Microsoft, the global tech major, will go big on internet of things (IoT) over the next four years. It is investing $5 billion in IoT globally, and is already impacting several sectors in India through IoT.
"IoT is gathering momentum in India, and impacting daily lives—saving electricity, resources, predictive healthcare, automobile safety and more. Microsoft Azure is the preferred platform powering a variety of IoT devices", said the company.
Authorities across several states in India have turned to IoT to monitor drinking water quality for its citizens. TechSpan Engineering has implemented a monitoring system built on the Azure IoT platform, using sensors provided by the Austrian firm and their India Partner Aaxis Nano. Using the power of Microsoft cloud, IoT and data, the solution taps into the robust sensors to provide measurements across 17 parameters – from Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chloride and Fluoride levels to temperature and colour.
The solution is currently being used for online sewage treatment and flow monitoring by Delhi Jal Board, for online surface water quality monitoring by Central Pollution Control Board, and also for monitoring drinking water quality by Karnataka's water authority.
Microsoft Azure IoT is powering India’s first Smart Street Lighting Project for the pink city of Jaipur. The Jaipur Municipal Corporation (JMC) operates and maintains over 100,000 public street lights within the city. However, one of three in these lamps did not work and many others functioned poorly, leading to several areas of the city being in the dark. Microsoft’s partner Samudra LED has now deployed a customised Microsoft IoT-platform-based solution, created by ISV Precimetrix, to monitor, control and manage smart LED public street lights.
In the automobile sector, the Redmond-headquartered tech major is working with Tata Motors. Tata Motors will leverage Microsoft’s connected vehicle technologies that bring together AI, advanced machine learning, and IoT capabilities on Microsoft’s Azure cloud, to create a highly personalised, smart and safer driving experience across the digital life of a vehicle owner.
Microsoft FarmBeats is a research project for agriculture that enables seamless data collection from various sensors, cameras and drones. It comprises two broad areas—a data-acquisition system consisting of drones and sensors and a data-analysis system consisting of connectivity pieces, cloud storage, and predictive analysis.
Researchers at IISc Bangalore are also using a network of IoT sensors, coupled with Microsoft Azure analytics, to find how cloud technologies can help tackle water scarcity in cities.