Eminent CIO's Of India 2026

Secure, Inclusive & Responsible Digitalization

 

Partha Protim Mondal
CIO - Berger Paints

 

Technology is a critical enabler of growth, resilience, and competitive advantage. Berger Paints is focused on maximizing the value of technology investments, building a secure and inclusive digital ecosystem, and preparing its workforce to harness the transformative potential of AI.

 

Outcome-Based IT Investment Governance
We ensure IT investments maximize value and resilience by tightly aligning technology spend with business strategy and risk priorities. This starts with outcome-based investment governance, where initiatives are evaluated on clear business value, ROI, and resilience impact rather than technology novelty. 

Portfolio rationalization helps focus resources on high impact programs while eliminating redundancy and technical debt. By embedding resilience by design—through secure architectures, cloud scalability, cybersecurity, and disaster recovery - IT investments strengthen business continuity. Continuous performance tracking, benefits realization reviews, and strong vendor governance ensure investments remain cost effective, adaptable, and capable of supporting growth even in uncertain conditions.

 

Responsible & Inclusive Digital Strategy
We are strengthening security, privacy, and digital inclusion by embedding trust and accessibility into every aspect of our digital strategy. Security is reinforced through a risk based, zero trust approach, stronger cyber controls, continuous monitoring, and resilience planning to protect critical data and systems.

Privacy is treated as a design principle, with robust data governance, compliance with regulations, transparency, and ethical use of data across platforms. At the same time, digital inclusion is advanced by expanding access to secure digital tools, simplifying user experiences, enabling remote and frontline work, and building digital skills across diverse employee groups. Together, these efforts ensure that technology is not only secure and compliant, but also inclusive, responsible, and empowering for all stakeholders.

 

AI: A productivity Multiplier
We are proactively readying the workforce for the AI era by building a strong foundation of AI awareness, skills, and responsible adoption. This includes structured upskilling programs in data, analytics, and AI for both IT and business teams, along with role-based learning paths to demystify AI and drive practical use cases.

A culture of experimentation is encouraged through pilot projects, innovation platforms, and cross functional collaboration. At the same time, clear AI governance, ethical guidelines, and cybersecurity controls ensure responsible and trusted use of AI. By combining continuous learning, talent transformation, and human centric change management, the workforce is empowered to leverage AI as a productivity multiplier rather than view it as a disruption.