Government unveils roadmap for M2M communications to boost Make in India, Digital India

NEW DELHI: The government today unveiled the roadmap for machine-to-machine (M2M) communications which will act as a reference document for all such deployments and enable it to realise policy goals of ‘Make in India’ and ‘Digital India’.

“M2M has great potential to transform India and it is going to be key enabler for the government vision of Digital India, Make in India and proposed smart cities in India,” Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said today while releasing the roadmap.

M2M communications or ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) is a network of devices that communicate among themselves using internet or wireless connectivity without human intervention.

“The adoption of M2M based applications in areas like healthcare, tele-education, smart grid, smart building, smart city etc have enormous potential to boost the socio-economic development of the country,” Prasad added.

By using M2M technology farm land can be made smart by putting sensors which will tell when to do watering by measuring soil humidity level, small wearable devices can measure vital parameters of a patient like temperature, blood pressure, pulse rate etc, the roadmap document said.

The government will take a number of initiatives to proliferate M2M ecosystem in the country such as releasing national M2M numbering plan this year, formulation of M2M service provider registration process, issuance of guidelines for M2M specific KYC, SIM transfer, international roaming among others, the document said.

Other issues towards M2M communications include specific M2M standards which are in line with global standards, KYC norms for M2M services, allocation of spectrum for M2M last mile connectivity, privacy issues and data protection.

The government will also include M2M devices in Preferential Market Access policy that gives weightage to indigenously made products. It also has plans to frame suitable radiation guidelines for M2M devices based on research and studies by relevant bodies.

M2M has potential to bring new options of local manufacturing for devices, sensors for different sectors, R&D and related services, which will boost manufacturing sector and employment generation, it added

The Department of Telecom will work on all the aspects regarding M2M communications and will also hold inter- ministerial consultations as per the requirements.