India has huge potential for the development of its IoT industry. According to the India Brand Equity Foundation, in hyper-connected country India, IoT has the potential to reach an estimated 2 billion connections, unlocking revenues of $11.1 billion by 2022. Advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology along with the prevalence of connectivity and real-time communication are among the key factors contributing to the exponential growth of the Indian IoT industry. For instance, inMay 2019, NITI Aayog, Department of the Indian Government, has drawn up a plan for creating an institutional framework for AI in the country. The department has circulated a cabinet note to provide $75 billion in funding for the creation of a cloud computing platform called AIRAWAT and research institutes. The NITI Aayog has announced to focus on five sectors including healthcare, agriculture, education, smart cities, smart mobility, and transport that are envisioned to benefit from AI. With the growing machine-to-machine (M2M) communication without any human intervention, the data is getting generated through better and faster decision-making, predictive analytics, and automation. India is actively adapting new technologies including AI, cloud, IoT, and 5Gto promote new business models. The Government of India is actively participating in the development of this industry by introducing several policies and initiatives such as Digital India, Make in India, Smart Cities, and so on to leverage the benefits of these disruptive technologies in various sectors. Verticals such as banking, education, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, and railway have started moving their on-premise applications to cloud-based platforms to optimize reach and performance as well as scalability and elasticity. Increased penetration of affordable devices, combined with cloud computing, analytics, and rising consumer expectations are some other motivators for the growth of the Indian IoT industry.

Sector-wise Implementation of IoT

Manufacturing India is substantially engaged in advancing its industrial operations coupled with the expansion of the manufacturing sector and overcoming the challenges of human resources. Presence of government initiatives such as“Make it India” is likely to promote the domestic manufacturing sector of India. With the rising adoption of industry 4.0, the manufacturers are rapidly adopting IoT technology for smart manufacturing through smart products, smart equipment, smart maintenance, smart material, smart metric, and smart workforce.

Utilities

India has a wide power and utility industry. According to the India Brand Equity Foundation, India is the third-largest producer and third-largest consumer of electricity across the globe, with the installed power capacity reaching 347.22 GW as of December 2018. The key use cases of IoT in the utilities include outage optimization, use of analytics to improve customer experience, improving brand image by using analytics, theft identification, understand customers’ demands, and reduce customer churn. 

Transportation and logistics

The connection of vehicles to the internet gives rise to a wealth of new possibilities and applications making transport safer and more convenient for users. Key applications in the transport industry by leveraging IoT include connected cars, fleet management, vehicle to vehicle and vehicle to infrastructure communication, vehicle pooling and hiring services, and self-driving vehicles. In June 2019, Harman International, a US-based major car manufacturer had invested $47 million in connected car technologies plant expansion in Pune to triple the production of connected by 2021. The growing investment in connected car technology is anticipated to drive the growth of IoT in the transportation and logistics sector. 

Smart cities

Smart governance, smart economy, smart mobility, smart environment, smart living, and smart people among others are the key features of a smart city that can be achieved by the utility of advanced technologies such as IoT and AI. In June 2015, Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi had launched the “100 Smart Cities Mission” in the country. As per the mission, a total of $14 billion was approved by the Indian Cabinet for the development of 100 smart cities and the rejuvenation of 500 others in the country. The growing investment by the Government of India to make smart cities in India is projected to accelerate the adoption of IoT in this sector. 

Agriculture

There are many ways in which IoT is impacting the Indian agriculture sector. Wireless IoT sensors are capable of forecasting weather conditions, measuring hyper-local conditions of fields, and monitoring soil quality and moisture. IoT sensors enable farmers to track the state and behavior of their livestock.

Oil and gas

Conventional resource deposits exhaustion, unstable market demand, and oil price dynamics are the key challenges associated with the oil & gas sector. IoT technology facilitates in resolving these challenges by offering centralized surveillance solutions, production process prediction solutions, and refinery equipment maintenance solutions. Significant investment in the installation of the smart gas meter is anticipated to drive the growth of this industrial sector.

Initiatives by the Government of India

National Digital Communications Policy (NDCP) 2018 

The National Digital Communications Policy, 2018 seeks to offer the transformative power of digital communications networks in achieving the goal of digital empowerment and improved well-being of Indians. The National Communications Policy aims to accomplish certain strategic objectives by 2022 which include-

• Provisioning of broadband for all.
• Creating 4 million additional jobs in the digital communications sector.
• Enhancing the contribution of the digital communications sector to 8% of India’s GDP from around 6% in 2017.
• Propelling India to the top 50 nations in the ICT Development Index of ITU from134 in 2017.
• Enhancing India’s contribution to global value chains.
• Ensuring digital sovereignty.

The National Digital Communications Policy, 2018 aims to harness the power of emerging digital technologies, including 5G, AI, IoT, cloud, and big data to catalyze Industry 4.0 by promoting investments and innovation.

Smart Cities Mission (2015)

In June 2015, the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, had launched a project named, “100 Smart Cities Mission” in the country. As per the mission, a total of $14 billion was approved by the Indian Cabinet for the development of 100 smart cities and the rejuvenation of 500 others in the country. The government support for the building of smart cities is creating a scope for the growth of IoT implementation in smart city developments.

IoT Centre of Excellence (CoE) by NASSCOM, DEITY, and ERNET

The Centre of Excellence (CoE) by NASSCOM, DEITY, and ERNET, at Bangalore, initiated in July 2015 by Prime Minister of India, is a Digital India initiative to jump-start the IoT ecosystem in India taking advantage of India's IT strengths to attain a considerable position in the convergent area of hardware and software. The objective of the proposal is to enable India as the Innovation Hub for emerging technology like IoT by enabling Indian IoT Start-ups to build the market-ready product. Through the IoT Start-ups Program, the organization intends to build industry capable talent in an entrepreneurial ecosystem by providing incubation, funding, acceleration, industry connect and mentoring.