Western Region Committee Meeting – 28th August 2020

The 1st meeting of AMCHAM’s Western Region Committee 2020-2021 was held on August 28th virtually. The meeting commenced with an opening address by Ms. Surabhi Wahal, Regional Director – Western Region, AMCHAM and welcome addresses by the office bearers of the Western Region Committee Mr. Sarthak Ranade, Chairperson – Western Region, AMCHAM and Managing Director – Janssen India, Johnson & Johnson Private Limited, Mr. Shailendra Jagtap, Vice Chairperson – Western Region, AMCHAM and Managing Director & CEO, John Deere India Pvt. Ltd. and Ms. Kaku Nakhate, Vice Chairperson, AMCHAM and President & Country Head, India, Bank of America, N.A. As part of the agenda members discussed forthcoming initiatives for the year and driving membership in the region with a focus on Pune.

8th Healthcare Conference: Digital Health – Future of Healthcare – 28th August 2020

AMCHAM’s 8th Healthcare Conference: Digital Health – Future of Healthcare was held via Webex on August 28th morning. The conference began with Mr. Prakash Bodla, Chairman – Hyderabad Chapter, AMCHAM, welcoming speakers and setting the scene on digital healthcare. Consul General Joel Reifman, U.S. Consulate General Hyderabad, spoke about the importance of health and how India and the U.S. are working together in bringing about quality healthcare. He highlighted American companies in India doing tremendous work in this space. Ms. Maryam Ghoulani, Chief Product Officer, Digital Innovation Group, Providence Health, spoke on the use of technology – smart assistance and trust which make caregiving easier. Dr. Vipul Aggarwal, Dy CEO, National Health Authority, spoke on what the government was doing in the space of digital health and making data driven decisions, reducing inefficiencies, optimizing costs, and improving access. The National Digital Health Mission, which looks at sustainable development goals in achieving Universal Health Coverage in an efficient, accessible, inclusive, affordable, timely and safe manner, while ensuring the security, confidentiality and privacy of health-related personal information.

Panel 1: Innovation & Technology focused on how remote monitoring, interpreting patient data and the right data were going to be the key to driving digital adoption and creating a digital framework. The session touched on how technology cannot function in silos and should blend with existing workflows and be able to integrate with hospital platforms for easier collaboration. Data security would be a critical factor. The moderator for the session was Mr. Ritesh Dogra, Founder, TalkDocAI, a start-up. The panelists were Dr. Divya Prakash Joshi, Site Director, Medtronic Hyderabad, Dr. Akhil Dadi, Ortho, Sunshine Hospitals, Ms. Laina Emmanuel, Co-Founder and CEO of Brainsight AI (which deals with AI in mental wellness) and Mr. Arun Sathiyamoorthy, Head R&D Medtronic Hyderabad.

Panel 2: New Normal Post COVID focused on cost efficiency. Efficiency has been the key to affordable health. If half of the country was covered by Ayushman Bharat and with a fixed price, managing costs would be essential. Patient centricity would also be of utmost importance along with measuring patient outcomes. Technology is only the enabler, the key would be interlinking it with the hospital platform to ensure data accuracy, patient satisfaction and improving outcomes. The moderator of the session was Dr. Ambuj Chaturvedi, Sr. VP, IKP Knowledge Park. The panelist included Mr. Kaustav Banerjee, President South Asia, Zimmer, Mr. Mudit D., Co-Founder, DOZEE, Ms. Srividhya, Sector Head Pharma & Bio Tech, Invest India, Mr. Ratan Jalan, MD, Medium Consulting and Mr. Prawal Kalita, President, Employee Health & Benefits, Marsh India. Mr. Jayesh Sanghvi, Vice Chairman – Hyderabad Chapter, AMCHAM and Partner, EY, summarized the proceedings and closed the conference thanking all the panelists and speakers.

U.S.-India Travel & Tourism Working Group Meeting – 28th August 2020

The AMCHAM U.S.-India Travel & Tourism Working Group core committee conducted a conference call on August 28th to discuss the current scenario of the travel industry, with a focus on travel from India to the U.S. in particular. The conference call was attended by Honorary USG Chair – U.S.-India Working Group, AMCHAM, Ms. Aileen Nandi, Minister Counselor for Commercial Affairs, U.S. Embassy, Industry Chair – U.S.-India Working Group, AMCHAM, Ms. Sheema Vohra, Managing Director – India, Brand USA, Mr. Anup Taneja, Director Global Sales, Marriott International and Mr. Pukhraj Joneja, Head Products and Industry Relations, FCM India.

7th Anti-Corruption Compliance and Risk Management Master Class Series: Session III – Interaction with the U.S. Department of Justice – 27th August 2020

The Anti-Corruption & FCPA Compliance Committee organized the third session of its 7th Anti-Corruption Compliance and Risk Management Master Class Series on August 27th with the U.S. Department of Justice. Ms. Ranjana Khanna, Director General CEO, AMCHAM, welcomed participants to the exclusive session. She gave a brief overview of the masterclass structure. Mr. Gaurav Ajmani, Chairman – Anti-Corruption & FCPA Compliance Committee, AMCHAM and Associate General Counsel, Business Conduct & Ethics, Amazon Seller Services, gave an overview of the anti-corruption landscape in India.

Mr. Puneet Singh, Legal Attaché, U.S. Embassy, explained how the FBI has legats worldwide that regularly organize trainings, share best practices, collaborate on investigations, etc. It was followed by a discussion on the overview of the new guidelines issued by DOJ in 2020 and the role of the FBI in assisting DOJ for FCPA investigations by Mr. Christopher Cestaro, Chief of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) Unit, U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Division, Fraud Section and Mr. Jeffrey Coleman, Supervisory Special Agent (SSA), International Corruption Unit, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Ms. Bhawna A. Ranganadhan, Co-Chairperson – Anti-Corruption & FCPA Compliance Committee, AMCHAM and Vice President, Legal and Compliance, Genpact gave the concluding remarks.

Supply Chain & Logistics Committee Meeting – 27th August 2020

On August 27th, the first meeting of AMCHAM’s Supply Chain & Logistics Committee 2020-2021 was held virtually. The meeting commenced with opening remarks by Ms. Surabhi Wahal, Regional Director – Western Region, AMCHAM India. This was followed by a welcome addresses by the newly appointed office bearers 2020-2021 Mr. Praveen Gosain, Chairman – Supply Chain & Logistics Committee and Director (Supply Chain India), Corning Technologies India Pvt. Ltd. and Ms. Shilpa Ramanathan, Co-Chairperson – Supply Chain & Logistics Committee, AMCHAM and Supply Chain Leader, Becton Dickinson India Private Limited. Members discussed the theme, focus areas, initiatives, issues and prospective government interaction.

Webinar on the ‘Digital Customer’ – 25th August 2020

AMCHAM’s Eastern Region organized a panel discussion via webinar on the ‘Digital Customer’ on August 25th. The panelists were Ms. Ashmita Sethi, Chairperson – Civil Aviation Committee, AMCHAM and President and Country Head, Pratt & Whitney, United Technologies Corp India, Mr. Sashank Yaragudipati Partner, CIC Industry, Consumer Industry, IBM India Pvt. Ltd., Ms. Kasturi Bhattacharjee, CEO, AlLabs & Datacore Systems and Mr. Diptarag Bhattacharjee, COO, Amway India Enterprises Pvt. Ltd. The session was moderated by Ms. Deepti Sagar, Partner in consulting function of Deloitte India. Mr. Gulshan Sachdev, Chairman – Eastern Region, AMCHAM and Managing Director, Quaker Chemical, gave the welcome address and Mr. Joydeep Datta Gupta, Partner, Deloitte Touché Tohmatsu India LLP gave the concluding remarks and vote of thanks. Ms. Amada Kidwai, Regional Director – Eastern Region, AMCHAM, did the introductions.

The session covered how COVID-19 has made permanent shifts in human lives, consumption patterns, preferences and behavior. It has also accelerated a technology and digital push across sectors as physical contact led models were a declining trend. The discussions focused on what does ‘digital customer’ mean for the Indian customer in given demographics and degree of technology penetration, how companies were adopting digital in marketing to win wallets and mindshare and success factors, challenges, scalability, privacy and customer adoption.

Mr. Gulshan Sachdev, in his welcome address, said that amidst the pandemic its time to focus on transformative changes as no business was immune to the impact of this pandemic regardless of industry, size or geography. Changes in the way business think and operate are apparent as everyone adjusts to the new normal with a heightened focus on effective use of digital tools to maintain business productivity. He said he was glad to be a part of these great minds and leadership in the knowledge sharing session on the digital customer effectively converging business and technology, disrupting conventional ways and transforming all to be future ready.

Ms. Deepti Sagar, in her opening comments, said that digital was in everything we do today – businesses need to embrace the emerging trends by being digital not just doing digital. A holistic integration of front office with back office based on tech and digital platforms coupled with omni-channel capabilities and powered by AI/ML triggered incisive decision making would help companies leverage full potential out of digital transformation. Mr. Shashank Yaragudipati said that digital was here to stay and grow. Both sides were necessary to look at — mind the gap in digitizing the demand side of the business vs supply side of the business. He emphasized the importance to know your customer size, scale and segmentation, and to determine the best fit solution based on the sector, format, and demographics and to use digital to strengthen the basics, provide value and create differentiation for your customers and your business.

Ms. Kasturi Bhattacharjee spoke about how the digital customer requires businesses to transform their technology models. How AI/ML were being considered critical to drive competitive edge and revive customer engagement. She discussed trends and how businesses have been embracing this technology in a new normal customer world. She said that customer needs continuously change and one does not know how long these trends would last, and how businesses could make prudent investments in AI/ML at scale without risk of sunk investments. Mr. Diptarag Bhattacharjee said that COVID-19 has proved to be a catalyst in the transition of business from offline to online. Even before the global pandemic, in line with Amway’s global vision and the government’s Digital India initiative, the company was in the process of integrating offline-to-online (O2O) to drive targeted results riding on the global mega trend of social commerce. The pandemic has expedited the process and they have expanded their digital footprint to reach direct sellers and consumers and were strategically investing in building digital competencies to empower direct sellers and enable them to run their business seamlessly. Amway has introduced interactive digital tools and training to assist their direct sellers for continued consumer interface and would continue to bolster digital capabilities for ensuring efficient business functioning.

Ms. Ashmita Sethi spoke about the long-term vision for Pratt & Whitney. She said that data use was one that is fully interconnected across the digital thread of a product from engine conception to fleet operation. That connectivity would drive a significant evolution from today’s more preventative capability to tomorrow’s broader predictive capability and therefore product durability. They have also been building data collections and analytics capabilities across the life cycle of the product. These and other actions would expand their capability to proactively monitor the health of engines on-wing and predict future maintenance visits. She said, in the Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) business, as a broader advantage the predictive power of AI could bring about a step-change in not just cost-efficiency for airlines by reducing maintenance disruptions from their operations, but also contribute to their operational excellence.

Mr. Joydeep Datta Gupta in his concluding remarks, thanked all the panelists for an informative discussion packed with knowledge. He touched upon the diversity of the panelists from industries where digital was now the norm. He spoke about change in customer behavior and that 50% of customers were now apprehensive about visiting physical stores. When the store goes to the customer digitally, it would need to be supported by a robust supply chain, so that the store does not have empty shelves. This would call for end-to-end digital transformation. He also mentioned that in the context of reaching customers digitally, a lot of data has become available. AI and ML could help analyze this data and predict trends related to likely demand and create opportunities for targeted marketing.