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Kyndryl Is Contributing In Many Ways To India’s Journey To A $5 Trillion Economy

The technology major is building on a foundation of excellence for digital transformation by creating new systems

Kyndryl Is Contributing In Many Ways To India’s Journey To A $5 Trillion Economy

Kyndryl is not just empowering the transformation of India Inc. through digital but also working with the government in furthering Digital India while also leveraging ESG and CSR to build a sustainable business. We caught up with Lingraju Sawkar, President, Kyndryl India at the Bengaluru Tech Summit 2022, which was held recently.

How does Kyndryl empower progress while modernising and managing the world’s mission-critical systems and services?

Kyndryl builds, operates, and manages the technology infrastructure that businesses and governments around the world depend on every single day. We run the ‘heart and lungs’ of thousands of customers—designing, building, and modernising their technology systems so that they can stay competitive in an increasingly digital global economy.

In India, we are the trusted partner to our customers and the people that are working to build and extend next-generation digital infrastructure across the country. Our work here touches the lives of more than a billion people through our local customers, and we employ tens of thousands of skilled professionals supporting customers locally and worldwide.

We help businesses transform by bringing an ecosystem of industry leaders and emerging technologies to boost efficiency and productivity in a secure and effortless manner. We focus on creating sustainable solutions to empower human progress and are committed to support social and environmental initiatives where we can leverage our technology and workforce.

What are the key emerging technologies that Indian enterprises, and especially small- and medium-sized firms should be better prepared for?
Technology is a great enabler of human progress. Large enterprises need to re-focus their legacy infrastructure investments to meet newer customer demands and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) will need to adopt tech-enabled business models to leverage the post-pandemic economic and socio-political trends. As companies prepare to rewire for progress and digital transformation Cloud, AI, automation, 5G, data analytics, and cybersecurity will need to be immediate areas of prioritization.

With 5G becoming a reality in India, what new opportunities are now available for Indian businesses and what challenges (especially in the security domain) do they need to be mindful of?

With the enhancement of connectivity, speed and lowered latency, businesses can now access data analytics insights in real-time that can help them make crucial business decisions and increase efficiency. 5G will bring with it larger bandwidth, enhancing speed that would help in managing and handling large workloads in a shorter span of time. Cybersecurity challenges will continue to evolve along with technology adoption and choosing the appropriate protection measures such as security command/operation centres, turnkey solutions, and continued training of employees in handling and protecting sensitive data will require expert consideration.

How is Kyndryl helping the government deliver better governance and digital services to citizens while enabling superior efficiency and transparency?

The Government of India considers this decade as the Amrit Kaal, a golden period of technological innovations, advancements, and adaptation in the country. India has built one of the most sophisticated IT hubs in the world and is known for its strong start-up ecosystem that drives tech innovation for the world. Our work in India ties in directly with the Digital India national imperative. We are privileged to contribute in several ways for the journey to become a $5 trillion economy by 2025. We help our customers to leverage the best talent available and engage their customers and potential employees in their digital transformation journeys. We are building solutions that are future-proof and as the world continues to realign post-pandemic, it is an opportunity for us to deploy technologies to rewire our nation for sustainable growth.

How is Kyndryl leveraging ESG and CSR to empower employees, enable sustainable business with strong governance while building the nation?

Kyndryl’s ESG and CSR strategy is built around three impact areas—future forward education, climate action and inclusive economy. We are committed towards fostering an environment where curiosity and learning thrive to inspire the future generation of agents of change. Kyndryl will build its net-zero goal and carbon emissions targets on the scientific recommendations of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). We recently initiated an ocean protection programme called ‘Seastainability’, under which we encouraged our employees in different parts of the world to volunteer to clean beaches, creating a better future for marine life as well as humankind. In India, we conducted this activity in Chennai where over 100 employees cleaned the Besant Nagar beach. We are also a member of the Responsible Business Alliance (RBA), that helps manufacturers support continuous improvement in the social, environmental, and ethical responsibilities of their supply chains.