Industry captains make a virtual appearance at summit

Several leading entrepreneurs participated in the two-day Happening Haryana Global Investors Summit 2016 that kicked off on Monday through a mobile video conferencing technology.

Several leading entrepreneurs participated in the two-day Happening Haryana Global Investors Summit 2016 that kicked off on Monday through a mobile video conferencing technology.

(From left) Union ministers Venkaiah Naidu, Dharmendra Pradhan and Arun Jaitley, Haryana industries minister Captain Abhimanyu and Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar at the inauguration of the summit in Gurgaon on Monday. (Abhinav Saha/HT Photo)

Infosys’s co-founder NR Narayana Murthy addressed the audience from Bengaluru and Mahindra group’s Anand Mahindra participated from his Mumbai office using a new technology -- Beam Smart Presence.

Pepsi chief executive officer Indra Nooyi’s recorded message, sent from the company headquarters in New York, was also played during the inaugural session. Union ministers Arun Jaitley and Venkaiah Naidu, and Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar were present at the session.

The technology--Beam Smart Presence -- allows users to move about while engaging in a video conference. It allows to break free from the conference room and offers face-to-face interaction.

It comes as a small screen mounted atop a pair of poles that are attached to a motorised, wheeled base. Referred to as Beam, it can be moved using arrow keys on a laptop, receiving constant audio/video feed from the surroundings. The Beam is attached to a front-facing camera and a set of microphones.

“With the use of this exciting technology, Beam, I seem like modern day’s Sanjay (from the Mahabharat), able to see and communicate with you from a far distance. In the Mahabharat, a minor character Sanjay, apparently with wonderful eyes, enabled Dhritrashtra to see the battle in Kurukshetra. He described it even though they were sitting far away in Indraprastha,” Anand Mahindra said.

“I thank you (Haryana government) for this innovative technology and for setting it up for me. It’s the very ability of Haryana and its people to innovate and combine tradition with technology -- a Haryana hallmark,” Mahindra said.

The Haryana government also used Geo referencing technology using specially installed online digital boxes. It helped investors locate the vacant industrial and commercial plots that they want to buy.