The Vizag Fintech Festival began here with the second edition of the CXO Golf Tournament at East Point Golf Club on Monday, as a prelude to the mega event in the field of financial technology.
The fintech fest, an initiative by the State government under the aegis of the Fintech Valley Vizag, will be formally inaugurated by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday.
The prizes to the winners of $1 Million Startup Challenge will be distributed on October 25.
Mr. Naidu is scheduled to have a close-door roundtable with CEOs and witness a cultural programme by classical dancers of Indian origin from the U.S. with the theme of atrocity against women and other issues.
Nearly 2,000 delegates from 15 countries are expected to participate in the event. Billed as the largest event in fintech in the country, the fintech fest is aimed at exploring opportunities, innovation and partnerships.
The programme will focus on banking technology (banktech), insurance technology (insutech), government technology (govtech), financial inclusion and emerging technology (emergetech).
Briefing reporters on the arrangements along with members of the global fintech core team that was formed a month ago to strengthen the ecosystem in the State, J.A. Chowdary, Special Chief Secretary and IT Advisor to Chief Minister, said that there was world-wide interest to invest in Fintech Valley Vizag to make the city a leading fintech hub.
Core team coordinator Sri Atluri and members Rao Tadepalli, Anita Vadavata and others said as mny as 22 CEO, CTO and other C-level officials of global companies with origin from undivided Andhra Pradesh had launched an initiative to extend wholehearted support to attract investments, mentors, technology and experts to take Fintech Valley Vizag to the next level.
Golf tourney winners
Vice Admiral M.S. Pawar, Chief of Staff, Eastern Naval Command, K. Vijayanand Principal Secretary, IT, T.S. Varma, secretary, East Point Golf Club and 75 CXOs took part in the golf tournament.
Winners of the second edition of the golf tournament were Sachin Tummala (overall winner), Capt Rajasekhar (gold division winner) and A. Ravi Kumar (runner-up).
The silver and bronze division and longest driver winners included Nasser Saleh, KSRK Raju, A.L.N. Varma, Murali Bukkapatnam, Kali Prasad and K. Bharath.
