Centre of excellence for IoT launched

BENGALURU: India’s first Centre of Excellence for Internet of Things (CoE-IoT) was launched in Bengaluru on Thursday. The CoE was announced last year as part of the Digital India programme and has been built as a joint effort between the government of India and Nasscom, Department of Electronics & Information Technology ( DeitY) and Education and Research Network ( ERNET).

According to Nasscom, 120 firms offer IoT solutions in India with nearly 60% of them emerging after 2010. Indian IoT firms received around $60 million in funding in the last three years. The Indian IoT market is expected to be $15 billion by 2020.

‘Disruption happens in politics too,’ Minister for Information Technology and Electronics Ravi Shankar Prasad said while inaugurating the CoE-IoT. He added that he was grateful that PM Modi ‘didn’t disrupt him from IT and electronics’. The CoE will cost about Rs 22 crore over a period of 5 years, with 50% of the cost to be met by the Centre and the rest by the Karnataka government and Nasscom.