The IoT Matrix era has begun, creating a new wave of enchanted immersive experience & a data-driven Future. Here are takeaways from IoTNext 2019 Summit
See the event archive page for links to slides and you tube video coverage of sessions
Summary
- In its 5th edition, the 2-day conference, witness 1000+ attendees, 150+ Speakers, Corporates and Startup Leaders in domains such as IoT Security, Agritech, AR, AL/ML and Edge Computing.
- India now has 1500+ IoT startups, located in 60 cities in India. Read more IoT Startup Directory 2019
- IoTMatrix creates a new age where financing of companies will not be limited to users but exploit the pervasive intelligent sensor cloud and focus on identity emotion and aspirations for enchanted joy
- Re-imagining Agriculture with Disruptive IoT covered a great deal with many insights
- The patent landscape presented at IoTNext2016 has emerged true and is a path for the journey to making India a Global IoT brand and the foundations for making India a global IoT player were explored
- The IoTNext 2019 Award winning startups were: FarmGain Agro (AgriTech), Dipitr Technologies (Healthcare), Occipital Labs (Industrial IoT), AeroLogiks (Emerging Tech), and Smarter Home Technologies (Scaled-up Startup category). Minion Labs (Industrial IoT), EmbedSense Solutions (Emerging Tech) and Sensesemi (Healthcare).
- Freshthinking for IoT Security was explored
- The Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) announced the launch of its ‘IoT OpenLab’.
- Data transparency and citizen driven approaches were explored in Usiru for Air Pollution reduction
- Edge AI/ML was covered with many use cases and a panel
- IIoT uses cases were covered with use cases and panel
- The case for getting Enterprise to become Startup Friendly and innovate was explored in the final panel
Below you can find session learnings, social media share, presentations, photos and speaker videos. You can check out the media coverage at the end of the article.
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Video: IoTNext 2019 Quick Recap
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5GcBJrvqw0
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DAY1 - Updates
The Lamp lighting had Somshubhro Pal Choudhury Co-Chair IoTNext & Partner from Bharat Innovation Fund, Dr. Satya Gupta Vice Chairman IESA, Ravi Gururaj President TiE Bangalore, Supria Dhande Vice President & Country Manager Western Digital, Arvind Tiwary Chair IoTForum and Kumaran Venkatesh Ex-IESA Strategy & Operations.
Ravi Gururaj, TiE Bangalore President, shared how the challenge for the next 5 years in IoT was to Scale-Up.
He suggested a goal focus for IoT ecosystem leaders, to begin with enabling a 100 IoT companies realise US$ 1million in terms of Annual Recurring Revenue, and this can then create the more bigger companies of 10mn, 50mn and 100mn kind of companies.
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Dr. Satya Gupta, Vice Chairman IESA, mentioned that thanks to our large domestic market and global offshoring base, IoT can help India become the data capital of the world.
Inauguration Social Media
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/bharat-innovation-fund_iot-iotnext-iotmatrix-activity-6607880556627759106-TQD4
https://twitter.com/IoTNext/status/1201363318784413696
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Supria Dhanda, Vice President & Country Manager at Western Digital, keynote in essence was on how Technology by itself meant nothing, unless it led to Human Transformation.
There is a lot of technology out there that’s going to make our lives simpler, better & yet there is the delight of human interaction is not going to go away.
Click here to watch speaker overview of Supriya Dhanda
Social Media
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jayanthisethuraman_iotnext-keynote-technology-activity-6607571276699664384-fkYo
@12_Sass Keynote at #IoTNext 2019: talks about the choice that Technology gives us to either engage or distance ourselves and how #westerndigital helps stay connected #RaiseIoTQuotient pic.twitter.com/0dqMJ0l81b
— IoTforIndia (@IoTforIndia) December 2, 2019
Being authentic in this augmented and virtually growing reality that we co-exist in is very important. “Be yourself”#RaiseIoTQuotient#IoTNext#IoTForIndia@TiEBangalore @12_Sass pic.twitter.com/7K2WF2RhCe
— Pranay (@Pranay04989067) December 2, 2019
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Enchanted Reality: IoT and AR/VR driven by 5G transformational Network by Aloknath De, CTO and Corp. Vice President Samsung India.
Some of the trendspotting here included the future with more wearable & flexible devices, extensive Mobile Cloud, ubiquitous healthcare, ultra-high definition video streaming, Smart map navigation solutions and more real-time interactive games.
Click here to watch speaker overview of Dr. Aloknath De
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IoT Startup Directory 2019 by Arvind Tiwary Chair IoTForum
India now has around 1,500 IoT startups, according to the IoT Forum IoT Startup Directory 2019, released at the conference.
The IoT startups are spread across sectors, with managed services leading the pack: IoT services (480), transport (287), consumer (273), commercial (246), industrial (173), retail (173), agri (162), wellness (150), and utility (82). Read more at IoT Startup Directory 2019
Social Media
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/hemonserrat_iot-activity-6607893380875853824-ogN3
https://twitter.com/IoTforIndia/status/1055479261715292160
https://twitter.com/genrevin/status/1200437034344534016
https://twitter.com/sanjeevkoushik/status/1057494380175601665
https://twitter.com/IoTforIndia/status/1201382762806042625
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Demo sessions
Muniraju Pulipalyam CTO-in-Residence, Microsoft Accelerator, spoke about Driving Innovation at the edge combining sensors with sensing.
People think AI taking days or months or weeks, not really, but from Mani’s hard hat (helmet) training demo, it is clear than AI learning can happen within a few seconds too.
Another demo was from Hemanth Satyanarayana, founder & CEO of Imaginate Software, who created an immersive design-debug experience with avatars, teleportation using AR/VR, including an on-field smart industrial debug session using AR & smart glass, all while remotely from Raleigh US.
The final demo was by Dinesh Advani, Co-founder of PlayShifu, who showed how early learning can be Re-imagined early learning through AR. The couple of products for kids he elaborated on were Orboot AR Globe & Plugo an AR Gaming System.
Click here to watch speaker overview of Muniraju Pulipalyam
Social Media
https://twitter.com/IoTNext/status/1201389551823937537
https://twitter.com/VarshiniSubram4/status/1201386722598084608
https://twitter.com/mithila_holla/status/1201477675547627520
https://twitter.com/ArjunPr84505805/status/1201390129748660224
https://twitter.com/IoTNext/status/1201395814762827783
https://twitter.com/DeekshaShankar1/status/1201394980050178048
https://twitter.com/IoTNext/status/1201399558191771654
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Arvind Tiwary Co-Chair IoTNext
The IoTMatrix is advent of a connected, ambient, intelligent phyigtal (i.e., physical+digital) world with IoT, AR/VR/XR . AI and ML at the edge can world of enchanted immersive experience where data holds the key! This is a new Electricity that will have waves of change for generations and needs a new model of value creation and business. The world is not running to specification. Ajanta moment of open source drives Tech companies who contribute over 80% of total return in S&P500. Financing a for profit company solely from users is not the model for future just as eBiz emerged from the dotcom bust a business model letting other value chain players fund the company ( Google, Amazon, ) will become dominant.
Causation models may no longer be useful in a VUCA world and option based white water rafting strategy with discovery planning will replace old business mantras. The north star of IoTMatrix implies financing of companies will not be limited to users but exploit the pervasive intelligent sensor cloud and focus on identity emotion and aspirations for enchanted joy. The blog used in the talk is at IoTMatrix:The GreenPill
Social Media
https://twitter.com/IoTforIndia/status/1201401937314242560
https://twitter.com/IoTforIndia/status/1201401434756935680
https://twitter.com/IoTforIndia/status/1201399882981838848
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Post-lunch session had Harsh Bhanwala, Chairman NABARD talk about Innovation and Startups
The NABARD Chairman announced funding plans for startups & other Agritech innovators. NABARD has created a lot of impact over the years, including financially enabling 80mn farming families with microfinancing & formal banking support.
Click here to watch speaker overview of Harsh Bhanwala
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Panel on Reimaging Agriculture with disruptive IoT
The panelists included Sanjiv Rangrass, CEO Agri, ITC (Chairperson), P V S Suryakumar, CGM Karnataka, NABARD, D Narain, CEO, Bayer India, Mark Kahn, Co-Founder, Omnivore & Varun Prakash, Associate Partner, McKinsey & Company.
The amount of money that is flowing into Agritech is 10X more than what it used to be just a few years, so money isn’t the challenge. The challenge that needs to be addressed is the government’s support for export, companies building more sustainable businesses and working on profitable businesses.
Technological disruptions are reaching farmers directly, right from Robotics applications, Drones & UAVs, Automated material handling equipment, Grain & food processors. Other drone applications are crop growth watch, fertilisers management & irrigation use-cases.
Other numbers shared in the panel were: 654000 villages with 120 million farmers (80% being small farmers) & in total 140 million hectares cultivated with 60% of rainfall.
Social Media
https://twitter.com/IoTforIndia/status/1201433380287463424
https://twitter.com/IoTforIndia/status/1201429725324795904
https://twitter.com/sompalchoudhury/status/1201431703857725446
https://twitter.com/TechButthead/status/1201439166342389760
https://twitter.com/IoTNext/status/1201429837929254912
https://twitter.com/VarshiniSubram4/status/1201438386843635712
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In the Panel felicitating Past IoTNext award listers, we had Abhishek Latthe CEO of SenseGiz Technologies; Raghav Adapa, CEO of Telebeacon Solutions; Vishal Pandya, Co-Founder & Director of Reconnect Energy; A Vaidyanathan, Founder & MD of PAQS and Anand Madanagopal, Managing Director of Cardiac Design labs.
Recommendations to startups here were to imbibe the culture of sharing, collaboration & helping each other to succeed. Also it is important to pick verticals & customers carefully, & then to go for it with all their energy. Also, patience is a useful trait for founders to have.
Social Media
https://twitter.com/IoTNext/status/1201462304551751681
https://twitter.com/IoTforIndia/status/1201456335952302086
https://twitter.com/crowdproduct/status/1201464256215965696
https://twitter.com/IoTforIndia/status/1201455170757914626
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Arvind Tiwary Co Chair IoTNext explored the IoTLandscape as a prelude to setting context for the next panel .
He outlined a study of 10,000 patents presented at IoTNext 2016 which forecast the rise of LPWAN like LoRa and sensors. 
The talk also presented the foundations of what can help India become a global player in IoT
Panel: Making India as a global IoT solutions brand
The panelists included Krishna Kumar Natarajan, ex-Chairman NASSCOM, ex CEO Mindtree (Chairperson); Derick Jose , Co-Founder, Flutura and Sanjay Anandram, TiE Bangalore Governing Board member, Volunteer iSPIRT.
The takeaway was for companies to scale & build their capabilities in India first & then go overseas. Also enhancing the state’s capacity, via a public-private partnership with a clear objective will help achieve prominence for Brand India.
Social Media
https://twitter.com/DeekshaShankar1/status/1201466637490089988
https://twitter.com/IoTforIndia/status/1201465343434117120
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The 2019 IoTNext Awards were given to the most promising IoT startups by sector: agritech (FarmGain Agro), healthcare (Dipitr Technologies), industrial IoT (Occipital Labs), emerging tech (AeroLogiks), and scaled-up startup (SmarterHomes Technologies).
Also Special awards were given to the following startups IIoT (Minion Labs), Emerging Tech (EmbedSense Solutions) and in Healthcare (Sensesemi).
Social Media
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6608643431398985728/
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6607620410953555968/
https://twitter.com/IoTNext/status/1201731777414356992
https://twitter.com/Startup_Kar/status/1201477140954243072
https://twitter.com/IoTNext/status/1201731777414356992
https://twitter.com/parul_aghi/status/1201521050862915585
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DAY2 - Updates
Panel: IoT Security policy tunnel vision of FreshThinking?
There are over a dozen disparate standards on IoT and little evidence that ransomware and IoT hacks are being curbed. Does the FreshThinking approach need more merit?
“Endpoint now is the new partner” Today’s IoT
Why do we require a paradigm shift in IoT Security?
- Gaps are found in both hardware and software
- India suffered most of the malware attacks globally
- Devices into the IoT network is huge ( 36 billion devices by 2021)
- Hackers are using all types of technologies, including AR/VR etc
- Audit reports shows how easily companies could be hacked
Social Media
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/sequretek_iotnext-raiseiotquotient-cybersecurity-activity-6607527171034578944-VjoH
https://twitter.com/IoTNext/status/1201738458378596352
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STPI (Software Technology Parks of India) IoT OpenLab - Soft Launch.
Keynote Address: Dr. Omkar Rai, Director General, STPI.
IoT Open Lab Update: Sanjeev Keskar, Managing Director India, Arrow Electronics
STPI has been around since 1991, providing world class development ecosystem for product development. They have been nurturing budding startups and via incubation enters, so far having helped 130+ startups in Karnataka along, according to Omkar, Director General of STPI.
Now with the launch of IoT OpenLab, where STPI will invest over 500 scores targeting over 500 startups in and around Bangalore, who could take advantage of the STPI IoT Open Lab engagement model. The two packages are:
- Complete package (CP) model - where in they pay 10K initially and also have to offer 3% of their stake to constant utilisation.
- Associate membership (AM) model - where in 10K is paid at first for 5 session after which for further utilization or sessions they will have to pay additional 5K for every 5 sessions.
Social Media
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dromkarrai_stpiiotopenlab-iotnext-coe-activity-6607532073391624192-MiIa
https://twitter.com/stpiindia/status/1201754965309452288
https://twitter.com/Omkar_Raii/status/1201765632225632256
https://twitter.com/stpiindia/status/1201761824653185025
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Fireside Chat on Usiru: AirPollution reduction by crowdsourced #RichData #SmartPolicy
Meera K, Ashoka Fellow, Citizen Matters, Open City
Priya Chetty Rajagopal, Charter Member and Governing Board Member,TIE Bangalore
Some stats:
- 12 Lakh people die in India from Air Pollution alone.
- A newborn breathes air equivalent to smoking 7 cigarettes per day in Delhi.
- 25% of the children in India are suffering from asthma.
Takeaways:
- When it comes to pollution data, it’s not just the data that is required, but the quality of data that is important. GoI needs to look at additional data points and sources.
- Main focus should also be on public transport, not as much on private. In just 6 months, 1000 men under the age of 40 have health issues - most of them being car and auto drivers.
Click here to watch speaker overview of Priya Chetty Rajagopal
Social Media
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/citizen-matters_iotnext-usiru-raiseiotquotient-activity-6607948859115175936-r3bL
https://twitter.com/IoTforIndia/status/1201735364001402880
https://twitter.com/IoTNext/status/1201747799986995200
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Keynote: AI/ML on Edge
Danilo Pau , IEEE Fellow, Fellow of ST Technical Staff Artificial intelligence Tools STMicroelectronics Italia
Notes:
Is AI for Mass Market Electronic Trendy or Technology Singularity?
Intelligence must not be centralised. They must be distributed & available to mass markets.
“Tsunami of data could consume 1/5th of global electricity by 2025”
They is no privacy! “Amazon workers are listening to what you tell Alexa“
“Google defends listening to private conversations on google home. But what intimate moments are recorded?”
Smartphones add AI engines. These engines enable ‘new applications’ such s 3D face recognition & more efficient CPU/GPU.
- Apple A11, A12 integrate neural engine
- Samsung galaxy S9 - neural engine from DeePhi
- Huawei Kirin 970, 980 - Neural engines from cambricon
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, 855 - Hexagon vector DSP
- Mediatek P90 - Cadence P6 plus custom neural engine
- Trickling down to mid-tier phones
Click here to watch speaker overview of Danilo Pau
Takeaways:
- AI in IoT, are increasing by the day with Voice Assistants, Security Cameras & Drones.
- Industrial IoT is booming, from smart building and hospitals to factories, farms and other infrastructure.
Uses cases : Technical talks
(i) Prasad Panchangam Founder CEO, CloudXIM
(ii) Bipin Pradeep, Co Founder Gaia Smart Cities
(iii) Avra Banerjee Co Founder SwitchOn
Takeaways:
- Prasad Panchangam Founder CEO, CloudXIM - The benefits of AI/ML at the Edge include low latency, low power, low cost, high privacy & high reliability. Current Edge products include: Smartphones with AI engines, AI in IOT (CCTV, Voice Assistants, Drones). The surveillance market is blooming in China.
- Bipin Pradeep, Co Founder Gaia Smart Cities - Today, Edge is being driven primarily by the network providers. Security control feature decreases entropy, but one cannot violate entropy. To reduce entropy, one needs to focus on efficient operations, supply chain, middleware and platforms.
- Avra Banerjee Co Founder SwitchOn - Edge makes sense because the ‘Architecture is Hybrid’. Also, machines will be more real-time. 100% network uptime is a myth, as data gets cheaper when one uses them more.
Click here to watch speaker overview of Bipin Pradeep
Social Media
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6607815577119576064/
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/chetansk_edgecomputing-edgeanalytics-iiot-activity-6609804836001153024-E9B0
https://twitter.com/IoTNext/status/1201766981264822272
https://twitter.com/VarshiniSubram4/status/1201762838793969664
https://twitter.com/IoTforIndia/status/1201750299792166914
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(Parallel Track)
Scapic : Codeless AR VR
Takeaways:
- XR or Extended Reality is an umbrella term that encompasses Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality.
- It’s important to have platforms that support XR with Native OS level optimization, integrating more App developers with AR development and with no additional AR hardware that may be needed.
- Today, Apple and Google are working on enabling AR across smartphones, including through ARkit (Apple) and ARcore (Google). This is referred to the automated reality in smartphones.
- Also furniture companies like IKEA, has too apps - one for general catalog and other for AR users.
- Market adaptation of AR is a major concern, and also gap in those with competencies in both art as well as programming.
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(Parallel Track)
IIOT Uses cases, Technical talks
1.Saikata Das, Head Strategy and Marketing, India IoT at Tata Communications
2.B S Bhaskar Rao, Founder CEO, Technosphere
3.Sunil Mehta , General Manager Factory Automation & Industrial Division, Mitsubishi Electric India
and Rajendra P , Senior Delivery Manager, Nichi-In Software Solutions
Takeaways:
- B2B Digital factories measure 3 critical angles: People, Machines & the Environment.
- The three critical areas to engage more Indian IoT customers are: Design & Innovation, Simplicity - end to end and how companies can foster Ecosystem partnerships.
- Factory use-cases via Smart watches - no connections with phones is required and used in factories to gather entire information of individual workers. Safe pass - an ID that helps organisation track employees etc. Also, energy Energy monitoring and tracking systems.
- Low -power WAN is a wireless wide area network technology that interconnects low bandwidth battery-powered devices with low bit rates over long ranges. Bitrates upto 200kbps. The key considerations here need to be: Capacity, Cost, Energy consumption, Range, Reliability & Security.
- Manufacturing will increasingly use digital space. Once should look at better Visualization, Analysis and Improvement (or optimization) solutions.
- There needs to be more use of core technologies and products, industrial network technology and Edge computing in industries.
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Panel: AI/ML Edge Computing
(i) Vijay Kumar Ivaturi (IVK), Co Founder & CTO Crayon Data (Chairperson)
(ii) Danilo Pau , IEEE Fellow, Fellow of ST Technical Staff Artificial intelligence Tools STMicroelectronics Italia
(iii) Amit Gupta, CTO, Eron Energy
(iv) Lux Rao, Director, Dimension Data/ NTT India
The key issues addressed here were voice on TDM and IP switching. Also, the panelists explored how can one run analytics on edge and if we have to challenge the single processing on edge.
Takeaways:
- “The Computer Model Flips Again” There are 2 layers - learning layer and inference layer.
- Push analytics to the edge. Not everything to the cloud.
- Most of the efforts goes in data management. Everything starts from data and from data starts AI.
- There are no standards around AI that are significant at the moment.
Click here to watch speaker overview of Amit Gupta
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Panel: How do you Innovate with Start-ups: Enterprises Becoming Start-up friendly
(i) Ravi Gururaj, President TiE Bangalore, Member NASSCOM's Executive Council & Product Council (Chairperson)
(ii) Sarajit Jha ,Chief Business Transformation & Digital Solutions, Tata Steel (live video)
(iii) James Unterreiner, General Manager, Shell E4 Startup Hub
(iv) Prankur Sharma, Engagement Lead, Zinnov
(v) Arvind Vasu, SVP Asia Investments, ABB Technology Ventures
(vi) Rajashree Rao, Head of Partnerships & Ecosystem (APAC) at R² Data Labs, Rolls Royce
Takeaways:
- Startups are accelerating the innovation-led processes in companies.
- Since it takes a lot of effort to work with startups, it is important for corporates to be selective with whom the corporate works with.
- Startups must recognise what the corporates needs and provide solutions to their problems in sync with expectations.
- Intellectual Property (Patent, Design, Trademarks) protection happens in multiple ways.
- Corporates can help startups in multiple ways, including giving them relevant exposure and helping them figure their right product market mix.
- Startups too need need to have a vetting process of their own, for picking the right Corporates to work with.
Click here to watch speaker overview of Rajashree Rao
Social Media
https://twitter.com/prankur26/status/1202226501573173248
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Additional Media Coverage
- Yourstory - https://yourstory.com/2019/12/iot-india-industry-startups
- Deccan Herald - https://www.deccanherald.com/business/electropreneurship-park-planned-in-every-state-forum-781917.html
- Analytics India Magazine - https://analyticsindiamag.com/stpi-opens-new-iot-openlab-in-bengaluru-plans-to-set-up-21-more-across-india/
- Gadgets Now -https://www.gadgetsnow.com/tech-news/electropreneurship-park-planned-in-every-state-says-forum/articleshow/72336753.cms
- Industry Global News24 - https://www.industryglobalnews24.com/nearly-1500-iot-startups-are-based-in-india-now-
- Economic Times - https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/startups/newsbuzz/stpi-announces-iot-centre-of-excellence-in-bengaluru/articleshow/72383263.cms
- Inc42 - https://inc42.com/buzz/stpi-launches-hub-for-startups-working-on-iot-based-solutions/
- Hindu BusinessLine - https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/info-tech/software-technology-parks-opens-iot-openlab-in-bengaluru-plans-to-set-up-21-more-centres/article30169339.ece
