Forecasts out to 2020 say that 97 of the 100 fastest growing cities in the world are in growth markets. Eight are in China and eleven are in India. Every minute, 30 people move from a rural area of India to a city? and that will continue through the year 2025. By 2050, 70% of the people will live in cities. There will be at least 27 megacities of 10 million people, compared to 19 today. Keeping this in mind, Jeby Cherian, director?strategy, IBM India & South Asia explains the concept of a ?smarter city? that uses technology to transform its core systems and optimise the return from largely finite resources. In an interaction with Diksha Dutta, he discusses IBM India?s focus, strategy and ?smarter city? initiatives in the Indian public sector market. Excerpts:
What work have you already done in the public sector in the country through smarter solutions?
Indian Railways faced challenges in managing the crew that makes the railways run. Resulting overtime for crew due to scheduling errors proved costly for Indian Railways and risky to passengers. IBM helped Indian Railways implement a biometrics-enabled crew management system (CMS) to automate the day-to-day management of staffing on board its trains. CMS provides information about the crew at all times and allocates the crew to different types of trains depending on their driving skills.
There is a huge untapped potential in the e-governance space in India. IBM is making investments in this business through the state-of-the-art e-governance centre, which combines IBM?s global experience and technology expertise to deliver e-business solutions for the government. The centre offers IBM?s customers a range of services including technical consultation, proof of concept and technical presentations, implementation planning, solution architecture, application design and development, deployment and education and training.
What are the benefits of smart grid? Tell us about your collaboration with IITs.
The smart grid adds a layer of digital intelligence to power grids to automate, monitor and control the two-way flow of energy across all aspects of the energy value chain?from power plant to plug. Smart grids use sensors, smart meters, digital controls and analytic tools to automate, monitor and control the flow of energy. IBM offers solutions for the optimisation of the entire energy value chain?power generation, transmission, distribution and renewables. We have signed research collaboration with Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras and IIT Kharagpur with the goal of developing systems that would help power grids become more efficient and resilient. The systems will analyse power grid data for predictive insights and will also help optimise grid utilisation to enhance productivity and reduce power waste.
The project is part of IBM?s Open Collaborative Research (OCR) programme, an initiative to foster innovation through university-industry research collaboration.
Significantly, we are currently engaged in more than 150 smart grid projects around the world and are committed to helping utilities realise the full investment of their smart grid programs. Electric utilities and policy makers worldwide, including India, are accelerating the transformation of electricity networks and pilot implementations in India are already on the immediate horizon.
How do you focus on research and development (R&D) and constant innovation?
It?s all about having the right people, and providing them with the right system. IBM spends approximately $6 billion in R&D annually. Patent leadership is an important element of our high-value business strategy, which is focused on enabling instrumented, interconnected, intelligent infrastructures that can change how systems of all kinds work to support a smarter planet. IBM topped the list of the world?s most inventive companies for the 18 consecutive years as our inventors received a record 5,896 US patents in 2010. IBM?s 2010 patent total nearly quadrupled Hewlett-Packard?s and exceeded the combined issuances of Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Oracle, EMC, and Google.
We are a leader in the open source movement and are engaged with clients around the world to transform their businesses through the application of smart information technologies.
How do you plan to drive your smarter planet agenda in India?
Over the past several years, IBM has been making significant investments in emerging markets including India, Africa and Brazil among others. These investments are paying off as we remain focused on developing smart citizen-centric solutions for specific industries, including government. The goal is to create groundbreaking applications and platforms that would help businesses and industries thrive.
Take, for example, the potential of the spoken Web. People can create voice sites using a simple telephone, mobile or landline. The user gets a unique phone number which is analogous to a URL and when other users access this voice site they get to hear the content uploaded there.
Interestingly, all these voice sites can be interlinked creating a massive network, which can work like the World Wide Web. IBM partners with almost all leading IT players in the Indian market to work collaboratively to offer the best solution to the customer.
Currently, we see large opportunities in almost all parts of the government. IBM India has enabled a number of central and state governments to drive various e-governance programmes successfully. These projects are aimed at improving services to citizens and enabling government organisations to achieve operational and cost efficiencies.