Career in IoT – The Best Time to Start is NOW!

Internet of Things or IoT, as it commonly called, is one of the most widely discussed topics in academics and information technology (IT) professional circles, in recent times. The fact that electronic objects/devices in the world can be assigned IP addresses and every object can be accessed through the internet using this address has truly fascinated people around the globe. Connecting the devices is expected to change the lives of all. IT companies around the globe have been increasing investment in this domain for new product innovation. According to a report in First Post, Cisco recently announced an investment of over $150 million globally in IoT start-ups. The market worth of Indian IoT industry was $5.6 billion in the year 2016 with about 200 million connected devices. The number is expected to reach 1.9 billion devices by the year 2020. The expanding market is resulting in rapid increase in the demand for skilled and knowledgeable resource in this field. Needless to say that the demand-supply mismatch is also leading to huge premium in compensation.

Internet of Things – Applications and Future Scope

Imagine a smart city where the street lights can change their brightness based on automobile traffic and pedestrian movement and public dust bins which could record data on waste collection and report it automatically to concerned departments for waste pickup and help in waste management. These are just a few possibilities on how smart our surroundings could get with the application of IoT concept. Companies around the world are investing highly on innovations related to IoT in order to make our homes, offices, industries and our cities smarter.

IoT in Automobiles

In 2015, Honda Cars India launched ‘Honda Connect’, a smart application to enhance convenience, improve safety and alert consumers about the status of crucial parts of the car like the engine and battery. The company recently joined hands with IBM Watson for its cloud services. Tata Motors displayed its smart sports car ‘Tamo Racemo’ at the Geneva International Motor Show this year. The company has collaborated with Microsoft for developing this automobile. There are many such collaborations and developments taking place in the automobile industry which reflect the future of Indian automobile industry. There is high scope for qualified professionals in the domain.

IoT in Healthcare

The IoT for healthcare sector in India is in its nascent stages. With a vibrant start-up culture and government aid, this is set to change in the years to come. According to an estimate, the doctor to patient ratio in India is about 1:1674 which is way lesser than WHO norm which says there must be 1 doctor for every thousand patients. Smart devices in this sector can play a key role by enabling healthcare service providers to schedule patient appointments at appropriate times. There are wearable products being developed around the globe to monitor health conditions of patients. Some of the recent innovations in India are:

• MIRCaM, a device from Cardiac Designs Labs, which helps in a cardiac diagnosis and monitoring
• 3nethra is an imaging platform built by Forus Health for remote diagnosis of status of eyes of patients

 IoT in Homes

The Smart Home concept is still new to India. According to a recent report on Business World, Whirlpool announced investment of Rs. 200 crore on technological innovations to increase production capacity. The company also stated that it will be launching its IoT appliances in India by 2018. Though big organisations are investing in development of products in IoT, it is the start-ups who have currently brought out their products in the market. At present, we have various devices and appliances in the market from switches to monitoring systems which help us in saving energy and reporting energy consumption. For instance: Inoho is a home control system which helps in controlling the electronic connections of the house like that for fans and lights through a mobile app.

Why a Career in IoT

In the recent times, the Government of India has started promoting IoT initiatives in various forms. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology website states that one of the top most initiatives of Digital India Program is to provide the required impetus for development of the IoT industry ecosystem in the country. The Digital India initiative aims at ‘transforming India into digital empowered society and knowledge economy.’ With the business organisations as well as the government focussing on developing IoT, some of the progressive educational institutions have started offering programmes with specialisation in it. A career in IoT can truly define the aspirations of students who have interest in information technology domain in near future.