The inherent drive for innovation that the people of India possess could be the key to rapidly develop the nation using the latest technology in 'machine conversation': the Internet of Things.
By: HT Brand Studio
Source: Freepik
Ask an expat who has lived in India for a considerable time and he/she'll in all certainty mention the famous Hindi word jugaad. This word reflects every Indian's innate ability to innovate and improvise when in need. Be it by combining mechanisms to avoid expenditure on actually repairing or replacing the part or tapping into one's extensive social network to find a fixer. From the fabled safety pin and rubber band being the fastening solution in any situation, to vegetable vendors motorizing the mechanical cycle rickshaws that they sell their goods on, the desire for convenience has constantly led to innovative solutions. And while many of us sheepishly admit to using jugaad ourselves, harnessing such innovative thinking can actually lead to solutions that can help transform societies. As said often, scarcity is the mother of innovation.
It is not therefore surprising that India is rapidly and willingly embracing the internet jugaad. Urban societies around the world today, run on apps. We've been buying tickets, ordering groceries and hailing taxis using our smartphones for a while now. Indian entrepreneurs have already put a jugaad spin on the 'app culture' by creating apps for waste collection, hailing auto rickshaws and having home-cooked food delivered to your doorstep (especially when cravings for home cooked food surpass the will to cook it). However, things are now becoming even more virtual. Literally so. Ideas like smart homes, connected cars and wearable fitness devices are literally making objects in the real world accessible and controllable through a smartphone. This rapidly growing phenomenon of machines being connected and, in a way, communicating with each other over the web is known as the 'Internet of Things' (IoT) and yes, India plans to have a huge slice of that pie. So much so that the Indian Government's Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY) has released an Internet of Things Policy Draft.
Helping turn the wheels of this revolution, Tata Communications sets in motion the roll out of the country's first and the world's biggest IoT/ Machine to Machine (M2M) communications network, with full coverage starting in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. They have partnered with semiconductors giant Semtech Corporation to deploy 35 IoT proofs-of-concept (PoCs) based on LoRa Technology across these cities. to deploy 35 IoT proofs-of-concept (PoCs) based on LoRa Technology across these citiesto deploy 35 IoT proofs-of-concept (PoCs) based on LoRa Technology across these cities. Says VS Shridhar, Senior Vice President and Head – Internet of Things, Tata Communications: "The current LoRaWAN-based network allows millions of devices to be connected, and our goal is to have 200 million end devices connected by 2019". The network is based on a wireless communication technology, called LoRa (Long Range), which is dedicated to IoT and M2M communications network. It is a super low-power, secure, bi-directional communication solution, which any organisation can use to connect objects and innovative applications simply and energy-efficiently, overcoming high-power consumption challenges with existing wireless solutions.
The driving force behind India's IoT push is the country's economy, society, environment and global needs. This means that besides making things more convenient by way of smart transportation, smart homes and indeed, smart cities (there are a 100 of them in the pipeline, spread across the country), the IoT upgrade will help farmers with their yield, drive sustainable energy solutions, help clean up the environment and will make healthcare more accessible, among other things. This will, in turn, be a way to create new jobs in the IT industry as well as in all the companies and industries that take advantage of IoT.
According to a report by tech research company Gartner, the number of 'things' that will be connected via the internet in the world in 2020 will cross the 26 billion mark, more than thrice the predicted population of the planet. Meaning that now, more than ever, is the need to harness that aforementioned innovative (jugaad) acumen of India's populace. A population driven by the passion of cost-effectiveness is what will drive the success of the IoT, Consider, for example, farming. The plan is to monitor parameters like soil moisture, vibrations, earth density and pests and have all this information reach the farmer's portable device in real time. Such precise data can only be acquired using millions of sensors that can 'talk to each other' in real time. This could mean a potentially high production cost. This is where thatacumen will come in handy to bring down costs by researching the most cost-effective manufacturing raw materials and processes. But agriculture is just one of many key sectors that will be transformed by the IoT revolution and will, in turn, transform the way society functions:
Smart Cities
A macrocosm of IoT that will encompass most of the other applications of it, Smart Cities aim at automating the monitoring of major necessities like smooth traffic, street lighting, parking, water purity, air pollution, waste management and many others. They include proverbial 'double-whammies' like solar powered trash receptacles and compactors which will help clean up the city and will run on renewable energy.
Smart Water
Automating the monitoring of water purity would be one of the most important applications of IoT and is right on top on the agenda. One could argue that prevention is better than cure, meaning that it's better to ensure water doesn't get contaminated in the first place. Fortunately, other applications of IoT include detecting leakages of factory waste into rivers and to check water levels of dams, rivers and reservoirs to prevent disasters in the making.
Smart Environment
Given that 13 of the world's top 20 most polluted cities are in India, automating the process of control of CO2 emissions of factories, pollution emitted by cars and toxic gases generated would be imperative. This would also tie in with the need to monitor smoother flows of traffic, since the amount of pollution generated is directly associated with how jammed our roads can be. A National Advance Disaster Alarm System is also in the works, aimed at warning the public well in advance about an oncoming natural calamity. Google Maps measuring real-time traffic is already a step in this direction – the app makes your travel most efficient by advising you the least clogged route from your home to office, saving fuel and time.
Smart Health
A concept that has already taken off in the nascent stages in India, the push in this sector would be for real-time remote monitoring of vital parameters of patients like subtle changes in pulse, respiration, heart condition, temperature and preventive warning on early onset of pneumonia (in small children) or other life-threatening problems, both inside hospitals and at a remote patient location including old people's homes and in ambulances.
By now, it's pretty clear how important this nation's unique spin on cost-effective innovation would be to its progress with the Internet of Things revolution. If the people come together to harness, improvise and advance this technology so that it stays in tandem with our ever-changing society, there is no question that this technology, that will keep learning from the real world, will have a lot to teach to the real world as well.
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