Center of Excellence – Internet of Things (CoE-IoT)

With the objective of leveraging the strength of Indian IT and to accelerate innovation in the emerging technology involving Sensors, Cloud, Analytics and AI which together lead to building of solutions for enabling "Intelligence of Things", MeitY, Haryana State Government and NASSCOM took the initiative to launch Center of Excellence – Internet of Things (CoE-IoT) in Gurugram.

Facts :

• Haryana Skill Development and Industrial Training Minister, Mr. Vipul Goel inaugurated Center of Excellence - Internet of Things (CoE-IoT) in Gurugram.
• It has been set up jointly by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India, Haryana Government and NASSCOM, on Public Private Partnership mode.
• This centre is part of Hartron Multi Skills Development Center located in Udyog Vihar in Gurugram.
• The launch of CoEs was announced by the Hon'ble Prime Minister in his speech in 2015 as part of Digital India Initiative. First center was launched in July 2016 at Bengaluru which is the largest innovation hub for innovators looking to develop solutions in the domain of Intelligence of Things.
• Following the success of the first such center in Bengaluru, NASSCOM is pleased to announce the launch of the its new center in Gurugram which is fully supported by Haryana State Government through HARTRON.
• Government of India had approved the project in August 2017. The project is worth Rs 22 crore of which Rs nine crore has been borne by the Haryana Government.
• The center will be the largest hub of innovation in the Northern Region focusing on emerging technologies in the field of Smart Manufacturing, Automotive, Healthcare, Agriculture etc.
• This centre is the most recent addition to a hub-and-spoke network of CoEs across the country and is a part of a nationwide collaborative initiative involving the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and state governments.
• The CoE initiative is a nationwide program on innovation focusing on solutions in Smart Manufacturing, Automotive, Healthcare, Agriculture, Energy and a host of emerging technologies.
• Providing start-ups with access to state-of-the-art infrastructure, the CoE will stimulate co-creation in consultation with industry experts through Nasscom programmes. Nasscom would also work with the industry and government to identify use cases for technology intervention and connect academia, industry, and policymakers to bring cutting-edge research to the market.

Analysis :

• With emerging technological innovations, these kind of centres are required in the country as this would help in resolving of problems of different areas. Besides this, it would also help in supporting new start-ups.
• With the technological revolution happened in the last four years, there is huge shift in the mindsets of people worldwide, realizing immense potential of employment in India. The youth of IT sector today is dominated by more than 200 cities and around 90 countries.
• Gurugram being the hub of about 1,500 startups, has 10 to 15 per cent growth every year. Thus, this kind of centre would prove to be very beneficial for the people here and would yield good results.
• This centre would benefit all stakeholders working in IT sector and government sector. With the help of this centre, work could be done on innovative ideas so that various issues such as pollution and traffic management could be managed through software. This centre would help in taking further the Start-Up Vision.
• The importance of such a centre increases significantly in Gurugram where companies of different sectors are in abundance. Through this centre, new IT techniques could be used to deal with various issues. Today, there are several issues in each sector in the country which needs to be resolved in a creative manner. In this centre, work would be done with both IT and innovation.

Background :

• The buzz around Internet of Things is gaining momentum globally as well as in India as companies see the benefit of installing sensors embedded in their systems that can help them get better insights of their systems.
• Industry estimates point out that there are 120 IoT focused companies, addressing an expected market opportunity of 15 billion US dollars by 2020.

Role of MeitY :

• Support the Project Management & Operation of COE.
• Make available funds towards expenses (capex and opex included).
• Participate in the overall Governance and monitoring of the COE.

Role of project implementing agency (NASSCOM) :

• To specify, identify lab and incubator infrastructure and procure on behalf of MeitY using Government Funds.
• To prepare a roadmap of activities for the year for execution to be funded by MeitY and Industry jointly.
• To develop training modules, networking platforms for Industry- academia- researchers.
• To establish and cooperate the incubator offering infrastructure for mentoring etc.
• Project implementation partner will also identify alternate sources of funds, including donation of tools and equipment and revenues from Government and Industry to meet the expenses of the CoE.
• Contribution from Industry will be coordinated by NASSCOM for CoEs on a PAN India basis.

Role of State Government :

• Provision, upkeep & maintenance of 10,000 sq.ft. of space for CoE and adjacent to the space for Start-up warehouse being identified by respective State Governments.
• Assist CoE in specialized projects from the State Government for the sustenance.
• Assist with financial support for specialized programs of the CoE.
• Fill in with budgetary support if there is a delay on the availability of funding from MeitY.
• Use & reuse of IoT training curriculum.
• To act as a catalyst for Industry-Academia-Entrepreneur-Networking.
• To participate and promote IoT ecosystem around the Centre in respective State.

Centre of Excellence for IoT :

• It aims to act as perfect collaboration for innovation and high-end technologies.
• It will provide one of the largest innovation platforms for enabling IOT revolution through connected devices using emerging technologies.
• It will provide platform to best minds from industry, academia, start-ups and government to drive culture of collaboration and co-creation to find solutions to accelerate India’s economic development.
• It will also serve as platform for intelligence-sharing and technology collaboration between stakeholders to build collective IoT capabilities.

Internet of Things (IoT) :

• IoT is network of devices such as smartphones, wearable devices, home appliances and vehicles, connected to internet, which enables these objects to connect and exchange data.
• It refers to a network of internet connected devices which are embedded with electronic sensors and data transmitting technologies.
• By using the Internet, the data collected by sensors in the IoT devices like cars, power systems and even as small as tooth brushes transmitted to other networked devices and data processing systems.
• The information generated by processing the data will be used by the companies and individuals to make better decisions.
• Blockchain technology has potential to address security risks to IoT as it provides a shield against data tampering by labelling each block of data.
• As per an estimate, there will be roughly 100 billion IoT based devices in the world by 2025, with 2 million new sensors deployed every hour.

National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) :

• NASSCOM is global non-profit trade association (organisation) of Indian Information Technology (IT) and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry.
• It facilitates business and trade in software and services and encourages the advancement of research in software technology. It is registered under the Indian Societies Act, 1860. Its headquarters are in New Delhi.
• It has regional offices in Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune and Thiruvananthapuram. The global IT trade body has over 2000 members, of which over 250 are companies from the China, EU, Japan, US and UK. NASSCOM’s member companies are in business of software development, software services, software products, IT-enabled/BPO services and e-commerce.

By: Harman Sandhu