Devesh Rastogi, who currently holds the office of Sr. Vice President – FAIITA, has thrown his hats into the ring of FAIITA presidential elections. Rastogi has emerged as a front runner for the post of President in the upcoming FAIITA elections, which would be held on 2nd July 2022 at Chandigarh. Armed with a long experience of 42 years, Rastogi has been running various businesses, including some in the IT vertical.
On the business front, he has been actively associated with DEVLOK DISTRIBUTORS, DIGIZONE, TREND MARKETING, etc., in all avenues of Channel businesses, be it retail or distribution.
Rastogi has useful experience working with leading IT brands like HP, DELL, CANON, ACER, ASUS, Lenovo, AVITA, INTEL, MICROSOFT, etc., and many others in various product segments such as LAPTOPS and other computing devices, Printers in A3 & A4 segment, Consumables & other Media, Memory, UPS, Accessories, etc., An industry veteran, he understands their working methodology in dealing with Brands and Product understanding.
At present, his companies are serving a network of 1600 channel partners in the state of UP. Over the last 4 years, he has been busy launching his own brand ACXXEL which is into the production of Computer Desktops, AIO, Mini PC, Print Toners, CCTV, SSD, etc. ACXXEL happens to be the first and only Indian brand being recognized as OEM by none other than Intel on its portal.
Since the last 6 years, Rastogi has been working with FAIITA. Prior to his stint as a Sr.VP with FAIITA, he had worked on OLS issues facing challenges with the Brands and within FAIITA as well.
“In my home state of UP, I have been the chairman of the brands committee for 7 years and been handling OLS issues and brand relationships, and now I have been given the responsibility to Mentor the largest single Association in the country UPCDA which covers the entire state through direct membership across the 72 districts. In a short span of 3 months, UPCDA has reached all 72 districts of the state and expects membership of over 3000 members,” affirms Rastogi.
Recounting his achievements in his current role, Rastogi says, “During my tenure as Sr. VP of FAIITA, I had an opportunity of working on different challenges faced by the IT Channel Community, the current team collectively worked on them and despite covid threat throughout its tenure has given a reasonably good result and laid a strong foundation for future growth. Being a member of the B2C committee I had played an important role in the creation of IndiaITMall.com and its alliance with ONDC.”
Rastogi, who shares a close bond with the channel community, wants to empower members to expand their businesses. “My idea of FAIITA for the betterment of the channel community is to reach out to the last mile, i.e., T3 & T4 dealers through the member associations of FAIITA, help member associations to expand, and provide business opportunities to their members.”
Hailing the government schemes and initiatives to promote IT and electronics manufacturing in the country, Rastogi notes, “ I see a major problem in the industry that second-generation entrepreneurs are not joining the business as they don’t see value in the same. Therefore it is important to create a value in business which interests them and helps them fulfill their ambition. The next 10 years belong to Electronic manufacturing in India. With PLI, MSME schemes and semi-conductor manufacturing coming to India, huge opportunities wait for the young generation and I believe FAIITA has an important role in it by providing guidance and knowledge bank.”
FAIITA was formed with the basic object of fighting OLS, with the hard work done by the present OLS team of which he has been a member. “Most of the object has been achieved and with the rollout of IndiaITMall rest of it will also be covered. Now it is time to engage with brands on business agreements, promotions, ND arrangements etc and for that purpose, I intend to enhance the scope of the OLS committee as a BRAND COORDINATION COMMITTEE, one of the main tasks of this committee will be to create an inclusive business atmosphere wherein T3 & T4 partners come in focus. India IT-Mall provides equal opportunity to all dealers and the work of the BRAND COORDINATION COMMITTEE will complement it making the DREAM OF REACHING LAST MILE A SUCCESS. GeM is another opportunity, FAIITA team which FAIITA and its member association focus on reaching out. INDIA It MALL provides an excellent opportunity for that, with little effort all member associations will be able to expand their membership base multiple times. The role of the National Coordinator and state coordinators will be to work in close coordination with all member associations to extend the coverage,” shares Rastogi.
Sharing his roadmaps ahead, if elected, he says, “Doing trade and technology expo on an international level is another aspect where I shall be working upon. I have experience of several expositions in Taiwan, Hongkong and China. I firmly believe that the same can be executed under the umbrella of FAIITA.”
