SUMMARY
An IoT centre of excellence will be set up at the Andhra University in Vishakhapatnam
NASSCOM and MeitY will provide a grant of INR 22.5 Cr and INR 9.5 Cr respectively
Innovation in healthtech, agritech, robotics, mobility will be promoted at the CoE
In a bid to promote innovations based on internet-on-things (IoT), the ministry of information and technology (MeitY) has partnered with the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) to set up a centre of excellence (CoE) for IoT at the Andhra University in Vishakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.
The officials of NASSCOM and government have already started scouting for the land at the university campus for the CoE. For this project, NASSCOM and MeitY will provide a grant of INR 22.5 Cr and INR 9.5 Cr respectively.
The CoE will promote innovations in IoT by helping the startup community to build unique applications based on this technology. Other tech companies are also expected to join the CoE to help these startups with resources, training, and domain expertise. These companies will help young entrepreneurs to promote innovation in healthtech, agritech, robotics, mobility, among others.
Additionally, the CoE will also help these startups to build a client base and explore business opportunities. The strategic partners of the centre will also help to raise fundings by connecting these startups with angel investors as well. The startups will also receive business development support in the form of market research and business model refinement.
According to TOI, the grants from neither NASSCOM or the government have been released till now as they are yet to finalise the location for the CoE. While it was sanctioned several months ago, the construction of CoE is yet to start. MeitY has given the responsibility of setting up similar CoEs across India to Software Technology Parks of India (STPI). An official announcement from the STPI is yet to be made about this CoE.
Prior to this, STPI, in December 2019, had set up an IoT-based CoE — IoT OpenLab — at Bengaluru. The developed IoT-based solutions at IoT OpenLab are expected to find their use-cases in sectors such as defence, aeronautics, industrial, agriculture, health, automotive and education, among others. IoT OpenLab is also getting support from India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA) and TiE Global for providing network opportunities to startups.
Besides these two centres, STPI is in the process of opening around 21 CoEs in emerging technologies across the country. According to STPI, three such CoEs at Delhi, one at Chennai and Mohali each are already functioning and the rest of them would be operational in the coming two years.
In addition to setting up CoEs, STPI is also going to launch a MeitY Startup Hub (MSH) in the country. MSH hub has been set up in order to facilitate MeitY’s vision of promoting technology innovation, startups and creation of intellectual properties.
