Bengaluru: Engineering and PhD students across the country will soon have curriculums on the Internet of Things (IoT), described as the future of civilization, if the Centre’s recent draft policy on it is implemented.

The department of electronics and information technology ( DeitY ), which brought out the draft policy in October, has recommended this and also six-week certificate courses and two-week training programmes in IoT. “We must set up norms for accreditation of all such courses relating to IoT,” the policy reads, adding that a young faculty chair at five IITs be created with a funding of Rs 4.5 crore for five years.

“These young faculties become the bridge between academia and industry and identify the areas in which IoT skills need to be created after regular consultation with industry,” it says.

The policy has identified IoT as a key enabler that will help have smart parking, intelligent transport system, tele-care, women safety, waste management and smart city maintenance, besides help in the fields of agriculture and disaster management.

It also aims to create fellowships for 150 students pursuing M-Tech-level specialization programmes in IITs in the next two years.

IISc director Prof Anurag Kumar, who works in the field, says: “India needs to train its manpower in this field as it offers a lot of opportunities and solutions, which we will need for better management and living.” Noting that India is lagging behind in the matter, officials said the policy has recommended cross-country pacts for IoT education exchange programmes and organize trainings by experts from other countries for training scientists/ engineers and even DeitY officials.

While the proposal to have curriculums and creating faculty chairs may need time to work out the nuances, the last set of recommendations is seen as something that can be implemented right away, even in the absence of a policy.

Time to take the plunge

IoT is today what internet was in 1980s, it may take at least another 10 years before we see commercial blooming of this and have real applications. But the time is right for India to get into this as there is no point plunging into something late.

— Prof Anurag Kumar | director, Indian Institute of Science

Chairs at IITs and encouraging young people are all welcome. But there is no need for governments to micro-manage affairs at IITs, it should govern, make policy and leave the technology to IITs.

— Prof Sadagopan S | director, Indian Institute of Information Technology-Bangalore

A course and short training programmes will go a long way in developing indigenous technologies in the field.

—Anurag Trivedi | PhD scholar, IIT-Delhi

IoT & numbers

$15 billion: The size of IoT industry in India by 2020, according to government estimates

2.7 billion: The number of connected devices in the country by 2020, increasing from 200 million now

$300 billion: Estimated global revenue from IoT as per a Gartner report

5-6%: India’s estimated market share in global IoT business

Source: Department of Electronics and Information Technology

What is IoT?

IoT is a seamless connected network of embedded objects/devices, in which machine to machine (M2M) communication without any human intervention is possible using standard and interoperable communication protocols. Phones, Tablets and PCs are not included as part of IoT.

