Kochi: The urgent need for legislation to prevent data misuse and personal safety in transportation are some of the key themes that have emerged in the sessions held as part of the global digital summit #Future on Thursday. The panellists on Data: Oil of the Digital Future focused mainly on the enormous opportunity as well the threat factors in a data-based economy and lifestyle. Alok Ohrie president and managing director India Dell EMC said the very nature of the social media and the lack of restrictions on usage implied that it could not really be termed a “misuse” if the data is used for commercial purposes.
“An urgent reform of the law will safeguard the interest of the users,” he said, noting that Indians are particularly vulnerable because so many people are active social media users. Kris Gopalakrishnan, member, Kerala High Power IT Committee, was of the opinion that governments could not entirely evade responsibility on this issue, and legislation and regulations to stop data misuse needed to be a priority. Suku Nair, Director, SMU AT&T Centre for Virtualisation, Dallas, Texas, said a good part of the responsibility of safeguarding data lay with the users themselves. “You don’t leave your wallets or valuables lying around. The same kind of consideration needs to be given to data as well,” he said.
Sajan Pillai, CEO, UST Global, Kerala, said about big opportunities in the field of data, “We may have lost our chance with industry, but we will not miss the digital opportunities.” He added, IT industry was sorely in need of data processing professionals. Raw data, like oil, needs to be processed to make it usable, said Devadas Varma, founder and CEO, entrinsia Inc. Ramadas Pillai, president and CEO, Nuphoton Technologies, said state government has to look actively into easing the difficulties for companies in raising funds and growing here.
Customer-centric needs will power advancements in digitisation and technology in travel and transportation sector, and businesses will have to design their technologies around individualised user experience and safety, experts said. Christoph Mueller, chief digital and innovation officer - Emirates Group, who set the tone of the discussion said hyper-personalisation would be the new industry requirement marked user experience (UX) design, automated operations and enhanced safety.
"We will have completely new customer segments with 30 percent of passengers being active seniors who have retired with good incomes and are travelling the world; commuter profiles will change, and global migrants and a middle-class with massive purchasing power will drive the technology,” he said. Roland Schuetz, group CIO – Lufthansa Group, echoed the sentiments by stating that from the consumers' point of view, travel has to be as easy as possible and seamless, and technology may function behind the scenes.
