Internet Of Things is a top trending technology that makes use of Internet to access, connect, control, monitor — electro mechanical and electronic devices.This allows the environment to be reactive and responsive to our needs enabling us to live more conveniently.
For startups in India, addressing the India opportunity, it may be better to invest time and money in B2B applications rather than B2C applications. Manufacturing and marketing economies of scale for B2C products [ like home automation, wellness wearables and other conveniences ] are in favour of large scale global consumer electronics companies. Copycat B2C ideas from abroad may not yield optimal results in the Indian context at least in the foreseeable future.
India opportunity is immense in managing Smart Cities [ transport systems, public lighting, weather, Security systems ….] Energy & water management, IOT applications at industrial /corporate establishments, healthcare ecosystem, defence/security establishments, agricultural productivity etc . There has to be strong business value proposition related to operations efficiency, higher output, cost savings, unique service offering that is entirely based on IoT. For all this AI/ ML/ Analytics backend is a must to make impact on a large scale. Therefore there is a strong India advantages of need , scale and technical talent pool. This advantage can be leveraged for the entire developing world.
As is relevant and evident with respect to the entire Internet ecosystem due increase in various cyber attacks all IoT deployment infrastructure & projects are highly vulnerable. One has to watch the impact on IoT protocols — BLE, SigFox, LoRA, NB-IoT etc ton address security aspects. Therefore secure firmware update is a must in all IOT applications. This caution is equally applicable to home automation and personal products applications of IOT .
This post has been contributed by Ajit Mantagani, Founder, Gameplanconsultancy. To engage with an alumni-focused platform supporting startups, visit IvyCamp or contact us.