AI, Cognitive & IoT spurring Digital India, says Microsoft

Microsoft India on Thursday showcased several projects that make use of the company's cloud-based artificial intelligence, cognitive services and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies.

According to the company, these initiatives are spurring Digital India. The motives are aimed at changing the way citizens, enterprises and governments engage in healthcare services, agricultural practices, education and everyday work.

Many of these applications are being tested out or used in the states like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Haryana, among others. The company has also put the spotlight on use of artificial intelligence in Indian language computing.

According to company officials, Microsoft is now making translation and speech recognition across several Indian languages. In pursuit to this, the company recently launched Microsoft's SwiftKey, which allows text input in as many as 24 Indian languages and dialects, including Marwari, Bodo, Santali and Khasi. This brings AI in the keypads to enable faster and predictive writing. It also allows mixed language typing in English and Hindi.

Starting with Project Bhasha in 1998, Microsoft claims to have been consistently working to provide local language computing in Indian languages. Microsoft Office and Windows support 11 Indian language scripts and overall supporting 22 Indian languages. Bing allows users to browse in nine Indian languages.

"These AI, cognitive technologies and IoT applications can help in India's inclusive growth," said Sriram Rajamani, Managing Director of Microsoft Research India.
The company is also working on the smart lighting in Jaipur. Microsoft Azure IoT is powering India's first Smart Street Lighting Project for Jaipur. The Jaipur Municipal Corporation (JMC) operates and maintains over 1,00,000 public street lights within the city. Microsoft's partner Samudra LED has now deployed a customised Microsoft IoT-platform-based solution created by ISV Precimetrix to monitor, control and manage smart LED public street lights.

The project is expected to benefit 1.65 million people through improved street lighting and a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 36,750 metric tons/year. It will also result in $1 million per year in fiscal savings accrued to the government due to reduced energy consumption.