PM, Nasscom, DeitY, ERNET announce CoE for IoT

MUMBAI, INDIA: As part of the Digital India program launch, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched the Centre of Excellence (CoE) for IoT in Bengaluru, to enable rapid adoption of IoT.

A joint venture by National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY) and Education and Research Network (ERNET), the CoE will be run on a Public Private Partnership (PPP) model with seed fund from the government, and will be managed by NASSCOM.

The Government of Karnataka will be the partner state to set up the first 40 seater CoE facility in Bengaluru which will be co-located with the NASSCOM 10000 start-up warehouse. The center will be a testing facility for prototypes of concepts for horizontal and vertical solutions. Going forward, the initiative aims to create a cluster of 5 CoEs across India.

As part of the initiative, NASSCOM will be instrumental in creating and supporting a physical lab infrastructure to build an eco-system for budding entrepreneurs to leverage new age technologies and access to researchers, industry and other stake holders. In India, Internet of Things (IoT) can be leveraged to address issues like transport system, parking, electricity, waste management, water management and women’s safety to create smart cities, smart health services, smart manufacturing and smart agriculture. Additionally, the smart city and digital India campaign can also leverage IoT to bring about innovative applications and domain capability across verticals, Nasscom said in a prepared statement.

CoE impact:

• Create industry capable talent, start-up and ecosystem

• Domain capabilities

• Build competency (Scholars)

• Nurture entrepreneurs

• Energize research acumen

• Contribution to indigenization

• Products engineered for local conditions

• Increase in self-reliance

• Reduced R&D cost

• De-risking of product failure

• Experts knowledge base

• Positioning India on global IoT map

R Chandrashekhar, President, NASSCOM, said, “This Center of Excellence will act as an innovation accelerator to explore product ideas and establish high end technologies to support government initiatives using IoT in areas like water, energy, agriculture, crime, safety and health.”

BVR Mohan Reddy, Chairman, NASSCOM, added, “The technology industry is rapidly moving towards convergence of software and hardware. And this phenomenon is leading to the development some of the innovative products and solutions that will change the way we look at the world. NASSCOM welcomes the government in this partnership of setting up this Centre of Excellence and firmly believes that such initiatives will lead India in next phase of growth and excellence.”