We are powering the smart city infra with LBS: Sai Pratyush, Tata Teleservices

By Ruchika Goel

In an interaction with Voice&Data, Sai Pratyush, Additional Vice President, Product Management, Managed Services, Enterprise, Tata Teleservices, threw some light on how the company is helping in building smart cities and about the recent global advances in technologies. Excerpts

 Voice&Data: What opportunities and challenges do you see in the smart cities space in India?

 Sai Pratyush: According to a McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) report, India’s urban population is projected to increase from 340 mn in 2008 to 590 mn in 2030. Recently, the Government of India announced its intention to set up 100 smart cities across the country. This decision of the government opens up a huge opportunity for businesses in every aspect of the smart city implementation; whether it’s smart city planning, project execution or city management.

At Tata Teleservices, we are excited about the opportunity as we believe that ICT will be the key enabler for smart cities. Smart cities are all about integration, coordination, and synergistic functioning of different participants of the smart city ecosystem.

At the same time—the smart city projects will encompass a host of smaller solutions depending on the issues which a particular State Government or Municipal Corporation wishes to address. The definition and implementation of these projects will differ and that’s where the biggest challenge will lie. There is no one-size fits-all solutions, it has to be bespoke solution depending on the scope defined for the project. Internet of Things (IoTs) applications using connectivity, big data and analytics are enabling smart city initiatives all over the world including India. Any IoT solution comprises sensors, devices connectivity and the application layer. Complexities will arise because no one supplier would be in a position to provide all components of the solutions and in case of issues it will be difficult to assign responsibility.

Government agencies will need to look at standardization and a common platform based approach to ensure that all these solutions come together in a seamless manner.

Voice&Data: As a technology provider, how is your company helping in building smart cities? Can you mention your key areas of specialization?

 Sai Pratyush: We at Tata Teleservices are working with partners to develop solutions which can be deployed for smart city projects. All smart city projects will need a robust Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure and this is where Tata Teleservices comes into the picture. Telecom infrastructure not just implies enabling voice and data communication for people working in these smart cities but also implies powering the sensor network infrastructure which is often core to the smart city project. The objective of any smart city is to enhance the quality and performance of urban services, to reduce costs and resource consumption, and to engage more effectively and actively with its citizens. ICT infrastructure plays a critical role is helping achieve this stated objective.

The areas where we are working on are Location-Based Services (LBS) where our fleet management solutions are being deployed for running ambulances, school buses and garbage disposal vehicles for waste disposal management, City police vehicles, street light monitoring, smart parking, and metering solutions for utilities.

Voice&Data: Can you give us some examples of smart city deployments where your solutions have been used?

Sai Pratyush: Smart Cities are a new phenomenon in India and most of them are in the planning stage. We are working with partners to develop IoT solutions and mobile application which are over and above the traditional voice and data services that a telco usually provides. As mentioned above, we already provide government agencies numerous services in the location-based services and IoT space.

Voice&Data: What are some of the recent global advances in technologies for building smarter cities, and what can India learn from them?

 Sai Pratyush: India can learn from smart city solutions like the adoption of ICT and the embedding of intelligent systems within buildings, transportation networks as well as utility grids. Notable examples of some of the recent global advances in technologies include cities such as Singapore, where the country’s housing board is developing a systems modeling tool that runs 3D simulation to visualize and test building plans in a virtual environment. They have also developed an intelligent water management system to remotely monitor and analyze data from the country’s water infrastructure in real-time. Barcelona, Spain, is Europe’s poster child for smart city projects—Barcelona has instituted smart parking, smart streetlights, smartphone tourism apps, and sensors monitoring air quality and noise along its major streets