Exclusive Interview- Vishal Mehra, Co-Founder & VP, iRAM Technologies

In a one on one interaction with DQ Channels, Vishal Mehra, Co-Founder, and Vice President, iRAM Technologies talked about their Smart solutions which can help government and other solution providers to transform the ecosystem.

 Q 1. Tell us about iRAM Technologies and the solutions that it offers?

 iRAM Technologies is a product development and technology company with the most advanced solutions based on Internet of Things (IoT). The products and solutions from iRam are specially designed to make urban living more convenient and comfortable, aligned with the government’s Smart City initiative. iRam’s solutions are homegrown, developed in their manufacturing facility in Bengaluru.iRam is known for indigenous technology and entire solution from Field devices/controllers/ sensors, central management software, gateways, user mobile app, and POS app, etc. is designed and developed by iRam.

Some products and solutions from iRam’s are:

• Smart Parking Solutions
• Smart Poles
• Smart Lighting
• Smart Environment Solutions
• Customized Solutions

 Q2. How do you look at the market and key challenges for IoT based solutions/ products in India?

 IOT is a revolution in technology and over years has started becoming a reality now. In recent years, many smart IoT devices have already been introduced to the market. It is estimated that a number of connected devices have already crossed the world human population. In fact, it is estimated that worldwide almost 8-10Million connected devices are being added on a daily basis. The on-going dynamics and idea of pervasive computing will further lead to ever-expanding connected devices which are capable of sharing and capturing of data.

Similarly, Indian IoT market also has huge potential and is expected to grow across industries like manufacturing, logistics, automotive, transportation, Health care, government initiatives like smart cities, precision agriculture, etc. In fact, it is estimated that the growth of Technologies like IOT in this part of the world will be at a much higher pace due to inherent challenges of wired connectivity here.   According to the Deloitte NASSCOM IoT study, the IoT market is expected to reach $9bn by 2020. By the end of 2020, more than 1.9bn devices are expected to be connected in India which will lead to growing this market 31 times from the current market share. This is tremendous growth. It is good news for companies working in the IOT domain in India.

On top of this, synergistic working of Industry, Government and start-ups is further fuelling the adoption and clearing various customary hurdles & challenges of high growth new age technologies. Initiatives of government like Smart Cities is promoting the use of IOT &Smart components to establish its credibility & projected use cases of creating a smarter, efficient and safer world. Smart cities have given a major thrust to IOT in India which is benefitting many Young companies and even start-ups.

IOT has grown quickly and over years its fundamental technological components have matured and became cheaper but challenges of standardization, forward & backward compatibility for ubiquity and seamless integration will still require few years of technological advancement.

 Q3. Explain about iRAM’s Smart Parking Solution and the technology used in it?

 As more and more people move to cities, parking has become a major issue. Efficient parking is needed for decongestion of busy roads and market areas. IRAM smart parking solution is targeted to enhance the overall functioning of streets in the city.

By using field sensors and parking gateways occupancy of parking lots is tracked and monitored. This occupancy information is relayed to the users through mobile app and overhead display boards. In real time, it allows users to view, on a map, all the parking spaces that are available and their occupancy status. It also allows the users to pre-book the available slot and make the parking payments through the mobile app.

Above Parking, approach leads to invaluable citizen convenience in terms of ease of parking and decongestion of roads and ensures that personal motor vehicle users compensate the city for the use of valuable land on which they park their vehicles. Optimisation of Parking inventory and digital payments invariably boosts revenues of Municipal Corporation which adopts Smart Parking Technology.

This Smart parking solution works for On-Street, off-street and covered Multi-level car parking spaces. It offers multiple cash/cashless payment methods through debit card, credit card, Pre-paid cards, online wallets and of course cash. It also allows variable and demand-based parking fees.

Q4. Are you doing any project with the Government? How does it work?

We are currently working on smart parking projects for Bhubaneshwar, Kanpur, Nasik & Rajkot cities wherein we will be installing our IoT-based smart parking technology including parking gateways, parking management software, sensors, citizen. The project would be implemented over the next couple of months.

With this deployment, respective smart cities will be able to provide citizens convenience to find and reserve parking even before stepping out of their homes or offices. Citizens will be charged appropriately through certified Mobile Point of sale systems providing multiple options of payments or online payment gateways. We will envisage 80% cashless payment over next 2-3 years’ in parking domain which is otherwise predominantly a cash transaction.

On the other hand, smart cities will receive real-time data with respect to revenue collections, citywide parking occupancy. The analytic engine will help smart cities with informed decision making to plan for new investments in parking spaces at required areas in the city.

Q5. How many smart cities have you covered so far for installing Smart Parking and Smart Lighting solutions?

 We are currently working on smart parking projects for the three cities namely: Kanpur, Bhubaneshwar, Nasik, and Rajkot. We are implementing Smart Pole solution at Dahod which also includes Smart lighting component from IRAM. We are closely working with another 6 smart cities in India wherein our smart parking and smart lighting solutions are going to be implemented in this financial year.

Q6. Are you planning to showcase more products apart from what all you are offering now?

 We believe IOT adoption will significantly increase across domains. Currently, IRAM’s generally available IOT solutions viz. Smart Parking, Smart Poles, Smart Lighting and Environment sensors are aimed at smart cities. We are working to introduce optimised version of our solutions for the enterprise segment as well in the near future. Embedding blockchain and AI features & functionalities in current solutions is also in the plan. Apart from the above developments we have mid to long term technology development roadmap in Industrial automation and customised used cases in Telecom and Agriculture vertical.

Q7. What is your vision for the next 5 years? 

We will work together with our smart city ecosystem partners and the government agencies for the successful deployment of the current projects in hand. We have committed pipeline of another large six smart city projects to be implemented in this financial year.

Our vision is innovation-led growth. We will launch many new solutions for various verticals in India which will be based on IOT architecture.

Seeing the current growth curve in IOT, apart from technological roadmap our next logical progression is Global expansion, aggressive hiring, strengthening & expansion of partner ecosystem in India & abroad and yes, of course, Series B investments to fund all this.