunlight AMC Limited and Chairman for AMFI and he's going to talk about being future ready, what this future entails and how can you prepare yourself and how can you be ready to take it head on. So ladies and gentlemen, without any further ado, I would like to invite Bala again and would request him to start with this talk. Sure. Thanks Shobha and Divya asked me to present in this forum and today after listening to all of you, I realized I am in front of all of you who are hardcore marketing and brand professionals and speaking among all of you, I thought I'll be the little odd man out but in any case as a business leader, you have to get ready for digital transformation and then be ready for the future and then something is not going to happen. Unfortunately, when I drive AMFI as a chairman, I do realize that a lot can be done in the digital space and that can potentially become the way of life as you move forward. I have a few slides of presentation and then we'll have a few and they're coming from the other colleagues. I think just to look at the coincidence, today the budget has emphasized a lot on digital India and that's something government has been doing it for I think quite sometimes the last almost seven, eight years preparing right from other to UPI and the way I think GST is still evolving. There are many areas I think the government of India itself has been creating a digital infrastructure and creating the mindset that how India has to move. Often I do this, I say this in terms of adoption in the industry when I speak in a public forum, clearly two things that actually change the whole adoption. One is the demonetization that happened, there's a time people realized there's no choice of course but to use ATM and so on and so forth. Therefore people got used to adapting to the UPI-based platform for payment banking and that actually created a revolution in the whole industry. And second, the government of India itself has allocated such a huge resources for making India go digital. The first and foremost I do visit some of my villages, clearly I see the digital adoption when the village panchai that is far higher, which again comes on the back of the way the digital infrastructure is being built for the country as a whole. And the second of course is the last six months has been the wave of the startup companies. In fact, all of us are investors as a mutual fund players, investors in some of the tech companies. Clearly some of them would never imagine as a platform. I have seen internet bubble in those days where we always to value on the base of the eyeballs and then moving away from that now becoming an e-commerce kind of platform. So one of the things made me realize I think the relevance of these platforms are increasingly becoming more and more important than the whole system from the consumer point of view. Therefore the way I think this digital platform got adopted is a brilliant base of relevance. So this way I think I just recall the Nandan Ali Kani's presentation. Of course I was part of the digital committee of SEBI and Nandan Ali Kani was leading when Ayukesana was the chairman. I used to clearly he actually used to make all of his to contribute and that's why I used to learn some of the digital aspirations. And that is the time he used to speak about the smartphone. I think clearly if one looks at what he says the digital is no longer an option digital actually gives you only the optionality whether you want to whether you like it or not don't like it one has to adapt. But clearly from an adoption point of view C core pillars agility, resilience, innovation I think all of them have to be a continuous process rather than one of kind I do it. While doing that clearly from an organization point of view and then making a digital friend is no longer is enough and making an automation a length again not an optional. Anytime and I of course used to discuss within my own team that automation actually the key to the success and majority of the time people don't use to get adopted with automation for simple reason the moment you adapt to the automation clearly the workload comes down therefore so much of bandwidth will get created. One may wonder actually what to do with the bandwidth. That's what I think the innovative approach comes in terms of bringing in the way of a new life and that being the case I think the whole journey is not restricted only to think about digital think about automation is all about the continuous change in the mindset of people as well as change the the way one wants to actually adapt to the new platform new age platform and accelerate learning curve of the organization among many things that actually remains key. In order to make this happen I'm just looking at the way I think the digital adaptation is happening as I just mentioned while demon actually created a huge adoption to the digital platform I think clearly from the from from the from the global market point of view I think there has been a significant acceleration that we are witnessing in terms of pre and post-covid crisis that I think is a big boon that has come in the digital platform I think I still remember Nadella making a statement that the pandemic has actually advanced the digital adaptation by almost four or five years he said two years but I think looks like to me that it actually is actually advanced in most of the time I actually get postponed there's only area where it got advanced by about three or four years which again now reflects on the way adaptation has happened. As the next slide if you see I think India clearly is the winner in this space the the science if you look at the chart I think India in terms of adaptation fully digital versus remote and assisted digital fully digital is 80 percent whereas China seems to be quite out of fast at least in the look point of view and the way they behave clearly China is actually about 80 percent only as in the 80 percent. So another thing that I have realized over a period of time I think India seems to be the though we adopt things later little late compared to the global economy they're definitely the fast learner I think when I come to the question of implementing things I think we run faster than most of the economy this I learned when telecom industry was actually getting into the country definitely the adaptation of telecom in India actually far superior and faster than what you have seen in U.S. or Europe or China I think that is what I think India seems to have got adapted to digital technology right extensively. Second in the same space while of course everybody talks about mobile is the way of going I remember I remember as Amphi chairman I had a brief discussion brainstorming discussions with Google Raji Rajan Anandan and then we were making a business plan actually and how the mutual industry can become larger in the system and at that time I was driving as a mutual bonsai I was driving it Quadensu and the entire team Divya has been part of that whole journey and when I had discussion Rajan Anandan you mentioned about what do you think at the growth rate of your industry I just mentioned to him I expect the industry to grow by 22% and then he asked me actually how many number of investors are there in the industry he said about 2.5 crores unique customers they have then he laughed at me and said that your imagination is very poor and I asked him why he said 2.5 crores customer base whereas there are about 65 crores mobile platform owners whereas you have only 2.5 crores unique customer base just imagine even if you go to 100% every year you will be able to reach the 65 crores invested base therefore you must think bigger and that's something if you look at it in terms of the mobile getting connected overseas and everywhere clearly the revenue that is coming from mobile platform on the digital side the earlier speaker spoke about in the sometimes he was spoke about clearly the ad revenue spend has been growing thanks to of course the e-commerce platform which Anandan Ilkani talks about the OTT platform actually is more stronger than the base platform like telecom I think that's something has brought the revolution the whole digital platforms next of course is the customer behavior clearly with the more and more platform coming in adaptation is becoming now real whether it is the education whether it is the e-commerce whether it is to electric vehicles and so on so forth I think everywhere the adaptation and I was actually significantly changing customer behavior is changing is no more the analytic of data doesn't come on the base of the analyzing the address and so on so forth behavior is coming from how the customers are behaving while dealing with the digital platform and where all different operate interestingly one of the platform I was actually tracking it coming from southern part of India created a platform for transactions in mutual funds and stock market and I actually asked him since he come from a south background can I assume that you have a lot of customer base coming only from Chennai and Bangalore and and head of it and interestingly where I come and I think all the three markets are not using my platform as much as I see this coming from Punjab, Chennai here is mainly Chennai here and some parts of northern India actually have a lot customer base then actually the customer base is coming from their own market I think clearly the customer behavior I mean the way the analytical now is being done clearly I think is now is used to be the way of building the business rather than traditional way of doing analysis of the data on the base obviously the business from the future ready point of view well of course my own belief is that next slide is an ongoing thing at the end of the day is an ongoing thing I think while building the business is something making it part of the organization that digital way of running the business I think is will be the key and that's something while creating the mindset I think clearly creating the user experience just to give the money of course the points I put here I mean the user interface experience even I was talking to one of the leading the software firm in India and I was generally checking with them that you guys are of course good in creating a platform how do I ensure that user interface and experience which actually is made the best and interestingly the person of course is the head of the software business in India large organization and he said that this is always a challenge and creating a user interface and experience not just only in India even globally they're going to have a different kind of talent pool who comes with a completely different experience in creating the customer experience that's something is again become very very key well after we can talk about ease of doing business and so on so forth and creating different kind of opi the second is from a model point of view I think all of us are now started believing and breathing that we should be the digital first in terms of approach unless we set that as a roadmap clearly the adaptation to the new age technology platform is not going to be that much easy and the same way I think most of the time I think majority of the people do believe that that one has to create their own platform by themselves I've also of course evaluating some of the options but the partnership model would also be another way to build a more not necessarily api all such things actually the fintech platform is all about the platform that you create and then you actually join as a partner the way microsoft is built globally become a partner for every user in the country therefore the partnership model how it actually is built is also something extremely important in building the digital business the last of course the media business I think the entire the media space of course I do get involved on the material when saying as currently I am chairman and even for my own business I just spend a lot of time in terms of how do I to build our own brand in the new age technology platform clearly I think the way the media as a business which we run right from print to tv to digital medium I think clearly the the the digital medium seems to be the the growing platform from the point of view of creating awareness about the product later I do experience and and creating the entire visibility actually for the brand that something seems to be again becoming the new way of building a business the same time the same time with respect to the media clearly again we have we have done the base of last five years of experience given the fact that India has a vast country and people actually speak different kind of languages therefore making it from English and Hindi to local languages even the fact that adaptation of digital technology platform is now increasingly becoming in every language and that has been the case I think making the entire the reaching to the customers through the media plan through the through this regional level also becoming extremely key and last of course in terms of business model I think clearly the way India has now transformed the the entire digital world other whether of course with respect to identity and now talking about the privacy and ensuring the data security also is taken care because one of the bigger war which I'm now feeling that could happen is the digital war the cyber war thank you for your there essentially means how one looks at the whole security system and the privacy is something is also would be extremely key in building the new business model while doing that I think clearly the data aggregator which is now Reserve Bank of India and I've introduced I think post revolution that they brought in and the payment systems now data aggregator aggregator is also now doing a new way of building actually the financial market where every data aggregator would know about every customer in terms of their behavior of building with their own finance and they may do a planning of their business and so on so forth therefore the customer available information availability with the aggregator platform is going to be significantly higher than what you're saying I've also seen the way civil scores have done a revolution in making the every consumer behavior understood before extending the loan for any of the customers are in the same way aggregator platform also has been going to drive the entire future world this is where I think my own association with UPI and association with Reserve Bank of India and to be in many of the areas that we work very closely clearly I think the regulator themselves are now becoming forward-looking in terms of building the business just to end I think we can go to the next one just to end I just came across this guy attended Harvard program sometime back those rated one I felt it's relevant and the professor who actually was talking about the digital future and he did actually a survey of the various CEOs and then the survey of course S&P final CEOs wish they had started thinking sooner than they did about their internet strategy is the way back when the internet study started and I think five years from now there will be a number of S&P final CEOs that will wish they started thinking earlier about their AIA strategy and AIA was new electricity just 100 years ago electricity was transformed industry after industry and AIA will do the same and if you look at the VEE the entire digital platform is moving the artificial intelligence is now becoming the key in terms of building the future of the business therefore how each of the business is getting adopted I think will remain a significant what do you call the deciding factor in the future of the organizations and in fact I myself come with a old age kind of business model building I think clearly the three four challenge which I see in terms of building the business is a mindset and the right set of people with again having a right mindset that the acumen that they should have in terms of working with the younger populations that is older population then all of them actually is becoming a very significant role that they play in building a great organizations in fact I do myself have an encouraging my own team the best actually that we can do actually is get youngsters as part of the team and make them actually bring in the new innovations what they learn what they do what they see and the base of which actually bring an innovation in everything that we do and building the digital platform that's something it reminds the big area of focus of course for doing this there is always a challenge of the mindset there's always a challenge of accepting yes that's a new way of life and I think we're able to overcome that and definitely I think it's an organization one can build a great digital organization for the future I think I'll stop here I'm sure you'll have some questions on some of the discussions they had even for the industry that you may have some questions I'd be happy to take the questions so thank you very much Mr. Bala Subramaniam for doing this and what an apt time to discuss about the future of India and digitalization because today in the budget presentation the finance minister Nirmala Sitaraman made a great emphasis over the digital technology and digital transformation of yeah some of the key points which I pick up from the budget speech and whatever you have laid out before the before our viewers and during your presentation they this there is no doubt that the India is vastly transforming for the for the digital economy but there are certain questions which still arises out of you know the present scenario about the data privacy about you know the viability gap so I would want you to clarify on certain things that where do you see the viability gap lying right now as far as the space of a digital transformation and the capabilities we should have now if you look at it the entire adoption that is happening on the digital space only in the last eight nine years I think India has adapted quite fast but definitely data privacy is something where the regulatory frameworks are very clear about what kind of what kind of data privacy they want you to have and what kind of data one can share but given the fact that the entire digital medium the data is available they generally for the wider usage is therefore how this actually is can be can be can be managed is something will remain as a as an evolving process but the same time the regulatory framework I think especially in the IT and digital space is always a follows first of course you create a platform and then making it accepted to the wider platform and then you bring in the right rigor of regulatory framework and that's something is not just happening in India even worldwide that's the way the entire regulatory framework has been coming to the one of the area where the data privacy I think would probably increasingly become the next few years that's why I talked about the risk I think I talked about the risk like eventually one this become the way of life and and and that will lead to actually the regulator waking up to bring in the right regulatory framework in ensuring that the people who are providing these the services the digital platform they're also actually made to follow certain rules of the game and so on so forth in maintaining the data privacy at the end of the day any consumer that is there today of course often I joke to people even within my own team as well that we may think actually we have data privacy everything is protected the moment I go and sit in my facebook or google and we must remember that we are being tracked in every moment of our discussions and somebody is tracking here a machine is tracking or maybe somebody is sitting in US is tracking it the factor of the matter is the moment you get in digital platform you can't say you are completely protected from a privacy point of view somebody is tracking it we can only say that yes you learn pull into any kind of controversy unless until you are actually given a say what do you call an acceptance for certain things for sharing and so on so forth. One more thing that rises out of it Mr. Balasambramanen that around 70% of India is still living in the rural areas and only 30% plus is the urban population though it is fastly growing and the estimate says suggests that you know in next 25 years over 50% of the Indian population would be in the urban areas but in the current scenario how do you see the digital India actually reaping dividend for the rural population where the main the the money transactions or the large amount of the economic activity lies. I think the bigger the opportunity rather not opportunity I would say the adoption that has happened in the rural economy is first and foremost everyone today is the owner of the smartphone and I think it's no more the old phone that people use it so that's the biggest change that has come and really where from I'm coming I do visit my village at least once in a year and then I go to the school program the people who come actually to stand the parents who come they're all coming from below power to lend people and they come actually participate in the program invariably all of them will be will be using the smartphone in taking the video of their kids dance program and so on so forth that's the bigger change that has come. Second I think bigger change that has come is actually adapting the payment technology today every Kirano shows they're operating actually in the village if you tell him actually I'll give you a cash or maybe I send you an account in your in your bank account I'll transfer the money he'll probably the first question you'll come do you have btm do you have google pay do you have phone pay I think that's the first question you'll come if you say no for all those things then only give you actually the bank account number that's a bigger change that has come then probably if you ask me the rural connect the rural India has now got connected maybe even Barthi came with the mobile phone in the early part of 90s the people who adopted the mobile telephone in the country are the fishermen of Kerala so they were the one actually where they you go to actually fish fishing in the middle of the sea and suddenly you want to check the price the price is good you fish for do a fishing for more time the price is not that great you come back and then sell whatever you have you have already captured and that's the way they used to use it it became actually good case today I think if you ask me the bigger revolution that has happened in the country is actually the payment usages in the country using the payment app are just significant achievement that has come the third that has come I think thanks to the way the road sector now we now got which is the fast track there's another area where every rural India is connected to the road and every citizen of the country has to go through that toll knocker which is to be of course operated out of manual by taking cash now that the fast tag that has come in fact the adaptation of fast tag in the country actually one of the highest there's another area where the consumers are using so I think what I'm trying to say the number of people actually come to the digital platform knowingly or unknowingly using these kind of platforms you know became a necessary rising growing significantly and they eventually become potential target audience when you come to the question of digital marketing and so on so forth definitely I would want to to repeat what you have already mentioned that though we Indians start late but we are very fast learners and with the pace of adoption it's really remarkable when you are with us I cannot resist the temptation to ask you the question being like you being the most experienced fund manager in the country so how has been the success of the tech companies tech startups in India as far as the India's investment scenario and in the market scenario is concerned how optimistic you are about the startups and their success especially the tech startups and the drone companies or AI or the you know the technology based startups. I think Pranay is interesting there is a significant mindset change that has now come to fund the startup companies in the sense that any company is that actually is going to change in many sense the life of the consumers in any manner or the way I think the business being built that can get fully automated therefore you are creating a tool or it can actually create a tool that actually potentially be a buyout candidates when people like Amazon actually build the firms not necessarily Amazon will build all the things that they want by themselves they will also do an inorganic growth actually for them to actually build in the APA platform for doing a lot of connectivity therefore the attempt that is being made by youngsters is actually far ahead in terms of creating a startup company. Second is clearly from a money manager's point of view the mindset actually towards looking at such companies as long as they make a relevance and in one of the areas where when money managers start looking at even IMS start looking at some of the startup companies or maybe companies which is not the early stage but in the late stage they are coming with an IPO really one of the bigger learning from them actually are they making big relevance from the consumer point of view what kind of impact they are going to create from a consumer point of view how the platform actually is going to be made made to make to use again from the consumer point of view I think as long as the relevance remains very very large definitely the appetite for investing in such startup is very very high often people ask me I have seen the internet bubble time in those period all of us are extremely excited and we used to go and put money in a startup companies without knowing about clearly about the companies people in the face of the eyeballs hit and even my own colleagues some of them started they all became great failures I think moving from that actually to this new platform is actually is different from what was in the past I think it's completely refined refined version of the relevance being one of the core thing not about the profit the relevance and that's the way I think it's coming clearly we are in that wave my own assumption is given the fact that as I mentioned earlier India actually a great adopter I used to come and tell my colleagues you got way of doing business also will bring you a great success in innovation and if I have to go by that and even the fact the men's are generally fixing solution the base of dual ways eventually become an innovation that can potentially become a nice startup in many sense that I don't know that it so that's what I see is I think the appetite is growing and inches are now don't want to work and they won't actually start companies they want to build I think that's something the risk appetite fortunately has gone up quite substantially so one more idea I want to attach upon the finance minister has also laid down the emphasis on the artificial intelligence gaming virtual creative in you also mentioned about the media and advertising sector with the growing digitization how do you see the market growth and the new dimensions opening for the advertising in the media sector since we are sharing this platform because of the exchange for media and answers effort now I am quite bullish on this phase except that I am only of the opinion and then the way we build the response to the consumers our speed to the market speed to the consumers I think we'll move away from spending too much time on creativity of say one month and two months kind of creative work I think probably we'll move hours and I just why I'm specifically saying this is I came across a startup company based out of Europe and I was a group did a two-day session on visiting lots of companies in the business business lab we call it the startup companies made a presentation from a startup including some of the overseas companies I think clearly the advertisement world is actually speaking up from the digital platform itself and creating advertisement for a quick response in the in the as part of the media strategy my own belief is the entire the digital medium response by view of creative work I think we'll move away from a number of days actually to hours so that consumers able to get an instant in years response in the form of not responding in the form of responding to him even in the form of pushing the right advertisements through the latest creation and so on so for that I think today technology is enabling that the one of the more the question of a model how one is able to use that I mean that's why I think somewhere a minute of deeper brain and brainstorming and thinking would play a role and in fact even as an empty chairman I'm driving actually the major one say of next level the larger thinking that we have today is actually is not only of course taking the extra of advertisement to the regional languages also think about how we can actually connect to the connect to the people using the publicly available information at the same time maintain the privacy and and and data for a productive protection etc and yet create come with the creative work using the publicly available information itself certainly gives a very optimistic scenario and optimistic you know outlook for the digital ready transformed India thank you for sharing your thoughts your presentation and now I hand over the platform to to Michelle and and team dance when I exchange for media thanks thanks for having me on the one official