India could be left behind in IoT deployment: Experts

Despite India emerging as one of the top developers of the Internet of Things (IoT) technology, few of the tools are deployed at home.

The IoT is regarded as a critical factor in addressing many of the country’s pressing problems, including pollution and accelerating industrial output.

But several experts, gathered here for a conclave on the future of the IoT innovation on Thursday, were concerned that India may be left behind as other nations progress.

The country’s current share of the global development market amounts to 21.25%, said Ajani Kumar, chief information officer of Stride Pharma Sciences, a city-based company that adopted IoT in March to improve productivity and
reduce errors.

“More than 4,000 IoT tools currently exist in different forms across the world, of which about 850 were developed in India — but most of which do not have a market in India,” he added, explaining that the technology is not well understood by the public here.

Lack of high-end AI (Artificial Intelligence) expertise is another area of concern. Figures showcased at the conclave revealed India has over a thousand experts, while China has 3,000 and the US 6,000.

Much of the discussion revolved around the economic value of the IoT market, though some industry representatives expressed reservations about the wisdom in proliferating electromagnetic radiation-emitting technology, owing to their effects on health.

A report by the research company, Gartner, Inc. predicted that there would be three connected devices for each person on earth by the year 2020.

“This means that we can expect 20 billion IoT devices on the planet by the following year, and the numbers may well escalate to 50 billion devices within a decade,” explained Anirbhan Mukherjee of the accounting firm, Ernst & Young.

Rituparna Mandal, a general manager at the chipset company, Mediatek, said companies are working to reduce emissions from devices, but added that “the usefulness of the technology comes down to how people choose to use them”.

A system of connected devices that exchange data over a network using AI and IoT is applied in entertainment and learning.

It can accelerate production in industries, while it has a variety of urban implementation, including predicting pollution level increases.