Building the Internet of Things in India

IT services giant Tech Mahindra announced last week that it was launching an Internet of Things platform called Jumpstart IoT, in partnership with US-based firm Aeris Communications, a pioneer in machine to machine (M2M) communications. Jumpstart IoT is a platform that carriers can use to provide value added services to enterprise customers, who can use the system for greater efficiencies in areas such as inventory management with the use of automated sensors that can send updates using the cellular network.

In the run-up to the Nasscom India Leadership Forum taking place in Mumbai this week, we spoke to Jagdish Mitra, Head Mobility Business and Large Deals, Tech Mahindra, who talked at length about the company's role in the Internet of Things space, and how we are going to see both consumer level products, and smart cities, both of which leverage the concept of IoT.

"The consumer market [for cellular networks] in India is a pretty mature market," says Mitra, "so today, the carriers need to sell to enterprise. For example, Airtel would want to sell a system that uses its network to a retail logistics company, that would automate the tracking of their packages from start to finish."

"Jumpstart is our IoT platform, and it essentially allows the carriers to create value added services like that by connecting the sensors to the cloud," he explains. "So we create the technology setup for Airtel, and they can then find the clients who have use cases for this and provide the necessary bandwidth."

The same can be said about the Internet of Things as well - like a Smart TV, adding Internet access and sensors to devices can increase their functionality in a number of ways. This can mean a lot of different things though. We could have smart devices that react to our needs before we even realise we wanted something done - a Google Now for the real world - or we could see smart cities, where the power, traffic and other citywide systems are connected and able to improve efficiency. In both cases, the result could be the same.

"A smart thermostat that adjusts the temperature of your house is one way to save energy using IoT," explains Mitra, "But the other way to do it is to monitor the energy needs of the city, and provide it more efficiently from the grid, reducing waste at a macro level. Similarly, a connected car could be loaded with sensors to provide a safer, faster journey, or we could gather traffic data at the city level and provide every car with the information it needs."

What's perhaps most interesting is how this technology comes together at the macro level. As Mitra points out, what's needed for a smart city will vary around the world. Tech Mahindra is currently involved in smart city projects around the world, and he explains that the work it is doing in Milton Keynes in the UK is going to be very different from what it does in Jaipur.

"In Milton Keynes, we're doing the model that most people think of, with the smart kitchen and the monitoring and so on," he explains. "But in India, what the people need right now is different. Smart cities have to start with basic needs; ordering groceries via a fridge is a cool concept, but water conservation, and farm produce management to prevent millions of tons rotting in silos."

Tech Mahindra is already involved in farm to fork systems that will monitor the wastage in transit and storage of agricultural produce as well, Mitra tells us.

"We are already doing experiments and trial runs in some parts, such as the US and Australia, and are about to start in India," he says, "and the concept behind Jumpstart could bring about a real change in access to food in India."

"This isn't for the future," adds Mitra, "This is all happening now."