This week we return to the Internet of Things (IoT). My previous blogs on the subject – here and here – reviewed a presentation that Somshubhro Pal Choudhury, Partner of Bharat Innovation Ventures, gave at Cadence’s annual user conference, CDNLive India 2017. One of my earlier blogs spoke about the IoT hype cycle. A hype cycle looks like this: It is between the Technology Trigger and the Plateau of Productivity that a technology wins or loses; and, according to Som, this is the stage at which the IoT is in now. That there have been as many as 3,623 funding deals involving $23.7 billion from 2009 until date means the IoT phenomenon - like many disruptive technologies – is attracting more than just hype, and that too by companies that are not in the IT domain. So the recognition of the potential of IoT are no longer restricted to techdom. The Huge Potential for IoT in India The Government of India’s Digital India program aims at “transforming India into digital empowered society and knowledge economy”. It could well provide the required impetus for developing an IoT ecosystem in the country. The Department of Electronics and Information Technology’s (DeiTY) draft IoT policy document that was released in 2016 focuses on creating an IoT industry in India of $15 billion by 2020 and assumes India will have a share of 5-6% of global IoT industry. It also looks at manpower and technology capacity development of IoT specific skill-sets for domestic and international markets, undertaking research and development for all assisting technologies, developing IoT products specific to Indian needs in all possible domains. This IoT policy framework is to be implemented by five vertical pillars (demonstration centers, capacity building and Incubation, research and development and innovation, incentives and engagements, human resource development), and two horizontal supports (standards and governance structure). The plan of developing 100 smart cities in the country could lead to a quick and massive expansion of IoT in the country. Not only will IoT be critical in making these cities smarter, but as this article in ElectronicsforU.com points out, “IoT plays a major role in cementing the distinct blocks of smart cities. Monitoring assets and managing resources, collecting data and pushing it to right target audience, analyzing huge volumes of data for enhanced management and essentially connecting people, and things for an enhanced lifestyle are what an IoT platform intends to do.” Apart from Digital India and Smart Cities, there is the massive potential for IoT in areas specific to India, such as agriculture, health, water quality, natural disasters, transportation, security, automobile, supply chain management, smart cities, automated metering and monitoring of utilities, waste management and oil and gas. The IoT Opportunity for Traditional Indian IT Companies Coming back to Som's talk. Besides the IoT opportunity through Government initiatives, there is a large and interesting opportunity for traditional Indian IT services providers that have been providing IT implementation services in systems integration, which Som estimates will account of up to 40% of IoT. These well-established firms are revving up their IoT practice to offer such services to (possibly some of the same) customers they earlier provided SAP-related or IT implementation services. These companies may now largely be at a pilot stage when it comes to offering IoT services, but it could be a substantial revenue opportunity. They [traditional Indian IT companies] are going ahead to their customers who are spread all over the world, be it factories, hospitals and so forth, and saying to them; Hey! Remember how in the last 20 years we changed your industry, putting up your SAP systems, your IT systems, and now there is something called IoT. I can incorporate your field devices with your IT infrastructure, which by the way we know very well. Let me do a business transformation for you… So it seems like there are interesting times ahead for some of the IT companies that are household names in India!![]()
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