India has the right ingredients to research and apply AI in defense tech: Yitsol Amit Singh

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is evolving by the day. AI is so ubiquitous these days that it is now becoming a critical part of modern military systems and warfare. Extensive research in deploying emerging technologies in military systems is ongoing throughout the world with India too partaking in the efforts. It is known that defense forces from different countries, including India, are embedding AI into weapons and other systems used on land, naval, airborne, and space platforms.

Researchers in this field are proving that military systems equipped with AI are capable of handling larger volumes of data more efficiently than conventional and legacy data handling procedures. Security in defense systems has received increased priority over the years and advanced computing technologies are constantly exploited to improvise the functioning and the inherent security of defense products and services.

AI has now found widespread application in almost every military application and has garnered increased R&D funding from military research agencies to develop new and advanced applications of AI.

Several public and private organizations and startups in India are striving to improvise the system using technology-backed solutions. One among them is Yitsol Telecom & IoT Labs – a technology company founded by enterprise product experts with development centers in the US and India. Yitsol offers digital solutions and telecom OSS/BSS solutions to globally-located enterprises. Yitsol mainly leverages machine learning, IoT, and big data analytics in its offering in the telecom and enterprise application domain.

Tech in defense – giving the force multiplier effect

Amit Singh, CEO of Yitsol, says AI & ML can be very useful in combat training and simulation of various combat situations in modern warfare. He says ML-enabled drones will be able to do a better job in surveillance and AI-based robots can be put to us in identifications of mines and delusion of bombs. Singh asserts that AI & ML could be very useful in managing the high threat cyber-warfare.

“There could be a plethora of use cases where IoT with edge computing can make the Defense firepower very effective. And IoT-enabled with edge computing can improve the surveillance with technology-enabled border monitoring systems. That’s not all, IoT bundled with AI can be used in the effective deployment of the forces,” informs Singh.

Pic Courtesy: Pixabay

While India’s defense sector has shown tremendous progress in implementing advanced technologies, Singh says the stakeholders have just scratched the surface. “In my opinion, the Indian defense sector should see more adoption with more private players coming in defense production. Research in defense technology will find more takers in the private sector and more research should get fueled. While various regulations and certifications are mandatory and required for defense technology, the ministry must eliminate challenges for new entrants and tech startups in the defense sector. Since there is a wide scope for IoT and edge computing, bundled with AI and ML, to achieve many effective use cases, the concerned stakeholders must make the entry of players, especially startups, easy,” expresses Singh.

The coming together of IoT, cloud, edge computing, and 5G

Amit Singh, from his point of view, sees a plethora of use cases where IoT with edge computing will bring a difference to smart logistics, connected workforce, smart industry, and agriculture in India. He says the post-pandemic era will witness new IoT business uses in drone management, AR-assisted maintenance, and connected truck fleets.

“In the enterprise business owing to COVID-19, businesses are moving cautiously resulting in delayed decisions. I believe in the coming six months we will see business sentiments improving. People will start spending in both B2C businesses and enterprises. Business is moving from Capex intensive model to an Opex perspective and cloud here is the right fit for that approach. Owing to the pandemic, business use cases are evolving and, in that case, cloud is the answer to the speed of delivery required for new digital services,” projects Singh.

On the other hand, without any doubt, Singh says the speed of 5G and agility from cloud will definitely help telcos gain more ground in end-to-end customer offerings. It is going to be a passé when telcos will just have voice and data to generate revenue. With 5G they would like to offer more offerings in partnership with digital service providers, and the cloud is going to play a big role for those evolving services, assures Singh.

He also envisions 5G to be 10 times faster than the existing LTE networks. As current LTE networks support up to 300 megabits per second while companies have tested 3 gigabits per second speed with their 5G networks. This kind of speed will fuel tons of digital business cases powered by IoT and enabled with AR/VR. Business sentiments that are impacted by the ‘new normal’ from COVID-19 will get a stimulus from the 5G propelled digitalization of manufacturing, agriculture, transport, construction sites, and connected fleets.

And in his final opinion, Singh says that the pandemic has caused a surge in the network traffic and this will bring more attention to edge computing, which preserves bandwidth and increases efficiency by processing information closer to the users and devices. All of this rolled together will have an impact on India’s defense technology bringing the country closer to its Atmanirbharta mission.