NASSCOM CoE sees the current crisis as potential opportunity for Indian innovation to flourish

NASSCOM’s Center of Excellence for IoT & AI is India’s deep-tech innovation ecosystem that comprises startups, innovators, enterprises, and the government. The center focusses on solving real-world challenges utilizing technologies like IoT, AI, Data Science, Big Data, AR/VR, Machine Learning, and Robotics that are based on extensive academic research.

This CoE was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in July 2015 as a part of the Digital India Initiative to jump start the IoT ecosystem taking advantage of India’s IT strengths and to help the country attain a leadership role in the convergent area of hardware and software.

Speaking with Sudhanshu Mittal -- Head of CoE Gurugram & Director of Technical Solutions, NASSCOM Centre of Excellence -- Voice&Data gathers information on how the center is helping startups develop solutions to combat the challenges posed by COVID-19 and also how the current pandemic situation is paving way for Indian solutions to find a place in the market.

Few excerpts:

 Voice&Data (V&D): NASSCOM recently released a report on the increase in IoT patents filed from India. What is your take on this and what does this trend imply?

Sudhanshu Mittal (SM): The innovation culture in India is extremely powerful and growing exponentially. As innovation grows, the amount of Intellectual Property being generated will grow proportionately. The NASSCOM report on the increased number of IoT patent filings from India is just a corroboration of this fundamental strength. This also means that in the future we can expect a much higher number of IP filing from innovative startups and corporates.

Voice&Data (V&D): The current COVID-19 pandemic has caused several disturbances in the domestic as well as in the export-oriented software business. What is NASSCOM CoE doing to help the industry revive and bring a sense of direction for business continuity?

SM: While the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted existing business models, it has also generated new opportunities. Traditional sectors like manufacturing realize the criticality of digital technology and are now much more open to the exploration of technology adoption in their operations. This adoption will create more business opportunities for companies in India and at the same time contribute to the higher productivity for traditional sectors, thereby making them more competitive internationally.

Traditional sectors like manufacturing realize the criticality of digital technology and are now much more open to exploration of technology adoption in their operations. This adoption will create more business opportunities for companies in India.

To support the government efforts in combating the pandemic, CoE curated companies developing relevant solutions throughout the country and presented the nine shortlisted companies to the NITI Aayog panel. Subsequently, NITI Aayog got in touch with those to explore how they could work with them to adopt the solutions.

Going forward the NASSCOM CoE is focused on working with the user community in helping with the adoption of digital technology. Towards this end, CoE is working with different associations to help their members adopt digital technology, launch challenges for technology development in partnership with users.

CoE sees the current crisis as a potential opportunity where Indian innovation will rise to the challenge, see the adoption of their solutions by users, and emerge stronger. 

CoE is also partnering with government ministries for evangelizing the technology development programs as well as a technical reviewer. CoE sees the current crisis as a potential opportunity where Indian innovation will rise to the challenge, see the adoption of their solutions by users, and emerge stronger.

V&D: AtmaNirbhar Bharat proposed by PM Narendra Modi aims to turn around India's dependency on foreign companies. How does NASSCOM CoE intend to support this initiative and what would be the long term effects of this initiative?

SM: A large percentage of the technology of tomorrow will come from innovative startups. Multiple CoE centers in the country are supporting the technology development through technical mentorship, knowledge sessions in different technology areas/fundraising, channeling the government support to the startups. We firmly believe that as more and more innovation comes to the market, the country will see a the reduced dependency on foreign technology and become more AtmaNirbhar.

As the adoption of digital technology by user industry increases, we will see higher job creation by the technology companies.

V&D: Jobs and employments have also been hit at a large scale level due to the pandemic. How is NASSCOM CoE ensuring that job placements are increased?

SM: CoE is closely working with various manufacturing associations to promote digital technology adoption through targeted sessions for its members. As the adoption of digital technology by user industry increases, we will see higher job creation by the technology companies.

V&D: How is the uptake of emerging technologies promoted by the Government and how is NASSCOM CoE supporting this?

SM: The Government of India has fully realized the role that emerging technologies like AI, IoT, AR/VR, Blockchain, etc. are going to transform the working of businesses. Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) has launched a challenge to develop the Indian video conferencing solution. NASSCOM CoE partnered with MeitY in its requirement definition and in reviewing the applications apart from using the NASSCOM network for the promotion of the challenge. We will continue to work with government agencies to promote digital technology adoption in their operations.

Anusha Ashwin

x-anushaa@cybermedia.co.in