Author: coeblog

NASSCOM Center of Excellence IoT has launched its flagship initiative in manufacturing titled The Forum for Manufacturing, Automation, Digital Transformation & Innovation Excellence (MADE), which will explore the intersection of innovation & technology in manufacturing and how this can aid the next wave of digital transformation.

At the Digital Transformation & Supply Chain- Inflection Summit & Awards 2019 held in Mumbai recently, strategies for transformation of functions in the disruptive business environment were discussed at length. Industry thought leaders representing pharma, automotive, logistics, retail, FMCG and service providers gathered to share their best practices, celebrate successful innovations and understand futuristic trends at Inflection.

NASSCOM CoEIoT-DSAI participated in two meetings – a Panel Discussion on Game Changing Trends in Automotive Supply Chain – Fuel to Future and the second, a closed group roundtable with industry leaders on Opportunities & Impediments to Accelerate Digital Transformation in Supply Chain Ecosystem within Indian industry, led by Jayen Desai, Lead – Digital Transformation, Industry 4.0 for NASSCOM CoEIoT-DSAI.

Key Inflections for the industry

The EV revolution in India is waiting to happen, and changes being witnessed at the industry and policy level indicate the next wave of environment-friendly transport. The newly-elected government is supposedly deliberating means to establish a robust EV infrastructure. The Indian EV market is poised to reach an excess of $700mn by 2025, and government schemes are expected to provide a fillip.

Secondary data from McKinsey, Deloitte and PwC indicate some interesting trends:

• One in 10 cars by 2030 will be shared vehicle
• City type will replace country/region as key parameter for sales segmentation
• Vehicle unit sales will grow ~2% annually but will be highly customized to fleet operators
• 15% of new cars sold in 2030 will be fully autonomous

During the roundtable, a conscious move from internal combustion to EV to Autonomous vehicles was recommended. Already, there is a significant change in the mindset of GenYfrom Ownership to User-ship, which exacerbates the relevance of an eco-friendly vehicle.

In addition to capitalising on a cost-effective and eco-friendly model, major disruptions in the future dealer model with OEMs can be expected mainly due to the expansive role played by technologies such as AI and the power of real-time data analytics. Additionally, Potential disruption in auto supply chain with wider adoption of 3D printed spare parts closer to point of use builds a stronger case for digital transformation.

Collaboration, Innovation and Solution Providers: An Unstoppable Combination for the Industry of the Future

The industry stands at an inflection point today. With reams of data on user preferences and climate parameters, now is the time for greater collaboration between manufacturing companies and digital technology providers. The abundance of data has also provided a bank of industry-relevant use cases, which can be leveraged with appropriate solution providers. This encourages digital transformation teams to look beyond the ecosystem.

The findings of this roundtable set the precedent for NASSCOM CoEIoT-DSAI’s newly- launched flagship industry-driven initiative called MADE – the Forum for Manufacturing, Automation, Digital Transformation & Innovation Excellence.

Key Takeaways

1. There is significant work happening in the industry around supply chain automation and ecosystem.
2. Most companies are taking end to end approach when it comes to industry 4.0 vs piece meal.
3. A lot of focus right now on getting demand forecasting and last mile delivery when it comes to innovation in supply chain.
4. Retail moving from stocking to more mass customization and just in time delivery models and this is going to be disruptive with tremendous opportunities for supply chain innovation.
5. There are lot of opportunity within retail for having roadmaps for data integration and visualization to get maximum benefit for real time feedback.
6. Within Pharma industry there are significant challenges in cold chain, storage, logistics, trace and track, counterfeits and this is both for domestic and international trade.   Technology adoption and working at a national platform level would be highly beneficial and again this is something the COE – IOT/AI can work with the eco-system partners.

If you are an enterprise or startup keen to participate in MADE, contact Jayen Desai (t-jayen@mail.nasscom.in)

Make way for the new era of digital transformation in manufacturing

Date

26^th Feb 2019

Round Table

A Billion Dollar Market – India’s Health Insurance Market Is At A Precipice Of Change

Context

Health insurance is not a luxury but a necessity today. Given the propensity and range of diseases that man is prone to, having a healthcare premium is imperative. India has more than 60 insurance companies, of which nearly 40 are dedicated to health insurance.

There are a plethora of needs in the healthcare sector, which require insurance intervention. By 2021, health insurance is expected to reach US$3.5bn, representing growth of more than 12% annually since 2006. Moreover, the increase of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in India such as diabetes, cardiac issues and cancers require cost-heavy intervention. A sound healthcare premium will go a long way in safeguarding citizens from skyrocketing costs.

Due to imminent changes in the eco-system, the sector is constantly in a state of flux. While Government spend is increasing with various schemes announced by Central and State Governments, the healthcare insurance market is challenged with process compliance, fraudulent practices, skewed claims ratio, low coverage, increased out-of-pocket expenses and policy support.

The healthcare insurance market is dynamic, offering myriad opportunities for innovators, investors, enterprises and policy makers. Yet, it is imperative to address existing challenges, identify high-opportunity areas and chart a roadmap for future success.

At the BioAsia Conference 2019 in Hyderabad, an industry roundtable led by NASSCOM Center Of Excellence IoT’s flagship healthcare initiative Lifesciences & Healthcare Innovation Forum (LHIF), where industry participants comprehensively discussed the opportunities & challenges around healthcare insurance market and role of technology and policy in easing the situation for the public.

Challenges

1. Delays in claims processing is a major concern not only for the patients but also for the hospitals. Any extra day spent by the patient occupying a bed waiting for a discharge due to delays in insurance paperwork, may not result in higher returns to the hospitals.
2. Health Insurance companies are not able to assess the risk exposure from their customers. Many of them do not disclose pre-existing ailments and no sooner they take health insurance, these customers start availing the claims. As the risk profile and historical medical records are not available for the insurers, they have no option but to offer same policy to all.
3. Policy provisions are neither clear on the websites, nor do the customers read and understand the available terms and conditions. Many of them realize the inclusions and exclusions once they start using the claims process.
4. Inflation in the healthcare delivery costs is steadily increasing the claims, however there is a challenge in increasing the insurance premiums. As the affordability of the premiums is reducing, it is difficult to acquire new customers. Increased competition and untenable provisions offered by some companies, is putting pressure on other companies in this space. Customers only see the cost of the premium without realizing the provisions within.
5. There is no regulatory body, which controls the health insurance procedures at Hospitals. Some providers tend to overuse the facilities for the customers having health-insurance.
6. Due to inadequate staff to monitor the enrolled hospitals and also due to some unscrupulous individuals, there is 15% incidence of abuse.
7. 60-70% of the populations living in rural India. Many of them are illiterate to Health Insurance. They only know abouthealth cards issued by government and not sure the provisions there under.Despite large penetration of PM-JAY, the insurance companies are yet to see a viable financial model for them to succeed in enrolling into the Ayushman Bharat. The cost of the packages fixed by government may impede the quality of care.
8. Though Ayushman Bharat equally emphasises on wellness, the Health Insurance companies do not see a possibility of participation in preventive health compared to curative health, mainly due to no incentives provided to them on preventive health.
9. There is no clarity or clear guidance from either regulatory or the government on the same day procedures – Out-Patient Surgeries, that can be covered under health insurance. As a result, individuals prefer to get admitted for at least a day to claim the insurance. This increases the cost of the claim. Also, many individuals lack awareness on the same-day procedures. Though some hospitals are offering same day procedures, it is not clear if the insurance companies are accepting these claims.
10. Smaller bills are cleared fast without necessarily checking for the potential frauds, whereas large bills need go through more diligence for validation and verification. This results in genuine customers switching the insurer due to dis-satisfaction.
11. Non-payment of claims arises from three factors. (a) Lack of proper documentation, (b) Lack of awareness of inclusion and exclusion criteria in the policy and (c) difference in costs from the same hospitals for same procedures.

Opportunities

1. A uniform platform for sharing health profile of individuals (similar to the credit profile) will really help Insurance Companies to customize the insurance products based on individuals. Those will better health profile tend to get lower premiums.

1. Nearly 60% of the population do not have health insurance coverage, even 10% of them buying the health insurance policies, will dramatically increase the revenues for the Insurers and they may be able to provide better services.
2. Government is increasing the focus on wellness and with the help of regulatory. We can see positive guidelines & directions in this space.
3. Insurance companies provide health-check coupons to their customers, but only 7-8% of them are utilized. But a push in wellness from government and corporates can increase the utilization. More utilization of these coupons may result in better data for Insurance companies to customize their premiums.
4. Hospitals and Health Insurance companies can work together to provide a better customer experience.

Role of Technology

1. Technology can play a major role in prevention campaigns in local language (due to increased mobile penetration). Insurance companies are willing to push customized content through these campaigns on basic problems like nutrition, sanitation, stress and prevention measures.
2. Technology can help Third Party Administrators (TPAs) with documentation process and the aggregate data on the ailments and the procedures. This helps in customizing the offerings and speeding up the claims process.
3. A well implemented EHR/PMR Systems at Government and Private Hospitals can provide a lot of insights for both the insurers and hospitals. PMR data can help in understanding the customer well before offering a suitable insurance product.
4. Integration of Hospital Billing systems to TPA claims processing system can ease out on the time for processing a claim. Technology can also help in discharge process automation within Hospital environment to reduce the time for discharging a patient.
5. AI can play a significant role in fraud detection process and disease predictions.
6. Affordable wearables can help monitor the customers data by the Insurers and their empanelled doctors and provide timely advise on preventive health.
7. Insurance companies can work with telemedicine platform providers to engage with their customer to reduce the hospitalization through early interventions.
8. There is an increased opportunity for Health Insurers to engage with Healthcare Startups.
9. Managing NCDs is a biggest opportunity towards wellness and preventing potential complications arising out of NCDs. Use of technology in engaging with the customers on managing NCDs will help the Insurers in avoiding future hospitalization.

Better pricing, continuous engagement with the customer and preventive measuresto help the health insurance sector can boost the sector’s organic and robust growth.

Participants

Digital technologies are rapidly reshaping every industry today, and a digital transformation plan is imperative for a company to retain and possibly enhance market share, customer base and shareholders’ interest. The global spend on digital transformation initiatives reached $1.3 trillion in 2017, with the amount expected to near double by 2021.

A digital transformation plan involves multiple parameters, and involves several complexities. An assiduously charted digital transformation plan is prone to undergo several changes due to the dynamic nature of technologies shaping the industry. Some core aspects of technology components leading change in the industry include advanced analytics, IOT, mobile technologies, AI & Robotics, RPA & chatbots,cloud computing,AR & VR, etc

The coupling of granular, real-time data collected through smartphones, connected devices, smart appliances, wearables, mobile commerce, video surveillance, with digital technologies such as cloud native apps, big data architectures, hyper-converged technologies, artificial intelligence, blockchain help to enhance product design & performance, customer experience and faster business decisions through, essentially driving the wave of digital transformation.

Data, Mobile & Other Technologies Spearheading Digital Transformation

Data analytics is one of the foremost aspects of digital transformation today. A company’s most critical asset is data – which is now being understood with alacrity now that scientists have understood how to analyse data, extract insights from it and drive a company’s growth in new, undiscovered territories. Gartner says that every major company is wielding data and analytics as competitive weapons, and by 2022, 90% of corporate strategies will explicitly mention information as a critical enterprise asset and analytics as an essential competency. This is because data provides a lot of action points on behaviours and trends of customers, allowing for businesses to process, predict and plan future strategies with precision and accuracy.

The mobile phone was perhaps one of the most versatile inventions of our time, and has served as a canvas for almost every major transformative technology known to man today. Be it apps, chatbots or technologies enabling connectivity – it all happens on a mobile phone. Being the cornerstone of digital transformation, companies understand the power of a handheld devices in accelerating their growth. Some of the biggest companies today in every major industry are capitalising on the mobile phones and telecom networks. The rapid and continuous communication between a company and its customers is facilitated through the mobile, which is also playing a major role in capturing data.

The cloud is another transformation technology offering that has changed the way data is stored, and now plays a pivotal role in driving digital transformation. Information and customer data on the cloud is being harnessed by companies to drive and shape strategies. Cloud offerings like Software as a Service, Infrastructure as a Service and Platform as a Service has led the way for business models built on and driven by the cloud.

Other technologies like AI, robotics & robotics process automation (RPA), and chatbots are now being explored extensively for applicability across domains. AI-driven technologies are playing a major role in the way companies, with a focus on information capture and process automation. This has fueled the way for Robotic Process Automation – the catalyst for smarter business decisions today. RPA is redefining the way processes like risk, compliance, accounts & invoice processing, and customer onboarding, and experts believe this is the tip of the iceberg.

Challenges In Digital Transformation

Digital transformation programs need the support from the top management and participation from all the functions within the organisation and other stake holders in the ecosystem like customers, and suppliers among others. This is more of a change management process and transformation in the business processes and model. It is a long journey, probably a decade for large organisations. But it is important now to persevere, reassess strategies and embrace digital intervention methods, if companies hope to be change-makers of the future.

Excerpts of speech by Nagarajan Rao, Director, CoE IoT DSAI, Chennai at the BITS Pilani (Goa) 3^rd PGP-IoT cohort

Universal Healthcare- Digital Propulsion

30^th April 2019 at Shangri La’s Eros Hotel- Delhi

Event Report

170 Registrations|50 Start-ups|20 Policy makers|90 Organizations

8 innovative start-up pitches|7 Demo booths

Inaugural session

The 5^th Lifesciences & Healthcare Innovation Forum got off to a rousing start, with inspiring and informative keynotes from luminaries across the spectrum of health, technology and policy, on the growing impact of digital propulsion in healthcare today. Welcoming the guests, Sanjeev Malhotra, CEO of the NASSCOM Center of Excellence stressed on the need for a comprehensive healthcare ecosystem, by bringing together the country’s leading hospitals, medical associations, healthcare providers and innovators with policymakers to decide the future of the industry.

Debjani Ghosh, President, NASSCOM elucidated on India’s role as a leader in data collection and mining and stressed on the need to harness this data for a constructive purpose. Combining this transformational power of technology with verticals like healthcare will be a powerful synergy, With India being the second largest health tech ecosystem in the world, the next step in accelerating the industry would be to make healthcare accessible to all using technology.

Debjani Ghosh, President

J Satyanarayana, former chairman, UIDAI emphasized on the need for universal health coverage, and with new elements of technology making a foray, various aspects of patient privacy and security also need to be taken care of adequately. Based on the current scenario, he suggested an ‘enterprise-like’ approach with a federated architecture, including database interoperability, maintaining basic data of patients and diseases and most importantly, an architecture that brings it all together.

J Satyanarayana, former chairman

Dileep Mangsuli, CTO, Wipro GE Healthcare touched upon the need for preventive healthcare, and that there is a significant skill gap in managing healthcare challenges. He stressed upon the creation of a health stack for which data integration is needed and urged the industry to also consider affordability of healthcare services for everyone.

Dileep Mangsuli, CTO, Wipro GE Healthcare

Dr Indu Bhushan, CEO of Ayushman Bharat provided the example of the success of the healthcare scheme Ayushman Bharat (PM-JAY), specifically elaborating on the role of technology in extending the reach of this expansive scheme to every corner of the country. In seven months of launching, Ayushman Bharat has already touched the lives of 3.2 crore people, and the next phase of implementation will witness a significant role played by technology.

Dr Indu Bhushan, CEO of Ayushman Bharat

Ajay Sawhney, secretary, MeitY spoke about extending the expertise of IT and electronics deep into major industry sectors like healthcare. This will ensure reach far and wide, and help harness vast amounts of data and insights about India’s healthcare landscape. He also emphasized on the need for the National Health Stack, as it will create a tremendous scope for innovation in the country.

Ajay Sawhney, secretary, MeitY

Pramod Bhasin, founder, Genpact brought the inaugural session to a close with remarks on the extent of healthcare challenges in the world but technology is rapidly solving multiple challenges. Now, the time is ripe for extracting analytics from the existing data, and work with multiple stakeholders in the healthcare domain.

Pramod Bhasin, founder, Genpact

Panel Discussion 1- Home and Remote Health care – Digital Intervention

Moderated by – Mr. Suresh Kumar, CTO Wipro GE Healthcare Clinical Operations

Panellists:  Mr. Sameer Mehta (COO&MD, Mehta Hospitals), Mr. Nilesh Jain (Co-founder, Clinivantage),

Dr. Raghuram Mallaiah (Director Neonatology, Fortis la femme), Dr.Dhruv Joshi (Co-Founder, Cloudphysician)

The panel discussion on Home and Remote Heath care- Digital Intervention moderated by Mr. Suresh Kumar, CTO GE Healthcare- Clinical operations, captures an interactive and enthralling discussion on the challenges, issues and the merits of the remote healthcare and the health ecosystem in India.The major advantages of healthcare in India is the use of cutting-edge medical equipment which enhances patient outcomes and the services are delivered at a fraction of cost as compared to other countries. India is also a hub of super speciality hospitals with highly skilled doctors and paramedical staff. This plays a pivotal role for exponential growth of medical tourism and research in India.

Dr. Raghuram Mallaiah heading the Neonatology department points out that they have set up NICUs across the country, but they do lag in manpower.  An overwhelming response curated by the panellists, focussedon the major challenges faced in the successful implementation of remote care. There is a dearth in the infrastructure, and less money for investments and hence the healthcare industry in tier 2 and tier 3 cities is growing at a slow rate. The staff and the nurses are poorly trained and the hospital in these cities lack experts like radiologists, paediatrician, paramedical staff and other residential doctors. Also, the disparate data that is generated by the services and devices, should be handled effectively. The solutions that were discussed were establishment of a command centre and a business model in the form of hub and spokes. The solution should cater to the problem statement. The workflow should adapt the technology and not the other way around. There should also be a clinical decision support software which integrates the medical device data, patient records and should be able to predict critical problems.

Sponsor Session- Google Cloud Platform for Healthcare and LifeSciences

Mr.Animesh Saraf (Regional Lead, Google Cloud Platform)

Animesh talked about data being the key element in bringing the whole ecosystem together. A 360-degree view of the patient helps one understand challenges & determining the course of treatment. Currently, data collection is disparate and must follow compatibility – the ultimate motive of Google is to organise this information and make it accessible and useful for everyone. He further delegates the importance of security of this information and its integration to legacy systems in a healthcare organization, and talked about a healthcare API designed by Google to inject the disparate sources of data and maintain interoperability. He also talks about machine learning algorithms and other predictive data modelling paradigms that can help in speech to text conversion and multilingual voice recognition for instant digitization of medical records. He spoke about a trained model in diabetic retinopathy to detect a human eye with severe damage. He mentioned about Verily, a Google spin-off that focuses on factors in affecting a person’s health based on his vital parameters.

Panel discussion 2- Digital Intervention in Patient Lifecycle Management

Moderated By: Sumit Puri, CIO, Max Health

Panelists: Rajiv Sikka (CIO, Medanta), Dr Sachin Malhotra (Tech Care 4 All)

Dr Deepak Agrawal(Professor – Neurosurgery & Gamma Knife, AIIMS), Ashish Gupta (CEO, DocPrime)

Sumit Puri initiated the session by touching upon four important aspects in patient life cycle management – patient safety, customer convenience, cost and revenue management. The panelists elucidated examples from their professional journeys that resonated with the theme of the panel. Rajiv Sikka talked about the need to digitize patient records to a single device or portal. He talked about how Medanta introducing the booking of appointments online, with pre-payment for online slots. This was a successful model, with almost all patients following the model diligently. Ashish Gupta stated that PolicyBazaar approached every insurer on their platform with customized choices on healthcare insurance plans. He believes this is why insurance is making a re-entry – for there is plenty of customer data available to allow personalized options be made. Dr Agarwal spoke about the success of a single window exit counter in OPD – every patient has to pass through this window to enter or leave the OPD, and has to get his OPD card scanned based on which data is collected and actions taken. In a hospital the size of AIIMS which sees nearly three million patients each year in OPD, this system has reduced wait time from 8 hours to 3 hours. He stressed on the need for simple interventions that can go a long way in accelerating process efficiency. For Sachin Gupta, it was a personal experience which revealed the stark difference between planned digital interventions and ground realities in a hospital. Smaller, targeted outreach activities with companies promoting health is one way to create an impact. Eventually, it is about catering to a patient, and understanding him as a composite entity, and applying frameworks accordingly.

Panel discussion 3- Electronic Health Records- Roadmap for Adoption

Moderated By: Mr. Siva Padmanabhan (MD of AstraZeneca India Pvt. Ltd.)

Panelists: Arvind Sivaramakrishnan (CIO, Apollo Hospitals), Mr. Siddhanth Jena (Co-founder, Janacare),

Mr. Praveen Srivastava (Joint Director, C-DAC Noida), Mr Trilok Chandra (Head of E-Governance, MeitY)

Mr.Santosh Kr Mishra (CEO, Sansys)

The panel was moderated by Mr. Siva Padmanabhan, MD AstraZeneca India Private Limited and focuses on the need for adoption of Electronic Health Records and the issues in the process. Any Electronic Health Record is the foundation of the Healthcare industry and it plays a major role in bringing the merits to every player in the ecosystem. It predicts how the healthcare organisations are performing across the value chain. Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has embarked on the journey to implement EHR in the year 2013 and has witnessed a lot of push for HIS to accept EHR. The driver of EHR, implementation is the long continuum care of the patients in any hospital chain.

Lab investigation reports, x-ray reports and demography generate lots of data load that has to be processed efficiently to get the key valuable insights and define the procedure accordingly. Also, speech to text conversation algorithms plays a vital role in aiding in the doctor’s process and is the need of the hour.As the organisation gets larger, the healthcare delivery system gets complicated and we need a specifically designed system in place to handle all the complicated tasks effectively and guide the people. The same system should be compatible, user friendly, easily portable and in compliance with the regulatory rules. Any healthcare information systems should be compatible with workflow of the organization and the documents should be in structured formats. The panel also brainstormed around the criterion for a successful implementation of the Electronic Health records which are enlisted below.

• The initiative should be started by public and private hospital chain on a step by step note
• The software and the technology should understand the business need and the client need.
• Implementation of EMR should follow interoperability standards and the nomenclature standards
• The solution should map to the workflow
• The immediate need of the hour is to focus on the reskilling of the cohort and the accessibility of the data.

Start-up Pitches

Shubhaarogya (Koti Venkat Rao)- KotiVenkat Rao,the founder of Shubhaarogya talked about providing quality and affordable healthcare services in India. Subhaarogya is healthcare delivery organization addressing the accessibility challenges in the rural India. They provide digital diagnostics powered by PHFI, and have built aggregation platform and telemedicine platform to set up e-clinics.

Shubhaarogya (Koti Venkat Rao)

Zeolr Technologies(Roshit Gopinath)- The innovative start-up led by Roshit Gopinath caters to the problem of chronic lung disease. The solution addresses by involving real time analysis and insights on report generation for asthma. RespirON, a product of Zeolr is an intelligent asthma and COPD management system.

Zeolr Technologies(Roshit Gopinath)

Nemocare Wellness Pvt Ltd.(Manoj Sankar)- Operating in the area of mother and child care, the solution provided by Manoj Sankar deals with a wearable on the new born to monitor the vitals to detect Apnoea hypothermia and other distress conditions.

Nemocare Wellness Pvt Ltd.(Manoj Sankar)

Onward Assist(Dinesh Koka)- Onward Assist is the state-of-the-art AI platform aiding clinicians to help make better decisions for diagnostics and oncology involving multi model data analytics.Oncologists can now leverage tools for accurate segmentation of risks in the patient lifecycle.

Onward Assist(Dinesh Koka)

ChironX (Sambodhi)-ChironX builds intelligent software using AI and deep learning to screen and diagnose diseases of eye, chest including diabetic retinopathy and tuberculosis. It embeds medical diagnostic for screening of human retina and interprets the disease according to the pattern.

ChironX (Sambodhi)

Colortokens(Deepak Kaul)-Working in the field of cybersecurity, Colortokens implements the concept of Zero-Trust Architecture that makes detection more reliable and the response more effective. The process provides efficient security, speeds up detection of threat and the associated response and primarily focuses on proactive security.

Colortokens(Deepak Kaul)

Fit Galaxy(Rajat Sawhaney, Esha Sawhaney)- An online fitness company helping users get fit with guidance by nutritionists and fitness coaches along with customised nutrition, exercise and lifestyle plans. It focuses on fat loss, muscle gain and preventing lifestyle diseases.

Fit Galaxy(Rajat Sawhaney, Esha Sawhaney)

Docvita (Anmol Arora)-Voice enabled AI assistant to manage patient visits and follow-ups in the hospitals and clinics. It helps the doctors in drafting patient prescriptions on doctor instructions. It also assists patients with alerts, reminders on medication in-take and online consultation

Docvita (Anmol Arora)

The workshop session concluded with the networking session. The solution seekers and solutions providers had an interactive networking opportunity to explore the use cases in the healthcare industry and the possibilities of engaging with each other.

Social Media links

• https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6528885874409725952
• https://twitter.com/NASSCOMCoEIoT/status/1123103101731270656
• https://twitter.com/nasscom/status/1123115807087759362
• https://twitter.com/NASSCOMCoEIoT/status/1123125844820389888

For more details please write to:  LHIF@nasscom.in           Visit our Website: www.coe-iot.com

For most of us urbane mobile users, Bluetooth is a reminder of the “good old days” of the Internet through which we would exchange MP3 files and pictures. Today, it is commonly used in fitness bands, cars and even headsets. But the utility of this piece of technology goes much further.

Experts are reckoning the application of Bluetooth in smart buildings.Although the adoption is not largescale just yet, it is on the rise.

At the recently held IoT India Expo in New Delhi, there was a session held on the rising significance of Bluetooth mesh as a basis for connectivity in smart buildings. This is a networking structure that uses low-energy networking technology to interact and exchange information. A mesh network is where every single node is connected, allowing the effortless relay of data. While its largely used in industrial automation, it is becoming a reliable alternative for smart buildings as well.

More specifically, the current successes are being seen using lighting as the foundation for Bluetooth connectivity.

Let’s see how this works with LED lights, which are a common feature in homes and offices today. LED lights are an energy efficient alternative, but with the proliferation of IoT, lights are now embedded with IoT sensors as well. Buildings today are coming equipped with Ethernet cabling, which makes it way easier to connect sensor-embedded LED lights. With an interconnected lighting system using SIG-qualified Bluetooth mesh, these LED lights can be easily lit up without having to reorient a building’s wiring. Since mesh networking involves several nodes, each one acts like a gateway for the original net connection, constantly communicating with one another and amplifying the signal. Unlike range extenders that will likely slow down Internet speeds, mesh networks amplify speed and ensure the entire building is powering on at optimal speeds at all times.

The benefits of this efficient system of mesh networking are many. Bluetooth mesh networks can provide a wide range of coverage, interoperability, device monitoring &control, low energy consumption and most importantly, compatibility with mobiles, tablets, PCs and laptops.

For instance, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam recently replaced their halogen lighting systems with Bluetooth-enabled LED modules. Now, the museum’s lighting is controlled by Bluetooth switches. In addition, the museum also added Xicato sensors which use Bluetooth technology to broadcast data including occupancy, lux levels, temperature and humidity levels – parameters whose management is critical to retain the quality of the priceless works of art.

US-based retailer Target, during the revamp of its stores, is installing Bluetooth beacons in its new LED light fixtures to enable location and navigation. Once completed, this will be one of the largest deployments for a lighting-based indoor positioning system.

Scalability of Bluetooth Mesh

At the IoT Tech Expo in Amsterdam, Bluetooth SIG Technical Program Manager Martin Woolley spoke about the introduction of Bluetooth Mesh in 2017 and how it is a wise choice for smart building deployments. As of 2018, there were 10 million Bluetooth devices being shipped everyday and 34,000 companies support the use of the technology. A Bluetooth Mesh can support up to 32,767 nodes per network, sending hundreds of multicast messages per second. This range of scale can be achieved through multiple techniques including multi-hop messaging – where messages can “hop” across the network to the furthermost edges. According to Woolley, these devices can communicate with one another even when out of radio range.

Security Concerns

With the exponential proliferation of IoT comes the concerns regarding security. Reports of malware attacks and cybersecurity lapses in businesses make headlines every day. The industry is cognizant of these concerns, and Bluetooth Mesh offers a reliable solution. Bluetooth products essentially must support same security features, and a single compromised device cannot debilitate an entire network. Moreover, only members of the same network can communicate, mitigating the chances of a rogue device to connect.

So far, the lighting industry has seen the success of applying Bluetooth Mesh to lights. According to ABI Research, annual commercial smart lighting equipment shipments are expected to increase fivefold by 2022. 40% of all connected end points will be smart lighting based by 2021. Already, industries like retail, healthcare and travel are testing this technology in pockets, and furthering the use of Bluetooth Mesh for smart buildings.

With security, safety, connectivity and reliability being paramount to the success of a technology like Bluetooth Mesh, industry experts are optimistic that it will play a transformative role in the smart buildings industry in the near future.

The world, as we know it, is evolving at breakneck speed and technology is at the core of this rapid digital transformation. Every day, companies and entrepreneurs break new ground in innovation and push the boundaries of technology a bit more. In order to sustain the pace of innovation that is truly transformative and disruptive, companies and startups have to find scope for collaboration.

This concept called Co-Create has been propagated by economists and industry experts worldover. The World Economic Forum cites the example of Europe, which boasts of an innovation-driven ecosystem and is reaping its benefits. Its economic growth rate is higher than that of the USA and the growth forecast for the future looks optimistic. This change is largely propelled by the changing nature of businesses in the region, who are now adopting a more collaborative approach towards startups. “Partnerships between incumbent players and startups are the way forward for the Fourth Industrial Revolution to be sustainable in the long term. I’m talking about a model where start-ups use technology to add value to existing players without necessarily disrupting them. Deliveroo does exactly this with restaurants, Gett with taxis and Opportunity Network with corporates and banks” said EnricaSighinolfi, Opportunity Network

This is easier said than done, but companies around the world have initiated efforts to bring about a bigger sense of collaboration between innovators to solve specific, customer-relevant problems. The scale and reach of a corporate combined with the high Innovation Quotient (IQ) can be an unstoppable force for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. For instance, Startup Xchange works with DBS Bank to bring onboard startups that can address tailored, specific needs of the bank. Since its pilot, Startup Xchange has matched 21 startups with units within the bank and its various SME clients, resulting in more than 10 emerging tech solutions being rolled out and more expected this year.

Startup Autobahn Seeks Industry-Specific Solutions

Its early days for India when it comes to co-creation, but it is being aggressively pursued by large enterprises. Today’s breed of technology startups are riding the wave of innovation, but require immense help in scaling their technologies. And this is where enterprises and companies can play a definitive and transformative role.

Recently, Video analytics platform Veda Labs, incubated out of NASSCOM Center of Excellence Gurugramwas shortlisted by Startup Autobahn – the co-creation arm of Mercedes Benz Research & Development India – to develop a host of solutions in the areas of analytics and other technologies pertaining to connected vehicles.

Per the process of Startup Autobahn, Veda Labs among 11 other shortlisted startups will work on pilot projects with core members of Daimler’s departments in future.

The Beginning:

Veda Labs founded in 2018 is an AI-based organization that harnesses computer vision, machine learning and IoT to provide analytics across various platforms, So far, the startup has analysed 10,505 hours of video content through 103 camera feeds and has built 14 custom-made alerts based on data obtained from video feeds.

The startup’s uses computer vision and AI to detect the total number of humans in a retail or warehouse setup, provides a demographic overview of customers with information on gender, age group and emotions. While this solution fits in the mould of the retail sector quite naturally, it has found a place for applicability in the other sectors as well.

Cofounder Vivek Singh says. “We are a pure play technology solution provider who can provide scalable solutions based on an existing market need. We are working with our initial set of clients to scale the platform and provide industry specific scalable solutions. Additionally, we are working on India-specific market challenges while scaling up the company in Europe and North America region.”

Singh maintains the status quo that the utility of technology should be industry-agnostic, for wider application. His AI platform is no different – while he may have started out by providing his solution to retail, he believes the platform can be suited for other industry needs as well. Currently, Veda Labs is working with two of India’s leading names in cement manufacturing and retail.

Veda Labs is incubated out of NASSCOM Center of Excellence IoTGurugram

The world has 285 million visually impaired people – of these, 39 million are blind, and the remaining have varying levels of impaired vision. And as the world population grows, as will the numbers of visually impaired individuals. Lancet Global Health estimates that the number of blind people in the world is set to triple by 2050.

While in some cases, partial impairment can be treated or even prevented from escalating into complete blindness, the alternatives are far less optimistic for most individuals who are totally blind. But thanks to the advent and proliferation of technology, its not a dark road entirely for those without sight. With the use of technologies such as IoT and AI, Gurugram-based startup TorchIt is lighting up lives of many.

The cofounders Hunny Bhagchandani and Mohit Chelani have it taken it as a mission to empower the visually impaired community. Their product Saarthi helps the blind navigate across various environments – be it a closed room or a crowded road. The next version of Saarthi is AI-enabled to auto-sense the environment for obstacles. For instance, if a person is walking from his room to the lobby and then to an open area, the device would sense at every interaction of a new environment and change the range setting to match for an effective navigation.

Users can toggle between three range sets – low (2 feet distance), medium (4 feet distance) and max (8 feet distance). Saarthi has a 99.7% accuracy level, and has been tested on more than 1,200 users. The device has gained accreditation from the National Association of Blind, and Blind People Association for being an innovative and impactful product. The device is being used by more than 8,000 visually impaired individuals in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Mumbai and Delhi. Bhagchandani and Chelani hope to empower more than 1 millionlives in the next two years.

Saarthi has won accolades across multiple platforms including being theTop 5 promising social start-ups awarded by PM Modi, Millennium Alliance Round 5 award – TDB, USAID & UK Govt., Social Acceleration awarded by IIM Ahmedabad and IIGP 2.0 winners

Other Products In The Pipeline

While Saarthi is a hugely successful product, the team is already working on other products such as Jyoti and TakeNote. Jyoti has the essence of AI, ML & IoT at its core through the features like Offline Image Processing, Audio Video calling. There is also an SOS button, which will send a message to nearest blind school/institute and the police station to rescue a blind person in need. TakeNote is a product being developed in association with IIT Madras. It it being designed to be a simplistic and affordable device to take notes from anywhere and then have them transferred into any computing device for editing or publishing, providing a digital notebook to every blind person to safely store their notes and have them edited from connecting to any device.

CSR Project with HDFC Gruh Udyog & Oil India

TorchIt along with HDFC Gruh Udyog recently conducted a CSR Project in Bhopal for distribution of 1,000 of Saarthi devices to blind & visually impaired people there. Beyond that, they have also received a CSR Project collaboration with Oil India for distribution of 2,000 more of Saarthi devices. In addition, the team is engaged in discussions with Rajive Gulati, head of Hartron Multiskill Development Center, Startup Hub and CoE IoT Gurugram to carry out a pilot project in Haryana.

Torchit Goes To South Korea & Africa

Torchit was recently incorporated in South Korea with support from NIPA after being chosen as the one of the Top 40 startups in the Korea Startup Grand Challenge 2018. In addition, the company is collaborating with companies in the development area Dot Inc, one of the biggest manufacturer of smart watches for the blind in Korea.

During their recent visit to Kenya, Tanzania and Malawi, they have tied up with multiple organisations including Kenyan Society for the Blind, Hope Tech + and Safaricom. After meeting with key government officials, they are hopeful of taking the product to every corner of Africa.

TorchIt is being incubated out of the NASSCOM Center of Excellence IoT, Gurugram

Parenthood is believed to be one of the biggest joys in the world, and every new parent wants nothing more than a healthy baby. Baby Rajesh’s parents too were ecstatic when he was born, but their joy was short-lived when they found that Rajesh weighed less than a kilogram at birth. Chances of survival with such low birth weight was close to impossible. Baby Rajesh’s parents were overjoyed when Dr.Jagadishwar saved their baby miraculously.

But it was not the end of the road for baby Rajesh.

Two years later, he was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, presumably due to multiple apnoeic episodes in the time he spent in the hospital fighting for survival. If only Dr.Jagdishwar had some way to tell him the distress baby Rajesh’s fragile body was undergoing, timely medical intervention could have been done. Now, baby Rajesh has to spend his life as a cerebral palsy patient.

This incident jolted Manoj Sanker and PratyushaPareddy, bio design fellows at the Centre for Healthcare Entrepreneurship at IIT Hyderabad, to think how they could provide a solution to doctors like Jagdishwar to monitor patients at critical junctures and ensure they receive timely help.

Sanker and Pareddy eventually started Nemocare Wellness in July 2017 to build monitoring tools that would eliminate the chances of neonatal and maternal deaths. They use unobtrusive wireless wearable sensors and networks, analytical algorithms and big data as tools to provide  continuous, high resolution monitoring and preventive care for every patient in hospital, and at home. The use of design thinking principles to build life-saving technologies will transform the way healthcare is delivered, believe the founders.

Globally, three million babies die in their first month of life every year, and 98% of these deaths occur in the developing world. In India, approximately 3.6 million premature babies are born every year and out of them, 40000 babies die. Premature babies are susceptible to a variety of life threatening conditions such as apnea, hypothermia and respiratory distress – causing either death or some form of morbidity.

Almost all of these deaths are preventable with timely treatment. However, hospitals in the developing world are severely challenged by limited resources.They cannot afford the expensive equipment, which are usually bulky and unsuitable for continuous monitoring. Moreover, they have a high rate of false alarms; forcing nurses to visually monitor the babies. In low resource settings, where one nurse cares for about 40 babies,she will not be able to give equal attention to every baby. Most distress conditions often go unnoticed, causing irreversible injury to the newborn and sometimes even lead to death.

If a child has to be monitored continuously, they have to be isolated and hooked to wires – which hinders breastfeeding and kangaroo mother care – which in turn hinders growth and recovery.

The NemocareRaksha  is an IoT enabled smart wearable on the baby’s foot which monitors vital parameters like spo2, heart rate, respiration rate, body temperature and body position that will provide a comprehensive picture of the baby’s health. The data is then transmitted to the cloud, which can be accessed at a central monitor by which the nurse or doctor can continuously and remotely monitor all the babies through a single interface

The entire system along with Nemocare’s proprietary deep learning algorithm works as an intelligent platform that will track the baby’s health in the most accurate way possible and give only insightful notifications and alerts to healthcare workers to enable timely intervention when a distress condition is detected.This platform collects, stores, visualizes and analyses the data generated, enabling a paradigm shift in clinical diagnostics and preventive care through a data-driven approach. Inherently, the data may be used in real time to provide early warning scores or other predictive indicators, and used offline to develop new predictive algorithms.

Currently, the company is doing closed pilots for evidence creation and regulatory clearances with two public hospitals and two private hospitals.Nemocare plans to monitor and save nearly 900,000 babies through their 21,000 deployed devices over the next five years.

With Digital Propulsion of Universal Healthcare as the theme of the upcoming Lifesciences & Healthcare Innovation Forum (LHIF), here’s your chance to witness the success of innovations such as Nemocare.

For Sponsorship Queries, contact Arjun Alva (arjun@nasscom.in) and for General Queries, contact Vijetha (vijetha@mail.nasscom.in)

A mundane task like vegetable purchase involves scanning through piles of produce, and visually assessing its freshness and quality. How about replacing this abstract assessment with real-time data-driven analytics?

Gurgaon-based AI startupIntello Labs is bringing to the fruits & vegetable seller the true power of Artificial Intelligence by pioneering the concept of digital commodity grading using data.

It was in mid-2016 that the Intello Labs founding team – Milan Sharma, Nishant Mishra, Himani Shah and Devendra Chandani – all hailing from data science and big data backgrounds were keen on innovating in newer tech likemachine learning and artificial intelligence. After some initial kinks, they finally settled on agriculture as a focus sector. Cofounder Devendra Chandani says, “Even though agriculture is a large industry in India, the extent of technology penetration to address grassroot level challenges is relatively low.”

Despite the massive strides India has taken in technology in the last two decades, it is conventionally been an agrarian society. Nearly 60% of India’s 1.2 billion depends on agriculture as a primary source of livelihood. Yet, the level of technological prowess in the sector has not matched the industry’s size. While largescale food processing is being executed with high-grade machines, grassroot level issues exist within the ecosystem, which have been overlooked for decades.

One of the foremost challenges is assessing the quality of produce in fields and at local mandis. This is done manually most of the time and is subject to human bias. Often, it’s the farmer who suffers from this lack of standardization as he seldom gets the fair price for his labour. “While the government has increased MSPs from time to time, there is no scientific way to measure the quality-price premium of a commodity,” says Chandani.

Intello Labs uses advanced image recognition technology and AI to analyse this data to provide actionable insights. Using the Intello Labs app, a user can take a picture of a commodity and upload it on the cloud. The AI algorithms grade the sample and send the results to the app.

The AI platform reads nearly 1 million images daily, and currently works for wheat, cardamom, tomato, potato, onionsand other fruits and vegetables. Chandani says, “We are working on adding one new commodity per month. The technology has reduced the time taken for quality testing from 15 minutes to less than 2 minutes, and provides an accuracy rate of 95%.”

Intello Labs works with retailers, and is already present in three other countries. Currently, the company is also working on some pilot projects with governments.