Visakhapatnam will soon have a Centre of Excellence for Internet of Things (IoT) that would boost the start-up ecosystem in a huge way, said B Krishna Murthy, senior director in the Union Ministry of Electronics and IT on January 5, 2018. Speaking on the sidelines of the IMPACT-2018, a two-day national workshop on IoT organised by the Computer Society of India and Visakhapatnam Steel Plant that began here on the same day, he said a Centre of Excellence for IoT has already been set up in Bengaluru and such centres would come up in Vizag, Gandhi Nagar and Gurgaon in the next phase.
The first Centre of Excellence (CoE), initiated by the Nasscom in association with the Union Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), was launched in Bengaluru in 2016, under PPP mode. After the Centre was successful in making several start-ups to set up their own firms, the government has proposed the similar centres in Vizag, Gandhi Nagar, and Gurgaon.
“The proposed Centre of Excellence on IoT in Vizag will have an incubation centre with 20 to 25 start-ups and a laboratory. It will extend help start-ups in their projects. The facility will help young start-ups work on their ideas and take it to fruition. Creation of right ambience, laboratory and having experts will be the game changer for the industry and the economy too,” Krishna Murthy said.
The Centre has earmarked `66 crore for the three proposed Centres of Excellence and the approximate allocation for the Vizag centre would be around `22 crore. “The AP government will provide 10,000 sft site for the Centre of Excellence project and plans are afoot to have collaborations with industries, PSUs and colleges for the infrastructure. Many research students would need an IoT lab for designing their projects. They can collaborate with the government,” Krishna Murthy told media.
