Airtel Business to Power 20 Mn Smart Meters for Adani Energy Solutions with Its Smart IoT solutions

Airtel Business – the B2B arm of Bharti Airtel, one of India’s leading telecommunications service providers – today announced that it will power over 20 million smart meters for Adani Energy Solutions Limited (AESL).

Airtel, through its robust nationwide communications network will deliver reliable and secure connectivity for all AESL’s smart meter deployments. In addition, Airtel’s transformative smart metering solutions that are powered by NB-IoT, 4G and 2G, will help AESL to ensure real-time connectivity and uninterrupted transfer of critical data between smart meters and headend applications. The solution will also come powered with Airtel’s IoT platform - ‘Airtel IoT Hub,’ which enables smart meter tracking and monitoring with advanced analytics and diagnostic capabilities in addition to real-time insights and services that empower customers with enhanced control over their energy consumption. Adani Energy Solutions has an order book of over 20 million smart meters from the power utilities of Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra and Uttarakhand.

Ganesh Lakshminarayanan, CEO - Airtel Business (India), said, “India’s smart metering programme is one of the most significant policy reform measures undertaken by the Government. These meters are critical building blocks for smart grids and fundamental enablers for the digitalization of the power sector. Airtel expects its NB-IoT technology to play a significant role in the Utilities space to connect and manage smart meters at scale with enhanced coverage, high reliability and security. We look forward to a long and fruitful association with the Adani Group, supporting them in their endeavours to digitize utilities”.

Kandarp Patel, CEO - Adani Energy Solutions Ltd., said, “India’s ambitious Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS) is transforming the way we deliver power, and AESL is proud to be at the forefront of this revolution. Our partnership with Airtel marks a critical step towards realising the vision of a smarter, more efficient grid for all. This strategic tie-up leverages the best of both worlds: our deep domain expertise in the T&D sector and Airtel's robust nationwide network and comprehensive suite of IoT offerings, including NB-IoT and 4G LTE. This powerful combination will enable us to seamlessly deploy our current order book of over 20 million smart meters across India, empowering millions of consumers with real-time consumption data and control, while simultaneously driving down inefficiencies in the distribution network”.

Headquartered in India, Airtel is a global communications solutions provider with over 500 million customers in 17 countries across South Asia and Africa. The company ranks amongst the top three mobile operators globally and its networks cover over two billion people. Airtel is India’s largest integrated communications solutions provider and the second largest mobile operator in Africa. Airtel’s retail portfolio includes high-speed 4G/5G mobile broadband, Airtel Xstream Fiber that promises speeds up to 1 Gbps with convergence across linear and on-demand entertainment, streaming services spanning music and video, digital payments and financial services. For enterprise customers, Airtel offers a gamut of solutions that includes secure connectivity, cloud and data center services, cyber security, IoT, Ad Tech and cloud-based communication. For more details, visit www.airtel.com/

Airtel Forays Into Smart Metering, Partners IntelliSmart for End-to-End IoT Solution for Smart Metering

Airtel Business enters into strategic partnership with IntelliSmart for powering up to 20 million smart meters

To offer end-to-end IoT solution for smart metering, including Cloud, Head End System and Analytics

Indian teleco giant Bharti Airtel has announced that it has formed a strategic partnership to power up to 20 million smart meters with IntelliSmart Infrastructure Private Limited, a leading smart metering and digital solutions provider. This marks Airtel’s foray into smart metering applications such as Head End System, Meter Data Management Systems along with Cloud and Analytics.

This is one of the largest such deal in the smart metering space in the country. It will significantly contribute towards Airtel’s fast-growing IoT deployment across sectors.

Airtel’s IoT proposition includes its proprietary platform the “Airtel IoT Hub” which will help the utility track and monitor these smart meters with advanced analytics while maintaining extremely high reliability augmented with telco grade security. Housed on Airtel’s own cloud network, the IoT hub will allow enterprise users the capability to connect and manage billions of devices and applications in a highly secure and seamless fashion.

Ganesh Lakshminarayanan – CEO, Airtel Business (India) said about the venture, “We have further strengthened our market leadership as the largest IoT enabler in the country. IoT is one of the fastest-growing business segments for Airtel Business and, with this deal, we are now strategically positioned to play a pivotal role in driving the Govt. of India’s vision of digitising 250 million conventional meters to smart meters. As we connect the devices across the country on our platform, we will exponentially grow our current IoT market share of 55.4% (as on Q1 FY23-24).”

Anil Rawal – MD & CEO, Intellismart Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd. had this to say, “India’s smart metering programme is one of the significant steps taken by the government to modernise the power distribution sector. Smart meters are critical building blocks for smart grids and a fundamental enabler of the digitalisation efforts of the power system. As we set forward to implement one of India’s largest portfolios of smart meters, we are relying on some of the most able and potent partners in the sector for various solution elements to support the successful deployment of our Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) solutions. We are confident that the on-boarding of Airtel as a strategic partner will be a significant step towards our goal of creating strong associations to strengthen our infrastructure solution with a resilient and secure cloud-hosted cellular communication network.”

The Government of India has the ambitious vision of replacing 250 million conventional meters with Smart Meters in the next five years as part of the AMI initiative. Airtel IoT aims to play a pivotal role in enabling this vision of the government with its unique capabilities. Power sector digitisation aided by the Government of India's push to usher in transparency and consumer friendly measures in this sector will see innovation such as Smart Meters become commonplace.

Headquartered in India, Airtel is a global communications solutions provider with over 500 Mn customers in 17 countries across South Asia and Africa. The company ranks amongst the top three mobile operators globally and its networks cover over two billion people. Airtel is India’s largest integrated communications solutions provider and the second largest mobile operator in Africa. Airtel’s retail portfolio includes high-speed 4G/5G mobile broadband, Airtel Xstream Fiber that promises speeds up to 1 Gbps with convergence across linear and on-demand entertainment, streaming services spanning music and video, digital payments and financial services. For enterprise customers, Airtel offers a gamut of solutions that includes secure connectivity, cloud and data center services, cyber security, IoT, Ad Tech and cloud-based communication. For more details visit www.airtel.com/

IntelliSmart Infrastructure Private Limited is India’s leading smart metering and digital solutions provider. It is a joint venture of Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) and National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), established with the core purpose of becoming the most preferred digital partner of the utilities. Our organisational culture is built on the core values of Integrity, Respect, Innovation and Sustainability, which influence our everyday endeavours and collective practices.

Missed Your Startup Updates? Here is Weekly News Roundup for You to Stay Tuned

This week was filled with new launches, renaming of startups, government announcements and how can we forget Google joining 1000 club. So in short, this week was a cheerful one for the startup world. And If you have missed any such happening, not to worry. We at IndianWeb2 brings for our reader a weekly dose of startup world.

Here are 10 news from startup ecosystem which you should not have missed:

A New Incubator for AgriTech Starups

Jindal Stainless Ltd. has formed the collaboration with the Japanese company Future Venture Capital Company Ltd. (FVCCL) to launch an incubation centre for agritech startups in India. The announcement was made at the ‘Krisi Unnati’ event organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in Bhubaneswar.

The Agritech Incubator Will Select 5–10 Startups for the first batch.

Israel Calling Women-Led Indian Tech Startups

Embassy of Israel in India has officially launched the fifth edition of the Start TLV Competition in India, on Thursday. The competition is for women-led startups (or at least one co-founder should be a female). In order to provide maximum benefits to all its participants, the Embassy of Israel has joined hands with the Indian government's Startup India programme, TiE-NCR, YES Bank & YES Global Institute and CNBC-TV18. Last day to apply to the competition is July 7th, 2017.

Shocking! An Entrepreneur Receives Notice To Cancel His Firm’s Web Identity

A Delhi-based entrepreneur has received an email by the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) seeking the cancellation of his company’s domain by the name of “Startupindia.in”. NIXI demands the cancellation of the domain as it is “misleading and is in violation with the Startup India program.” This email was sent by NIXI on a request from Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) as it is creating a problem for the government who is currently using the “startupindia.gov.in” for its Startup India initiative.

Freshdesk Renames Itself To Freshworks

One of India’s most well-funded and Software as a Service (SaaS) startups, Freshdesk has rebranded itself as Freshworks Inc. It is a new umbrella brand that will bring together the company’s growing suite of business software. Following breakout growth of the company’s customer support software, and the introduction of new products for IT Service Management (ITSM), customer relationship management (CRM) and cloud-based call centers, Freshworks products are designed to help companies better engage and communicate with their customers and employees. Precisely six years after launching Freshdesk, Freshworks has became a SaaS powerhouse with five offices in Chennai, San Bruno, London, Sydney and Berlin.

Google Lovers Here Comes The News Of Google Joining $1,000 Share Club

Alphabet, Google’s parent company has joined $1,000, a share club. And this news comes just six days after e-commerce giant Amazon accomplished the same milestone. The California-based company’s Class-A shares crossed the $1,000 per share threshold and climb as much as 1.13 percent to $1,007.4. The tech giant’s shares have surged by a quarter since the start of 2017. Alphabet’s stock success can be attributed largely to its continued dominance in the search engine market with Google search, and the ad revenue that comes along with it.

Launch Of Accelerator Programme In Bengaluru By NetApp

Us-based storage and data management company, NetApp has launched the NetApp Excellerator programme in Bengaluru. It is the company’s first startup nurturing initiative in India which is designed to help startups create world class products and innovative solutions that are market ready.

The applications, for the four-month programme are invited from startups working in the areas related to IOT, cloud, big data and analytics, machine learning, virtualization, data security, storage and data management, and other adjacent areas. Selected startups will receive technology and business mentorship along with the access to markets and investors.

Airtel Business Rolls Out Digital Platform To Serve SMEs & Startups

Bharti Airtel’s B2B ARM, Airtel Business has launched a dedicated digital platform to serve the growing connectivity, communication and collaboration requirements of emerging businesses, including SMEs and Startups. The platform will offer solutions to emerging enterprises to enable ease of business and faster time to market.

Airtel’s new digital platform will offer connectivity solutions to start with and will be integrated with more solutions periodically. Emerging businesses can now discover and buy connectivity plans in just three easy steps which will eliminates multiple layers of traditional processes to offer a fast and convenient way to identify connectivity solutions.

Good News For Indian Subcontinent. India Leaves China Behind In Ease Of Doing Business

According to the 2017 Global Retail Development Index (GRDI), India has emerged at the top position among 30 developing countries in ease of doing business and what came as a surprise was, India leaving China behind.

Yes, the study, which ranks the top 30 developing countries in the world for retail investment worldwide and analyses 25 macroeconomic and retail-specific variables, explained that India’s stupendous performance on the index can be attributed to relaxation of FDI rules introduced by the central government and a consumption boom being witnessed in the South Asian country. The consumption boom is courtesy the country’s growing middle class and rapidly increasing consumer spending.

Now Entering German Market Becomes Ease For Indian Startups, Here’s How

After the news of India leaving China behind in ease of doing business, here comes the another good news for Indian startups. According to a startup exchange pact, which is likely to designed between Govt of India’s Startup India and German Startup Association, Indian startups may soon get easier access to the German market.

A formal agreement between the two countries is being worked upon and is likely to be signed soon. The agreement will be signed between Startup India and the German Startups Association, which has about 650 startups and 50 partners, including corporate entities and venture capital firms, and coordinates with the United States, China, India and Israel.

Acquisition Time. Product Discovery Platform Shoppist Gets Acquire By Roofpik

Real estate property and broker review platform, Roofpik has acquired product discovery platform, Shoppist. The acquisition will strengthen Roofpik core team and bring personalized property recommendations to its users.

The acquisition was driven by Roofpik’s interest in Shoppist’s use of NLP technology, which helps consumers discover the most relevant products based on their user persona. With this technology, Roofpik will be able to validate reviews and generate meaningful analytics from over 5,000 user reviews that are currently live on the platform.

Israel’s OurCrowd Enters Into Strategic Collaboration With India’s Reliance Private Client

Jerusalem-based equity crowdfunding platform, OurCrowd has entered into a strategic collaboration with India’s Reliance Private Client, in which the Indian wealth management firm will be offering its clients the option of investing in the Israeli company’s funds and startup portfolio.

The agreement between Israel’s OurCrowd and India’s Reliance Private Client will aim to build the former’s presence in the Indian subcontinent. Once this aim is substantially conquered, the equity crowdfunding firm hopes that it will be possible for its portfolio companies to export their products to the Indian market.

Israel To Support Women Entrepreneurs, Launches Start TLV Competition In India

The Embassy of Israel has launched the fifth edition of the Start TLV Competition in India. The competition is a platform to support women entrepreneurs in the country and helping them in accelerating the growth of their startups. In order to provide maximum benefits to all its participants, the Embassy of Israel has joined hands with the Indian government’s Startup India programme, TiE-NCR, YES Bank & YES Global Institute and CNBC-TV18. Last day to apply to the competition is July 7, 2017.

The ‘StartupIndia.in’ website which belongs to Startup India Advisory Services Pvt Ltd was incorporated in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs in July 2015. The company, which provides advisory services to tech based entrepreneurs has now even put up a disclaimer on the website stating that it has no relation whatsoever with the Indian government’s Startup India initiative.

Airtel Launches New Digital Platform to Aid the Development of SMBs and Startups in the Country

Airtel Business, the B2B arm of Bharti Airtel, India’s largest telecommunications service provider, has rolled out a first of its kind dedicated digital platform to serve the growing connectivity, communication and collaboration requirements of Emerging Businesses, including SMEs and Startups. The digital platform will offer solutions to emerging enterprises to enable ease of business and faster time to market.

With growing digitisation, emerging businesses are looking at connectivity solutions that are available/activated in quick time and are highly reliable and scalable as per their requirements. Airtel Business aims to address the needs of this segment with its wide product portfolio that is already serving some of the largest businesses in the country.

Airtel’s new digital platform will offer connectivity solutions to start with and will be integrated with more solutions periodically. Emerging businesses can now discover and buy connectivity plans in just three easy steps- (i) Select a plan most suited for them; (ii) Pin their location to check feasibility; (iii) Place an order. This eliminates multiple layers of traditional processes to offer a fast and convenient way to identify connectivity solutions bringing down the total time required to order and deploy a solution by up to 70%.

Ashok Ganapathy, Director & CEO, Airtel Business, said, “Emerging enterprises are a key growth driver for the economy. Airtel, with its nationwide reach and enterprise solutions, is uniquely positioned to address the needs of the segment. Our new digital platform will help the enterprises get quick and easy access to our connectivity solutions, resulting in a speedier deployment and business scale up for them.”

With Airtel’s wide portfolio of digital solutions offered to customers on an unmatched Global network, enterprises can digitize their operations and revamp their customer service delivery & experience.

Airtel’s recently launched innovative offering, ‘Start-up in a Box’ – is a one stop shop start-up kit offering end-to-end connectivity solutions enabling start-ups to get the entire bouquet of digital services from Airtel under one roof.

Airtel Business is today a leading ICT service provider in India and works with most corporates in the country including 70-80% of the tech start-ups in India as their most trusted partner. Offering cutting edge integrated solutions, superior customer service and unmatched global reach to enterprises across the country, it is also one of the fastest growing business in Airtel’s portfolio in the domestic market.