IoT centre in Bengaluru will start operations from April

The Centre of Excellence for Internet of Things, announced last year as part of the Digital India programme, will start functioning in Bengaluru next month.

The CoE, which has also partnered with the Government of Karnataka, is co-located with NASSCOM 10000 startup warehouse. It will have a total space of 9,200 square feet.

In an interaction with Deccan Herald, Nasscom Vice President (Industry Initiatives) K S Viswanathan said there will be a testing facility for prototypes of concepts for horizontal and vertical solutions.

The facility will have five segments, which include co-location, validation and testing, design centre, demonstration centre and concept centre.

“The facility is a multi-technical and inter-operable hardware platform, where startups can come, plug and use, and pay by use. We also provide enterprise connect for startups, including global and Indian companies, in addition to government organisations,” he said, adding the centre has already 30 partners on board, especially from industry and academia.

“The CoE has already held primary discussions with Japan and South Korea, two partner countries who have evinced interest in the project. We will help facilitate their companies to also start operations in the IoT sphere here,” he said.

Viswanathan said the project will have the presence of 10 companies in the beginning. “The CoE will enable rapid adoption of IoT technology and foster a new growth strategy as well empower India to have an edge in the domain. The facility will have full-fledged operation from May, once startups will operate in the five different areas,” he said.

The CoE is a joint venture by Nasscom, Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) and Education and Research Network (ERNET). It will be run on a Public Private Partnership (PPP) model, and will be managed by Nasscom. The project also entails starting four more other centres at Hyderabad, Thiruvananthapuram, NCR, and one in Western India region.