Bilkul Online
Ahmedabad | 07 March 2026
The Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA) hosted the second edition of the India Conference on Information Systems (InCIS 2026) in collaboration with the Association for Information Systems (AIS) India Chapter at its campus from March 5-7, 2026. This year’s conference was centred around the theme “Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) for a Sustainable and Sovereign Digital Future”.
The conference was inaugurated by Prof. Bharat Bhasker, Director, IIMA; Prof. Pankaj Setia, Conference Chair; Prof. Sujeet Sharma, President, AIS India Chapter; and Prof. Alok Gupta, Curtis L. Carlson Chair in Information Management, University of Minnesota.
The conference featured 14 research tracks covering a wide range of topics in digital technologies and information systems. These included ‘Digital Public Infrastructure for a Sustainable and Sovereign Digital Future’; ‘Digital Business and Commerce’; ‘Collaborative and Social Technologies’; ‘Technological Innovation and the Future of Work’; ‘Information Systems Research for Social Good’; ‘Governance in Smart and Connected Environments’; ‘Security and Privacy’; ‘Information Systems Design, Development & Project Management’; ‘Inclusion, Diversity, and Sustainability through IS’; ‘AI and Analytics’; ‘Human Technology Interaction’; ‘Practitioners’ Track’; ‘Next Generation IS’; and ‘General IS Topics’.
Delivering the inauguration keynote on the first day of the conference, Prof. Bharat Bhasker, Director, IIMA, welcomed the participants and highlighted the importance of bringing together scholars, industry practitioners, and information systems professionals on a common platform. Talking about the evolution of the Information Systems discipline, he said that it has moved from supporting transactional efficiency to enabling organisations to extract knowledge from vast data generated through digital systems.
Additionally, talking about the opportunities that Artificial Intelligence (AI) has presented for Information Systems (IS) professionals today, he said, “Today AI has pushed Information Systems into a new frontier, requiring professionals to focus on applying technology to real-world problems and driving innovation. At the same time, it has also provided IS professionals with the opportunity to be at the forefront. Information Systems professionals are now positioned to lead in areas like process automation, predictive maintenance, and addressing biases in AI systems.” He also urged the participants to deliberate on ideas that can help advance the field of IS not only globally, but also in the Indian context.
In his conference keynote address, Prof. Pankaj Setia, Conference Chair, mentioned, “Digital public infrastructures such as UPI, DigiLocker, and DigiYatra are laying the foundations of a new digital age in India. The real impact will happen when there is a deep transformation in how organisations function and how individuals interact with digital technologies. Purpose-driven thinking is the core which interconnects individuals, organisations, as well as technology, and is essential to ensure that digital transformation creates a meaningful impact.”
Prof. Alok Gupta, Curtis L. Carlson Chair in Information Management, University of Minnesota, presented the academic keynote and urged the audience to think of artificial intelligence as a mirror and a mentor to better understand human expertise and decision-making patterns. He said, “The strength of human beings has always been our mental ability to think and create with our minds. AI does not emphasise compatibility with human decision-making. It can be used to extract human knowledge and understand our strengths and weaknesses. If we use AI as a mirror to reflect on how we think and make decisions, we can develop a more explicit understanding of our own processes. That understanding can help us improve ourselves and build on our capabilities with the support of AI.”
InCIS 2026 saw three days of insightful discussions on Implications of DPI for platform ecosystems, data governance, and digital identities; Perspectives from the global south and contributions to DPI and Information Systems; Potential of IS to bridge digital divides and foster sustainable development; Implementing responsible use of AI within organisations, Risk assessment in DPIs; Building trust in DPIs, among various other topics in the field of digital technologies and information systems.
The concluding day saw an industry keynote by Dr. R. S. Sharma, Distinguished Visiting Professor, IIT Kanpur, Former Secretary to the Government of India, and Former DG and Mission Director, UIDAI. He elaborated on the evolution of India’s Digital Public Infrastructures and spoke about the design principles that shaped Aadhaar, UPI, Ayushman Bharat Mission, and CO-WIN, among others.
He said, “Any digital solution built for India must take into consideration the country’s unique diversity. We have great social, cultural, geographical, infrastructural, ethnic, religious, and educational diversity, and therefore, a different approach is needed to develop inclusive solutions.” He further elaborated on six core principles behind the success of DPIs in India and said, “Our DPIs are succeeding because their design is tailored to India’s needs. They are frugal and low-cost, scalable by design, inclusive and encourage diversity, have minimal public-sector intervention, contain robust and cutting-edge technology, and are interoperable. We are now on our way to build more DPIs in diverse sectors.”
The conference also witnessed an insightful panel discussion on ‘Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) and India’s Digital Transformation’, moderated by Prof. Samrat Gupta, Programme Co-Chair, InCIS 2026. The panellists included Dr. Pankaj Dikshit, Executive Director, Chief AI and Digital Officer, Cygnet.One; Mr. Sanjay Moralwar, Chief Information Officer, Senores Pharmaceuticals Limited; and Mr. Tarun Vijh, Chief Information Officer, HyFun Foods. The panel addressed several key topics, such as the scalability and interoperability achieved with various DPI systems, including the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) and the Aadhar system, among other sector-specific DPIs. The panellists also shared their views on the widespread adoption of DPIs and integration of AI in it, and the importance of balancing innovation with data security and multi-party collaboration. In their concluding remarks, the panellists agreed that other countries can learn significantly from India’s experiences of creating multiple successful DPIs.
More than 250 national and international scholars, policy researchers, developers, industry practitioners, community leaders, doctoral students, and early-career researchers participated in the conference and deliberated on the evolving role of information systems in shaping digital societies. The conference also received over 190 research paper submissions by researchers from countries across the world.