Cisco & IL&FS Collaborate to Develop Indian Smart Cities

Cisco and ILFS Technologies Ltd (ITL), a technology solutions company of Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS), announced a strategic collaboration to utilize the Internet of Everything to develop digital solutions for India’s infrastructure and smart cities. Prem Saigal, Chairman, ITL, and Dinesh Malkani, President, Cisco India & SAARC, made the announcement along with Anil Menon, Cisco Deputy Chief Globalisation Officer and President, Smart+Connected Communities, and Durga Prasad, CEO, ITL.

The collaboration between Cisco and ITL will focus on bringing together the best-in-class, complementary capabilities of both companies. Cisco's vision of the Internet of Everything, which is the intelligent connection of people, processes, data, and things, is already revolutionizing the way our cities operate, creating a more dynamic digital economy and also bringing new, richer experiences to citizens. IL&FS’s deep expertise in infrastructure development in India along with ITL’s excellent technology services capabilities strongly complements Cisco® IoE architecture and robust vertical solutions.

The Digital India program of the government is focused on the digital empowerment of citizens, where infrastructure would be offered as a utility to every citizen, governance and services would be on demand, and citizens would be digitally empowered. The Digital India program aims to enable broadband in villages, universal phone connectivity, public Internet access points, public Wi-Fi in schools and universities, digital inclusion, electronic delivery of governance and services, and job creation.

Cisco's vision of Smart+Connected Communities, which enables the transformation of physical communities into connected communities, has been embraced by more than 90 global greenfield and brownfield projects and includes the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor in India, where Cisco is developing the ICT master plan for four pilot cities in the US$90 billion flagship public sector infrastructure project.

By 2050 India will add 404 million people to its cities, according to the United Nations, while today at 857 million people, India has the largest rural population in the world. Cisco and ITL will collaborate to enable the delivery of cost-effective and efficient citizen services to urban and rural communities. The collaboration will focus on developing IoE based digital solutions for smart cities, smart villages and the infrastructure sector. Cisco and ITL will pursue joint go-to-market opportunities in India and other countries as required.

The 'Intelligent Urbanization: Roadmap for India' report released by CII and Cisco in 2010 estimated that by 2020, India might have 68 cities with a population greater than 1 million. In 2013, CII and Cisco released a report titled ‘Smart City in Indian Context' which stated that India faced a shortage of 600,000 doctors, 1 million nurses and 1.2 million teachers in government schools.

According to the Cisco Visual Networking Index™, 2013 – 2018, in India by 2018 there will be 1.5 billion networked devices, including 515 million smartphones, 177.1 million connected TVs and 62.1 million tablets. The Internet of Everything collaboration between Cisco and ITL will help the infrastructure sector and smart cities take advantage of the tidal wave of data generated in India and derive more value and greater insights from their existing networks. According to Cisco, the Internet of Everything total value at stake in India is $511 billion over the next 10 years, out of which the public sector value at stake is $116 billion, which includes creating smart cities and citizen services such as health and education.

Cisco and ITL recognize the unprecedented value to be created in the way in which many services, such as outdoor lighting, parking, mobility services, beacons, kiosks, location-based services, sensor-based water defences, physical infrastructure monitoring and controls, and smart energy grid services, are digitized. The joint digital solutions will use intelligent networks to transform the way cities and communities are designed, built and renewed as well as enable digitally empowered citizens through the availability of government services in real time, online and on mobile platforms. Cisco and ITL will embrace IoE strategies in existing solutions and radical new solutions to digitize the infrastructure sector, smart cities and smart villages in India.

Some of the solutions that will be jointly developed will focus on urban services and smart city infrastructure solutions such as traffic and transportation, public safety and security, command and control services, e-governance and a broader set of next generation urban services such as parking, lighting, traffic and citizen engagement services built on top of Cisco’s City Infrastructure Management. These solutions will help citizens access, in real time, infrastructure services such as traffic, parking, lighting, and water, as well as city operators to improve city infrastructure operations through sharing information in real time across agencies and systems.

Prem Saigal, Chairman, ITL, said, “We are pleased to collaborate with Cisco on the Internet of Everything to develop world-class solutions for India’s infrastructure sector and smart cities. We believe that ITL’s deep expertise in this space combined with Cisco’s Internet of Everything vision can help digitize India’s infrastructure sector and smart cities. There is a transformational opportunity to create world class infrastructure, build smart cities and digitally empower our citizens.”

Durga Prasad, CEO, ITL said, “In a digital India, there will be a transformation in the delivery of citizen services. Our collaboration with Cisco will bring the power of the Internet of Everything to greenfield and brownfield cities, communities and rural communities in India. Together we can enable digital solutions for the most essential citizen services such as healthcare and education.”