Propelling enterprise performance and growth

The adoption of IoT is gradually gaining momentum, despite challenges hindering its potential to transform industries across India

After taking mobile connectivity to every nook and corner of the country and covering over a billion plus Indian population, the focus of telcos’ is now on connecting machines and devices. Internet of Things (IoT) is connecting millions of machines at home, workplace, and in cities, making people and machines smarter.

India aims to transform 100 cities across the country into smart cities, using IoT and other technologies to enhance urban infrastructure and services.

With the onset of new technologies, the IoT industry is on its path of evolutionary growth and transformation, with an expected surge in the number of diverse applications across various industries. This dynamically burgeoning market is projected to reach a staggering USD 9.28 billion by 2025, according to Frost & Sullivan, driven by rising internet penetration and the adoption of smart applications.

Addressing the roadblocks to IoT adoption

The adoption of IoT is at a nascent stage in India, and there are several challenges hindering the technology from unlocking its full potential. Fragmented, unorganised markets and a dearth of clearly defined standards are some of them.

The absence of standardised protocols and guidelines poses an obstacle for businesses that are keen to adopt IoT technologies.

The absence of standardised protocols and guidelines poses an obstacle for businesses that are keen to adopt IoT technologies. They may encounter compatibility issues and face roadblocks in integrating IoT solutions with their existing systems. The absence of penetration of clear standards defined by global and Indian SDOs and regulatory bodies for IoT is adversely impacting IoT adoption.

All this has led to organisations becoming cautious about investing in IoT technologies that may not comply with future regulations or industry standards. To mitigate these challenges, regulatory bodies and industry associations in India are striving to define and establish standards for IoT devices, applications, and networks. Once in place, these protocols will enhance interoperability, ensuring that IoT devices from different vendors seamlessly communicate with each other. This will bolster IoT adoption, enabling businesses to derive maximum value from their digital transformation initiatives.

Lack of interoperability obstructs seamless communication between physical devices, vehicles, buildings, and other objects on a network, preventing them from effectively collecting, exchanging, and analysing data to engineer informed decisions. This results in a number of issues, including data silos, security vulnerabilities, and inefficiencies. This is again impacting IoT adoption in the country and is slowing the pace and scale necessary for the growth of Digital India.

Early adopters, impact on businesses

The rise in the demand for process automation, industrial automation, connected assets and the emergence of 5G in India, has led to an increase in the adoption of complex IoT projects. It has become imperative to simplify such IoT deployments while ensuring interoperability, so as to achieve seamless integration of IoT devices and networks. Such efforts will lead to enhanced efficiencies, productivity, and profitability for businesses.

Telecom companies have been investing in IoT infrastructure, including the upgrade and optimisation of cell sites and the implementation of IoT standardisation and interoperability. Industries such as automobiles, healthcare, agriculture, transportation and manufacturing are some of the early adopters of IoT in India. Similarly, some of the operators have started to offer secure, flexible and scalable smart solutions to enable digital transformation in these sectors.

For instance, in the EV space, the environment-friendly mobility company Electriq was looking for a reliable IoT solution to track its electric vehicle fleet, use the data for the safe utilisation of its assets, and monitor the health and performance of the vehicle and battery for maintenance. Using an integrated IoT smart mobility solution, the company was able to get 100% visibility of its fleet in real-time including vehicle movement, usage, distance travelled, trip history and more. The solution also helped automate its operations with 0% manual intervention and error-free systems.

Further, it was able to track the health and performance of the vehicle and prevent misuse or theft of the vehicle with the automatic remote immobilisation feature. This led to a 40% improvement in operational efficiency on a quarter-on-quarter basis, a 15% reduction in asset losses, enhanced rider safety and security, and better governance of vehicle usage.

Driving India’s techade

Looking forward, the future of IoT in India seems promising with endless technological innovations such as edge computing, AI- and ML-enabled IoT and Digital Twins, as well as driving growth in sectors such as manufacturing, mobility, smart cities, renewable energy, and e-commerce etc. Further, the country’s government-driven projects are poised to significantly drive industry-wide adoption of IoT.

The National Logistics Policy launched in October 2022, which aims to reduce the cost of logistics from 14% of GDP to around 9%-10% could accelerate the adoption of IoT to eliminate friction points. The government’s Smart Cities Mission aims to transform 100 cities across the country into smart cities, using IoT and other technologies to enhance urban infrastructure and services. Similarly, the Indian government has set a target of installing 250 million smart meters by 2025, significantly enhancing efficiencies in power distribution and usage.

Industries such as automobiles, healthcare, agriculture, transportation and manufacturing are some of the early adopters of IoT in India.

Moreover, as IoT adoption continues to expand, it is crucial for policymakers, industry leaders, government, and other IoT ecosystem players to collaborate and ensure that the benefits of IoT reach every corner of the country, enabling inclusive growth. By embracing IoT and harnessing its potential, India can pave the way for a digitally powered future and solidify its position as a global technology leader.

By Amit Satpathy

The author is the EVP and Head of IoT Business with Vodafone Idea Ltd

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