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Time of India
3 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Speed, Security, and Stakeholders: What CIOs Must Get Right in 2025
At the 7th edition of the ETCIO Annual Conclave 2025, held against the backdrop of surging technological momentum, India's top CIOs gathered not just to trade implementation strategies—but to redraw the contours of their own evolving Manish Gupta, Group CIO at Aditya Birla Group, reflects on the modern CIO's role, he's quick to move past the conventional definitions. 'The job of a CIO is not internal,' he says. 'It must reach out to all stakeholders. Start by mapping them out—a mammoth task to figure out the human dimension.' It's a sentiment that captures the deepening complexity—and pressure—facing technology leaders today. The CIO is no longer a back-office functionary; they are a visible, strategic actor in a landscape shaped by rising customer expectations, accelerating innovation cycles, and ever-tightening security requirements. Today's CIO navigates: Driving innovation at pace, safeguarding trust, and managing human dynamics that make change possible. It's no longer about mastering technology—it's about leading through it. The Three Arcs of Leadership Kirti Patil, Joint President–IT and CTO at Kotak Life Insurance, defines the evolution through 'the three arcs': The visible shift, the invisible layer, and the human thread. Each is necessary; together, they define whether a CIO merely implements change or drives transformation. The visible shift is the front-end—the customer apps, the chatbot, the digital touchpoints that users experience. The invisible layer is the backend—the architecture, APIs, and data integrations that support the experience. But the most challenging layer may be the last. 'Trust in a brand is trust in digital,' Patil explains, underscoring how technology decisions now have reputational stakes. A failed rollout or breach isn't just a technical error—it's a brand issue. This is why Gupta places so much emphasis on education, exposure, and experimentation. 'Experimentation helps multi-level co-creation in the organization involving all the stakeholders a CIO touches,' he notes. It's not enough to deploy a tool; CIOs must create the cultural and structural conditions that allow for innovation to be shared and scaled. From Tech Steward to Strategic Partner One of the most telling observations comes from Anand Srinivasan, Co-founder and CIO at Akasa Air, who captures the changing dynamic in blunt terms: 'Technology is given. In fact, customers expect you to have cutting-edge tech.' The challenge isn't adoption—it's orchestration. Srinivasan sees the mark of a great CIO in their ability to trust and delegate. 'Listen to the wizkids team, sign the cheques and get out of their way,' he says. His view reinforces a common refrain: The CIO as enabler. But that shift isn't just managerial—it's strategic. As customer-facing tech becomes table stakes, differentiation comes from how quickly and responsibly organizations can build and scale new capabilities. And that brings CIOs to a critical balancing act. Innovation Meets the Trust Imperative Few sectors feel the pressure of that balance more than financial services and insurance. Here, technology must do more than work—it must work without violating trust. Sarang Khewale, Deputy CTO and Head Digital Innovation at SBI, talks of the two-pronged approach he undertook, 'Deeply involved design thinking techniques that help protect data by empathizing,' he says. 'With innovation, trust shouldn't be compromised.' The emphasis on empathy is not rhetorical; it's a design principle, and in industries that manage personal information, it's also a regulatory and ethical necessity. For Rohit Kilam, CTO at HDFC Life Insurance, regulatory sandbox provides ground to land. 'We are building things within the regulatory sandboxes.' Innovation, in his view, must also serve those on the margins—'the bottom of the pyramid'—especially the unbanked and underserved segments. Scaling inclusively requires risk, but that risk must be responsibly managed. The Security Reckoning With every digital advancement comes a new frontier for attack. The cybersecurity conversation is no longer siloed—it now shapes every technology investment. 'There's an attack every day,' says Sunit Vakharia, CTO at Reliance Nippon. 'Need to understand the mind of the attacker, without which you'll never be able to defend.' His focus is not just on tools, but on mindset—building a defense that anticipates, not just reacts. At Bajaj Allianz General Insurance, Kanathil Vadakke Dipu, Senior President- Digital Transformation & Innovation, refers to the mock exercises undertaken as 'cyber mahayudh'. The company's effort focused on identifying vulnerabilities and reducing response time. The takeaway: Resilience is no longer a luxury, but a daily operational requirement. Sandeep Khanna, Director at UIDAI, adds a layer. 'The blind spots,' he notes, 'are shadow IT, supply chain risk, and third-party vulnerabilities.' These are threats embedded deep in the ecosystem, not easily visible, but devastating when breached. Looking Ahead The CIO agenda for 2025 is as expansive as it is urgent. Disruption is no longer a question of 'if'—it's a question of preparation and positioning. And as CIOs have been pointing out the writing on the wall for eons now: 'You can't afford to miss disruption.' The modern CIO stands at the intersection of agility and accountability, innovation and integrity. It's a demanding role—but one uniquely positioned to influence the future of business. As Gupta, Patil, and others suggest, the path forward lies not only in systems, but in stakeholders—and in the human capacity to collaborate at scale.
The Hindu
5 days ago
- Business
- The Hindu
Vinay Dube on Akasa Air's Rise in India's Duopoly
In this episode, Akasa Air's Founder and CEO, Vinay Dube, joins us to explore the journey of India's three-year-old airline in a duopoly of IndiGo and Air India. Dube expresses confidence in the airline's partnership with Boeing amidst delays in aircraft deliveries that were down to a trickle last year and discusses plans for expansion in Southeast Asia. He also shares practical tips for flight bookings and reveals his mantra for remaining grounded amid aviation industry's many challenges Boarding Now is a podcast where we look at key aviation developments through an India lens. We will also feature special interviews and cut through the jargon and hype to keep it real. So, sit back, relax, and enjoy every episode. Host: Jagriti Chandra Edited by Jude Francis Weston For more episodes of Boarding Now:
CNBC
6 days ago
- Business
- CNBC
Tier 2 and 3 cities at the heart of Akasa Air's growth strategy, says CEO
Akasa Air CEO Vinay Dube says India's growth story is rewriting the rules of global aviation, with tier 2 and 3 cities playing a central role. He outlines plans to expand the carrier's footprint across smaller Indian cities and internationally, citing a 200-aircraft order and growing interest in routes to Asia and Africa. He says the country's airport infrastructure is catching up fast and that Akasa's single-aircraft strategy allows it to scale efficiently across domestic and global routes.
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Business Standard
26-05-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
Three senior executives resign from Akasa Air amid leadership churn
Akasa Air's growth ambitions have been challenged in the last one year by delays in the delivery of its Boeing 737 MAX aircraft Deepak Patel New Delhi Listen to This Article Akasa Air, the low-cost Indian carrier launched in August 2022, is witnessing a churn in its senior leadership, with one executive already exiting the firm to join Air India earlier this month, and two others currently serving notice period after resigning, Business Standard has learnt. Rishabh Dev, head of long-term operations, strategy, excellence and planning, is among those stepping down. Dev joined Akasa Air shortly after its launch and was head of strategy in the office of chief executive officer. Prior to Akasa, he worked with Adani Airports as assistant general manager for growth and strategy from January 2021 to
Economic Times
21-05-2025
- Business
- Economic Times
Domestic air passenger traffic rises by 8.4%
Live Events (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel Indian airlines flew 143.6 lakh passengers on domestic routes in April, 8.45 per cent more as compared to the year-ago period, amid rising air traffic demand. In terms of domestic market share, IndiGo topped the list with 64.1 per cent of the pie, followed by Air India Group (27.2 per cent), Akasa Air (5 per cent) and SpiceJet (2.6 per cent), according to the latest data from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation ( DGCA )."Passengers carried by domestic airlines during January-April 2025 were 575.13 lakh as against 523.46 lakh during the corresponding period of the previous year thereby registering an annual growth of 9.87 per cent and monthly growth of 8.45 per cent," DGCA said in its monthly air passenger traffic was at 143.16 lakh in April compared to 132 lakh in the same period a year terms of On Time Performance (OTP) of scheduled domestic airlines -- computed for the four metro airports at Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad, and Mumbai -- IndiGo's OTP stood at 80.8 per cent while that of Akasa Air and Air India Group was 77.5 per cent and 72.4 per cent, OTP of SpiceJet was at the lowest at 60 per cent, as per the data.
