Will IoT Help India's IT Exports?

Internet of Things (IoT) will not only transform the way we operate and function in our day-to-day lives but can also give an impetus to exports of the nation. According to the latest report by Zinnov Zones, India has a 43 per cent share of the IoT market. India's hold on the IoT market can help increase the IT exports of the country.

The IoT devices include cell phones, coffee makers, washing machines, headphones, wearable devices, etc and also the components of machines, for example, a jet engine. It is estimated that there will be as many as 80 billion connected devices by 2020.

Kunacillan Nallappan, Senior Marketing Director, Asia Pacific, F5 Networks told BW Businessworld, "IoT shifts the way business define their models and in some cases their offering as a whole. While security will continue to be a challenge for IoT as it is for all networks and digital devices - there will be solutions developed to protect against attacks."

According to a projection by NASSCOM, Indian IT exports would grow 7-8 per cent in the current fiscal. The biggest challenge for the IT industry is revenue growth itself because growth is not picking up in the US, which is India's largest market, and there is uncertainty in the UK as well, which is India's second biggest market, because of Brexit. Thus, in such circumstances, IoT is sure to give a much-needed boost to IT exports, if India succeeds to foray into new markets, leading in innovation.

Sumit Sood, Managing Director, GlobalLogic India told BW Businessworld, "Fundamentally, IoT is a chip sitting inside every device. We are doing this work in the medical world, in the communications world, in the automotive world as well. There's a lot of work happening in this space."

India is the world's largest sourcing destination for the information technology (IT) industry, accounting for approximately 67 per cent of the US$ 124-130 billion market. Hitesh K Arora, Director Strategy & Customer Advocacy, CRMNEXT told BW Businessworld, "IoT device market in India is still at a nascent stage but it is growing fast. The affordability of IoT devices will differ from industry to industry. I would say IoT devices have the potential to boost country's gross domestic product as well."

According to the market research firm Gartner, infrastructure software spending in India is projected to surpass $3.4 billion in 2017, a 10.2 per cent increase from 2016 and enterprise application software spending is forecasted to grow by 16.8 per cent in 2017.

Indian IT's core competencies and strengths have attracted significant investments from major countries. The need of the hour is to leverage the IoT technology for a greater benefit and make India, the one-stop solution to IoT devices for the world.