Chirag Pathak, Senior Solution Architect, Mobiliya

It was in 1999 that the term the Internet of Things (IoT) was first coined by Kevin Ashton in a presentation to Proctor & Gamble. Ashton, a co-founder of MITs Auto-ID Lab also pioneered the use of RFID in supply chain management. Ever since, the connected device technology literally took the world by storm. Since 2009, from just 10 years of its conception, the world has had more Internet-connected devices than the total human population. Tech companies have latched on to IoT at jet speed to create consumer and enterprise products and platforms. Consumers too have adopted the technology and have come to be more dependent on connected devices than ever before, then be it in the form of home automation, for work or for their daily commute. With producers and consumers already in sync, it has been the government, the final cog that completes the triangulate, that has been the one dragging its feet, first in adopting and then in finding the right strategy to regulate IoT. MORE

Laetitia Gazel Anthoine
Founder & CEO of Connecthings

The foundation of the modern smart city is not concrete or steel, its information. Cities are implementing sensors and meters to constantly collect data on infrastructure operations ranging from water usage, air quality, traffic patterns and city services. Businesses analyze data to improve their engagements with customers. Residents rely on their smartphones for virtually every aspect of their daily lives. The primary challenge to building a smart city is turning all of that data into actionable information. This presents a potential financial windfall for app developers, but reaping those rewards requires addressing three key challenges: Ensuring apps are proactive in interacting with one another, establishing new partnerships with government officials, and embracing open wireless communications protocols and interoperability standards. MORE