GS1 India hosted GS1 General Assembly 2025

The theme for the GS1 General Assembly 2025 is ‘Building bridges for a better tomorrow’. It underscores the importance of trust, collaboration, and digital transformation in today’s AI-driven economy. As GS1 celebrates more than 50 years since the adoption of the barcode, it looks ahead to GS1 Vision 2030 – a future where trusted data empowers businesses, consumers, and society at large.

“The world is relying on digitisation more than ever. The growing use of AI is leading the way, and in this AI-driven economy, data quality is not an option – it’s mandatory. It’s everything,” said Mark Batenic, chairman of the GS1 Management Board. “When data can be trusted and shared seamlessly, the possibilities are infinite – for society, for businesses, for consumers, and for patients in healthcare.”

This is the first time GS1, a global not-for-profit standards development organisation, is holding its General Assembly in India. The gathering brings together global leaders, innovators, and delegates on a shared mission of data integrity and collaboration.

“Today, how can we thrive in an AI world where trusted real-time data is essential to operate, trade and innovate? This is possible if we work collaboratively with industry, with governments, and across the GS1 organisation. We need to address the challenges industry faces globally across sectors such as retail and healthcare, and also expanding into agriculture, construction, rail, transport and logistics,” said Renaud De Barbuat, president and CEO of GS1. “We also need to strengthen the foundation of GS1 standards and services anchored in trusted identification, building a future of high-quality, interoperability and trusted data sharing.”

“When GS1 India started in 1996, retailing was at a very nascent stage. Now, organised modern retailing is at about 13–14%. Trusted data is a need today in every area, every sector. So GS1 has been working closely with the industry to embark on the journey of building registries for the last decade. A centralised registry is a crucial ask from the industry as we ensure trust within the ecosystem,” said S Swaminathan, CEO, GS1 India. “Also, we are seeing an increase in digitisation and regulations, which is demanding more than ever for the next generation to be barcoded,” Swaminathan added.

“India is on the cusp of becoming the third-largest economy in the world, and along with this rapid economic growth comes a transformation in every sector – from healthcare and logistics to retail and e-Commerce. As a nation, India is not only embracing digital technology, but also leading. GS1 India has been actively contributing to this vision, ensuring that global standards underpin the robustness and efficiency of the system,” said Vimal Anand, president, GS1 India and joint secretary, Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

“The Indian retail industry is set to grow from USD 1.2 trillion to USD 2.5 trillion by 2030. We have made a lot of innovations with the help of GS1 in India and GS1 has a great future ahead to provide something which is unprecedented and unique, and which can be adopted across the world. Ultimately it's all about data and how we use the data to grow businesses, making GS1 a part and parcel of our daily lives,” said V Subramaniam, director, Reliance Retail.

Srikanth Velamkanni, co-founder, Fractal Analytics highlighted AI’s shift from pre‐training models to reasoning systems and autonomous agents, drawing on Kahneman’s System-1 and System-2 thinking framework. He also outlined how leading companies are reimagining processes, upskilling talent, redefining roles, increasing technology investments, and embedding responsible AI principles to harness this revolution.

Sandeep Hardikar, CEO of Network Science emphasised that building trust through transparency must be the cornerstone of AI-enabled systems, underscoring GS1’s role in creating a single, transparent data signal for all stakeholders. He stressed on the need for integrated technologies—AI, blockchain, IoT—paired with people, processes, and culture. He contrasted the siloed “use-case” approach with a “metric-backwards” strategy, urging organisations to define clear outcomes and architect solutions towards those metrics.

Himanshu Chakrawarti, CEO, Stellaro Brands emphasised the vast opportunity in India’s value segment where 1.4 billion consumers are transitioning into the middle class and creating a market for aspirational yet affordable D2C fashion brands. He spoke of GS1’s impact on inventory accuracy and interoperability, and urged further enhancements such as integrating QR-codes.

The GS1 General Assembly 2025 attracted more than 150 leaders from GS1 member organisations, industry partners, regulators, and technology experts in Mumbai. The assembly reaffirmed GS1’s commitment to accelerating global digital transformation in support of sustainable, transparent, and resilient supply chains—placing Vision 2030 at the very heart of every discussion.