New Delhi, May 12 (KNN) The government today unveiled the roadmap for machine-to-machine (M2M) communications which will act as a reference document for all such deployments. M2M communications or 'Internet of Things' (IoT) is a network of devices that communicate among themselves using internet or wireless connectivity without human intervention. 

While unveiling the roadmap, Telecom Minister Ravi Shanker Prasad said, “M2M has great potential to transform India and it is going to be key enabler for the government vision of Digital India, Make in India and proposed smart cities in India."
 
Currently in India, M2M products being manufactured and serviced are mainly by Startups and SMEs. However basic components like Modules, silicon chips and sensors are mostly imported. Demand for most of the devices is currently low.
 
“To promote manufacturing in M2M domain, a large number of initiatives are being taken by the Department of Telecommunications,” the document said.
 
 
According to the document, “M2M is poised to disrupt a multitude of industries across the globe and create an abundance of opportunities for those who can see beyond the status quo. To put this claim into perspective, consider that within five years, the M2M market is expected to grow from $1.4B in 2011 to $25.9B in 2016.”
 
“In order to take advantage of the opportunities M2M presents, entrepreneurs need to look beyond the “how” and instead think of “what-if” to find novel solutions to complex business problems,” it stated.
 
 
Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) is taking lot of initiatives and have cluster based approach to address infrastructural issues and to provide right ecosystem.
 

“DeitY is also planning to support startups in IoT/ M2M domain by making available access to low cost fund, Venture Funds of Electronic Development Fund and ecosystem formulation for transfer of technology benefits amongst Start-ups & support for setting up incubation centers. There is urgent need of indigenous manufacturing in Telecom and M2M domain,” said the roadmap document.

 
"The adoption of M2M based applications in areas like healthcare, tele-education, smart grid, smart building, smart city etc have enormous potential to boost the socio-economic development of the country," Prasad added. 



According to the roadmap document, “M2M has potential to bring new options of local manufacturing for devices, sensors for different sectors, R&D and related services, which will boost manufacturing sector and employment generation.”
 
 
 
By using M2M technology farm land can be made smart by putting sensors which will tell when to do watering by measuring soil humidity level, small wearable devices can measure vital parameters of a patient like temperature, blood pressure, pulse rate etc, the roadmap document said. 


The government will take a number of initiatives to proliferate M2M ecosystem in the country such as releasing national M2M numbering plan this year, formulation of M2M service provider registration process, issuance of guidelines for M2M specific KYC, SIM transfer, international roaming among others, the document said. 



Other issues towards M2M communications include specific M2M standards which are in line with global standards, KYC norms for M2M services, allocation of spectrum for M2M last mile connectivity, privacy issues and data protection. 



The government will also include M2M devices in Preferential Market Access policy that gives weightage to indigenously made products. It also has plans to frame suitable radiation guidelines for M2M devices based on research and studies by relevant bodies. (KNN Bureau)