A collaboration between Cisco and the Electronics City Industries Association (ELCIA) will bring about Asia's first end-to-end Internet of Things (IoT) Innovation Hub in Bangalore.

Riding on India's fast growing Internet penetration, this collaboration will help establish the foundation for a new ecosystem to help Electronic System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) companies and other companies of electronic city engaged in IoT product development. ELCIA has been chosen for this ambitious project as it is the only brown field ESDM cluster in the country, which has received an in principal approval for a financial grant from the government to spur innovation in product design and manufacturing.

According to a Task Force report commissioned by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY), the demand for electronics hardware in the country is projected to increase to $400 billion by 2020, and this initiative will help address domestic demand, allowing local manufacturers to capture this growing market opportunity and save precious foreign exchange for India.

As part of this effort, Cisco will help provide the network infrastructure and expertise for testing and production of electronic product prototypes for an IoT enabled smart city environment. Through the Living Lab, ESDM start-ups and other electronic city companies can build solutions for City Infrastructure Management (CIM) including smart parking, smart CCTV surveillance, smart street lighting, smart water management/leak detection and community messaging. The project will utilise the Cisco Smart+Connected City Wi-Fi solution that will help enable community Wi-Fi services and allow access to public utility offerings. ELCIA will also embed Cisco network equipment comprising of access points, routers, switches, and other required hardware and software applications that will be connected to the smart city's fibre-optic backbone network.

The first phase of this smart city project will be rolled out in Electronics City and will serve as a replicable model for the rest of Bangalore as well as other cities in India, across the region, and other emerging markets. Participating companies would gain access to boot strap funding for their ventures under Cisco's IoT Innovation Fund, provided there is a strong idea for new IoT product / application development with a commercially viable business case, as well as a chance to participate in the global Cisco IoT Challenge.

This project is being undertaken as part of the Cisco Smart+Connected Communities concept that places technology at the heart of economic development and better quality of life in modern cities. The focus is on using the network to deploy digitally enabled transportation, healthcare, education, utilities, energy grid, and real estate in cities.

On this occasion, Anil Menon, president Smart+Connected Communities and deputy chief globalisation officer, said: "India has always been at the core of our emerging market strategy, and we see this arrangement as a tremendous opportunity for us to demonstrate our global expertise in IoT enabled technology. According to our IoE value index, the potential value at stake in India is $34.8 billion, and this initiative underscores our commitment to build an effective ecosystem to enable Indian start-ups help realise this potential to the fullest, in turn creating employment opportunities and contributing to economic growth through innovation."

By: DocMemory
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