IIIT Hyderabad conducts its annual conference on technology and society

International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Hyderabad hosted the ‘Annual Conference on Technology & Society’ to promote greater understanding and utilisation of the latest emerging technologies, as well as foster widespread adoption and innovation; especially for those at the bottom of the pyramid.

Social scientists, NGOs, technologists, research groups, innovators, policy makers, impact funders and CSR organizations spoke on how emerging technologies can assist and enable rural education and healthcare. Keynote speakers included Raj Reddy, chairman, GC, IIITH; G V Prasad, co-chairman, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd and K Srikanth Reddy, president, PHFI.

The conference included plenary panel discussions themed on artificial intelligence and society, with special focus on how AI can enable social outcomes with Viiveck Varma, former Advisor-Social Innovation, Telangana; Ganesh Natarajan, founder and chairman, 5F World; Vivek Raghavan, chief AI evangelist, EkStep and C S Murthy, group director, ISRO.

Another session on healthcare at the BoP was conducted to specifically discuss how healthcare can be taken effectively to rural doorsteps. The panel included Ramji Raghavan, founder, Agastya Foundation; Manoj Gopalakrishnan, CEO, Care India; Meera Shenoy, founder, Youth4Jobs and Amirullah Khan, CDPP & formerly with UNDP. They emphasised cause-effect thinking to get to the base of grassroot problems and solutions, and why it's important to acknowledge the interlink between education and livelihood.

Closed door roundtable discussions among social tech leaders, change makers and industry experts focused on how CSR can fund social change, and how collaborations can amplify tech-led impact.

The first edition of the conference also witnessed the formal inauguration of IIITH’s Raj Reddy Center for Technology and Society (RCTS) to celebrate and amplify Raj Reddy’s passion towards research that helps the bottom of the pyramid. Through technology-based solutions in the realm of rural education and healthcare, as well as working directly with NGOs and grassroots organisations to build AI and emerging tech solutions for the NGOs; RCTS aims to amplify their impact. Several projects are already underway with a few leading NGOs.

Reddy, chairman, GC, IIITH in his address, said, “Technology and society has been a key theme in my life for a long time. Through this new centre, I hope that we can use technology to find solutions in healthcare, education etc. for those at the bottom of the pyramid. Solutions that are scalable and accessible to everyone, as well as sustainable to see long term impact.”