The highlight of Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s address during the Tech Decoded summit was his excitement about the Indian start-up ecosystem. While he addressed a crowd of 700 developers/engineers among whom a majority were start-up founders, his focus was how the advanced tech tools services of Microsoft, including Azure cloud, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its Dynamics 365 software application can turn around their businesses into profitability.
He mentioned Ola about how it is using the AI-powered safety system. He referred about Myntra, owned by Flipkart, which has leveraged technology to bring a fashion revolution in India. Not just Unicorns, Nadella mentioned start-ups such as Sun Mobility, providing rechargeable batteries for electric vehicles, Bizingo that claims to solve packaging concerns of MSMEs, e-commerce firms by tech-backed packaging solutions or sports star, Anil Kumble’s Spektacom introducing bat sensors to efficiently utilise the data metrics during a live match.
“It is very fascinating on how the Indian start-ups are leveraging technology and have the potential to create a global impact,” Nadella said. The developers were listening while networking with the top honchos from India’s Unicorns like Ola, Udaan, InMobi on how technology can really benefit them and make an impact across multiple sectors. Nadella said the time is ripe for technology to drive an impact in agriculture, education, healthcare while sharing stories from budding entrepreneurs from Punjab, Tamil Nadu who have used Microsoft’s tech to create an impact.
“In the decade gone by, we understood the importance of consumer economy...wondering if it is the only economy. The business model which was most successful during that period was the aggregator business model or the market places. Is that enough? Clearly not!” he said, making a case for a cross-sectoral impact of technology, which will broaden the productivity gains. To me, it boils down to how every organisation in India can ride this wave, build their own tech intensity,” he added. During a chat between Udaan co-founder and Anant Maheshwari, president, Microsoft India, the two delved on how technology alone can help start-ups to create a disruption and increase productivity manifold. Udaan has been using Azure to build its tech platform for increasing coverage and scale.