The healthcare delivery environment in India has distinctive challenges such as inadequate infrastructure and a healthcare delivery system that needs a lot of improvement, says Sai Pratyush, Head of Managed Services, IOT/M2M, Enterprise Mobility and Cloud Services, Tata Teleservices, while sharing his views on Internet of Things (IoT) innovations with Rahul Devulapalli . Some excerpts from the interview.
Can you talk about the simple Internet-of-Things (IoT) innovations that will take place in the healthcare sector?
IoT can play a significant role in improving the quality of healthcare, from managing chronic diseases at one end of the spectrum to disease prevention at the other end. Simple innovations include outpatient monitoring and tele-medicine applications enabling them to monitor patients on a continuous basis and respond more quickly to situations that need their attention. IoT can also help doctors remotely monitor patients in remote locations. It also helps in SMS-based solutions for doctors and hospitals to send reminders and alerts to their patients on medication or checkups. Location-based tracking services help ambulances to be deployed in least congested routes while transporting patients.
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Entrepreneurship is considered to be the single most powerful instrument responsible for advancing global prosperity. Most technology innovation that has happened in the IoT space has been driven by start-ups and this phenomenon will continue unchanged for some time.
IoT is not only about solving big problems; it’s mostly about solving small problems and these problems could be as disparate as monitoring someone’s blood pressure remotely or getting an intrusion alert from your home while you are on a vacation.
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Any prediction on the economics of IoT and M2M industry in India and where does India stand currently in lapping up these new technologies?
As far as IoT market opportunity is concerned, while findings of market research companies may vary, they are unanimous in their conclusion that this is a trillion dollar opportunity in terms of revenue potential. Depending on which report you choose to believe, projections state that anywhere between 25 to 50 billion devices will get connected by 2020. In India, projections vary from two-five billion devices which essentially mean that more devices will be connected to the telecom networks, than people. In India, deployments have happened primarily in the utility space with the government playing a huge role in incentivising adoption of smart metering. Other areas are in fleet management of large commercial vehicles, taxis and public transport.
Can you throw light on research or collaborative efforts?
We are working with partners to develop innovative solutions for our enterprise customers in fleet management, asset tracking, security, retail, banking and healthcare. IoT solutions are complex and they involve multiple components such as devices, applications and connectivity from different entities.