Union Communication Minister Manoj Sinha is the latest among government representative to acknowledge the role of AI and ML in bettering the life of Indian citizens.
While speaking at a conference hosted by the Telecommunication Engineering Centre (TEC) on ‘M2M/IoT Enabling Smart Infrastructure’, the minister said that ML coupled with IoT technology has the potential to transform the lives of India’s ordinary citizens and change the way they interact with the physical world.
“Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication and the Internet of Things (IoT) have the potential to transform our lives by radically changing the way we interact with the physical world around us,” he said at the event.
The one day conference held on 8 January in New Delhi, saw the participation of government and private stakeholders to come together to discuss topics such as Smart Infrastructure Verticals, different technologies and related use cases, Role of IoT in Smart Cities design and planning, various aspects related to Standardisation in M2M/IoT, and Challenges in Security, Testing and Certification of Smart devices/equipment.
Two technical reports prepared by the TEC, titled Recommendation for IoT/ M2M Security and Design and Planning Smart Cities with IoT/ICT were also released by the Minister during the event.
TEC which comes under the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) is responsible for overseeing the standard and specifications for telecom products, services and networks in India.
As a nodal agency of DoT, it has actively leveraged M2M/IoT for it various applications, across a number of verticals – such as Automotives(e.g. Intelligent Transport System), Power(e.g. Smart Metering, Smart Grid), Remote Health-Care, Safety and Surveillance, Smart Homes, Waste Management,and Water Management.
This isn’t the first time that an Indian minister has backed the potential of technologies of AI and ML. While speaking at an event in IIT Delhi, Ravi Shankar Prasad, the Union Minister for Law and Justice and IT said, “India missed the impact of the industrial revolution for a variety of reasons. We don’t wish to lose the digital revolution. On the contrary, we in India want to become the leaders in the digital revolution.”
