India's first Internet of Things policy to focus on Zero Defect, Zero Effect

BENGALURU: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Zero defect, zero effect' slogan for high quality manufacturing in India without impacting the environment will be the highlight of the country's first Internet of Things policy.

According to a document titled 'Draft policy on Internet of Things', which is published by the department of electronics and information technology, the government will setup projects using IoT for planning preventive and in-time maintenance for equipment in various manufacturing verticals. "The sensors for early defect detection will help in reducing equipment malfunction and hence downtime," it says.

To make manufacturing of in India such products more attractive, the government will offer up to 100% duty benefit on imports of raw materials required for manufacturing IoT products. Raw materials purchased from domestic market will be entitled for reimbursements of excise duty and CST.

These benefits would be in addition to the existing incentives on IoT products in the government's M-SIPS policy.

For the first time, the government is giving special preference to young companies to get best of technology implemented for various projects in the country. Venture Funds specifically directed to support companies in IoT related domains such as Memory, Processor, Sensors, Low power devices and solar electronics will be promoted by the government, giving priorities to start-ups.

Moreover, the Centre of Excellence for Internet of Things (CoE-IoT) will host IoT incubation infrastructure to support start-ups, SMEs, students and other innovators based on membership and support from design to prototype in productizing their ideas.

In October, DeitY had invited public opinion on how to improve the draft policy to create ecosystem for IoT industry in the country. The objective of the policy is to create an IoT industry in India worth $15 billion by 2020 and to increase the connected devices from around 200 million to over 2.7 billion by 2020.

The policy also talks about assisting the 'Swach Bharat' initiative. The government will setup projects to create products, which are solar-powered trash receptacle and trash compactor that alerts sanitation crews of municipal authorities, when it is full.

The key focus areas for IoT projects will include smart city, smart water, smart environment, smart health (for remote health management), smart agriculture, smart safety, smart supply chain and logistics and smart manufacturing.

Government is also looking at building the overall IoT ecosystem from grounds up as it finalizes plans to introduce cross-country pacts for IoT education exchange Programs. The document said the government will "Organize trainings by inviting experts from other countries for training scientists / engineers / Government officers as Master Trainers" and also "introduce Bilateral Cooperation programs between Indian premier institutes and institutes of other countries."