• Mr. J Satyanarayana, Secretary, Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) said that “Cloud is culturally suitable for India as there is a preference for shared infrastructure and service, penchant for recycling & reuse and less concerns over piracy of data”. He also said that given the huge requirement of services for citizens, the government is actively looking at cloud based services as first option. A significant step in this direction is MeghRaj- National Cloud Computing Initiative, which sets basic standards for all cloud services for GOI as well as evangelising projects through cloud first policy. Taking a step further, he said that GoI has developed the first Data Center for public cloud through National Informatics Centre (NIC) and an App store where citizens can access more than 40 services. He also demonstrated a recently created web portal for dissemination of e-Transactions statistics of National and State level e-Governance Projects including Mission Mode Projects.
  
  During the session, Mr. J Satyanarayana also released the CII-IMRB Research Paper on ‘Adoption of Cloud amongst MSMEs’. 

• Mr Bhaskar Pramanik, Chairman, National Committee on IT, ITeS & eCommerce, CII & Chairman, Microsoft Corporation India Pvt. Ltd. said, “Cloud Computing is undergoing a seismic shift and is fundamentally shifting the economics of IT, of businesses and of delivery of Governance, however the biggest hindrance that is stopping us from adopting cloud is  the fear of losing control.” Also summarizing the entire initial session he commented that “GoI is the largest proponents for Cloud and is looking at Cloud First approach to go forward”. He also added, “This is a great initiative and would help MSMEs take the next step”. 

• Mr. Rajesh Janey, President, India and SAARC, EMC IT solutions India Pvt. Ltd., commented that “Cloud makes IT accessible anywhere in the world in a scalable way. He also mentioned that “MSMEs should go ahead and adopt infrastructure sharing rather than infrastructure hugging (using cloud vs. owning) and move from applications to Apps – the former requires logging in while the latter doesn’t”. Further during the session, he commented, “Adoption of the cloud would not only bring down the CAPEX but also bring down OPEX by reducing the need to hire specialized people to implement hi-tech products & solutions”. 

• Also, commenting on the report release as well as event, Puneet Avasthi, Vice Presi      dent, IMRB International said, “MSMEs offer significantly large headroom for growth to the cloud service providers. However, for this to happen, it is important for the service providers to offer a complete solution designed for the MSMEs addressing the concerns for local services provided, data security and bandwidth. There are several successful cases of cloud solutions being leveraged effectively by MSMEs to further their business. Several MSMEs have already moved some of their non core functions to the cloud and are reaping benefits of lower CAPEX and higher uptime”. 

• Mr TT Ashok, Co-Chairman, CII National MSME Council & MD, Taylor Rubber Ltd encouraged the initiatives that industry should take in creating more awareness amongst MSMEs on cloud and shared that CII is organising MSME Roadshows for adoption of IT in 10 tier-II cities across India over next two months.

Confederation of Indian Industry’s annual cloud flagship event titled “Cloud Summit 2013” was organized on 29 October 2013 at  New Delhi.

This 4^th Cloud Summit 2013 discussed the adoption of cloud computing, the security of Government and non Government data, and it also deliberated on the need for developing an ecosystem in order to attract investments to set up data centers in India. The summit was also deliberated on the possible role of private participation in establishing and managing the state data centers.

The Cloud has revolutionized not just the Government but also industry as a whole. Further, the Cloud presents tremendous opportunities to fast track the healthcare and education sector that can herald a myriad of solutions ranging from enablement of big data, eLearning, eCommerce, mCommerce and creation of a new Cloud based services industry for consumers in India.