Global information technology and consulting firm Wipro Limited has opened its Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Kochi, a city in southwest India's coastal Kerala state.
A company release said the center will be dedicated to developing innovative IIoT solutions in the industrial manufacturing, automotive, healthcare and pharmaceutical, consumer products and goods, and utilities space.
Leveraging artificial intelligence, blockchain and robotics, the lab will develop Proofs of Concept (POCs) and market-ready IoT solutions in an iterative agile development model, the company said.
Sivasankar, IT Secretary, Government of Kerala, who inaugurated the centre, welcomed the move, saying that the Indian state of Kerala has focused on technologies, which are critical to the Industry 4.0 concept and IoT is an integral part of this proposition.
“The State has endeavoured to address skill-related issues in emerging technology areas including IIoT by fostering a vibrant hardware-based start-up ecosystem and a skilling framework that connects technical institutions,” he said.
“With the rollout of the Kerala Fibre Optic Network (KFON), the ambitious fibre2home/enterprise/institution network in the next 18 months, local economy stakeholders will increasingly benefit from IoT deployments. So, Wipro’s decision to set up its third global IIoT lab in Kerala is a timely one and I hope it grows into a major development centre in a short period of time,” he added.
Jayraj Nair, Vice President & Global Head - IoT, Wipro Limited, said the IIoT Centre in Kochi is the company’s third such center after Mountainview, California and Bangalore.
He affirmed that over the years, Kerala has grown into a technology hub that offers access to a dynamic talent pool with an aptitude for new-age technologies.
“IoT presents a huge opportunity for industries in a hyper-connected world and we are confident that our end-to-end services and offerings will help our clients leverage IoT as part of their digital transformation goals,” he said.
Headquartered in Bengaluru, Wipro offers comprehensive engineering solutions for IoT adoption — sensors, connectivity, edge computing, storage, artificial intelligence, machine learning and analytics.
