Jharkhand a potential Hub of IoT, says CII-PwC report
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Jharkhand a potential Hub of IoT, says CII-PwC report

Jharkhand a potential Hub of IoT, says CII-PwC reportRanchi, Jharkhand | August | Thursday | 06, 2015 :: Strategic geographic location, the Union Government’s Act East Policy, skilled resources, fostered academia, and most importantly, the Jharkhand Government’s “response to the growing needs of the business community and citizens”, make the state a potential hub of Internet of Things (IoT) activities.

This is according to a CII-PwC report: Eastern India – A potential IoT Hub which was released at the CII Eastern Region organized 14th ICT East here today.

Notably, Jharkhand is in the process of revising the ICT Policy. The CII-PwC report notes that a strong ICT policy will not only provide proper support and direction for IoT start-ups, which will in turn provide a great fillip to the Industry in the region.

‘Sankalp’, released in June 2014, by the Department of IT in Bihar, has set a clear-cut agenda for e-governance and the overall development of the ICT sector, the report says.

“We can… assume that the share of the eastern Indian states ( including Jharkhand and Bihar ) in the country’s IoT revenue will be approximately 5%. This will mean potential revenue in the range of 750-900 million USD to be tapped from the eastern region,” the report says.

IoT, which needs sensors, refers to the network of physical objects that can be accessed through the Internet. Sensors detect and capture changes in motion, temperature, light, etc., and they are necessary to turn billions of objects into data-generating ‘things’ that can receive and send information.

IoT is here to revolutionise lives, CII-PwC report predicts.

“From shoes to watches, refrigerators, televisions, cars, washing machines, parking spaces, houses, to an entire city — everything is being drawn into the digital fold by IoT,” it says, adding that with the sky being the limit for IoT, innovation is the key.

“IoT can help consumers achieve goals by greatly improving their decision-making capacity via the augmented intelligence of IoT. For businesses, IoT helps companies achieve enhanced process optimisation and efficiencies by collecting and reporting on data collected from the business environment. More and more businesses are adding sensors to people, places, processes and products to gather and analyse information and make better decisions and increase transparency,” the report says.

“Every industry will see their productivity, market intelligence and reporting processes shaped by IoT. But some sectors are already gaining a distinct advantage in this truly connected working environment,” it adds.

The report has listed the TOP TEN industries investing in IoT.

They are Home and Buildings for smart homes, building alarms, security, fire intrusion, solar energy; Education for M-education, attendance tracking; Security for alarm system monitoring, video surveillance, facility management; Manufacturing for customised solutions in asset management, smart sensors, data collection; Utilities for smart meters-energy and fuel consumption for home, smart grid; Agriculture for water resources management and weather information; Transportation for fleet management services, cargo management, GPS asset tracking, fuel consumption, etc.; Consumer Electronics for remote monitor and control interoperability between devices, TVs, e-readers; Retail for ATM machines, cash replacement, paper availability, card payment, account balances, and Healthcare for remote patient monitoring with smartphone, smart body sensors, etc.

“Keeping pace with the rest of the country, the five eastern Indian states are fast evolving as lucrative destinations for the information technology (IT) and information technology enabled service (ITeS) sectors,” it says.

“Further, these states are willing to welcome investors with open arms and are in the process of building the right kind of framework and support structure for nurturing the growth of the information and communications technology (ICT) sector,” it says.

The CII-PwC report also mentions the recently drafted IoT policy document by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) which aims to create an IoT industry in the country worth $15 billion by 2020.

Citing a report by Gartner, a technology research firm, which has identified IoT as one of India’s top technology trends in recent times, the CII-PwC report has predicted that the “outlook for acceptance of IoT continues to look optimistic”.

The Gartner report said 4.9 billion connected objects will be in use in 2015 (a 30% jump from 2014). This figure is estimated to reach 25 billion by 2020, which means that there will be twice as many IoT devices talking to each other as there will be smartphones, tablets and PCs.

“This presents a huge opportunity for the (eastern) states to leverage IoT to its fullest potential. Gartner estimates that, globally, the total revenue generated by the IoT industry will be 300 billion USD, while connected devices will be worth 27 billion USD by 2020,” the CII-PwC report said.

In this year’s Budget, the Union government has allocated Rs 7,060 crore for the smart cities project. According to DeitY, this will lead to massive and quick expansion of IoT in the country. As part of the Digital India initiative, the Government of India has announced the launch of the Centre of Excellence (CoE) for IoT in Bengaluru. This CoE will be run on a public-private partnership (PPP) model, with seed funds from the Government.

It may be noted that CII has signed an MoU with Hitachi India Ltd, Siemens Ltd and ILFS to form a consortium that will create pilots and replicate throughout the country for setting up 100 smart cities.

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