India’s IT minister sees a big future in Internet of Things (IoT), and is expanding the country’s internet infrastructure to capitalize on it.
By Baishakhi Dutta
IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad’s remarks at a recent IoT conference organized by the country’s National Association of Software and Services Companies that IoT will produce economic benefits of nearly $2 trillion by 2020 and Cisco estimates it will be $14 trillion.
Prasad opined that economically IoT products are going to be very win-win, He further mentioned that his ministry was open to suggestions that could improve IoT-related skills training and increase human resources research in this burgeoning industry.
Prasad notified that his government is prioritizing efforts that will allow India to capitalize on emerging IoT opportunities. Specifically, he highlighted efforts to build out the country’s internet infrastructure that will allow both business and government to fully exploit IoT possibilities.
In the past two and a half years, India has expanded its internet network from 358 km of optical fibre to 123,000 km. The minister said his government is targeting an expansion of its network to 500 million internet connections across India by 2017.
Mr. Prasad is being affirmative of achieving that stipulated number by this year itself.