Asia's first 'Internet of Things Innovation Hub' coming up in Bangalore

Cisco is partnering with Electronics City Industries Association (ELCIA) to develop Asia’s first end-to-end ‘Internet of Things (IoT) Innovation Hub’ in Bangalore. This collaboration will help establish the foundation for a new ecosystem to help electronic system design & manufacturing (ESDM) companies and other companies of electronic city engaged in IoT product development.

ELCIA has been chosen for this 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 of India to spur innovation in product design and manufacturing. Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) has projected the demand for electronics hardware in the country to increase to $400 billion by 2020.

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 WiFi solution that will help enable community WiFi 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.

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 startups help realize this potential to the fullest, in turn creating employment opportunities and contributing to economic growth through innovation.”