Telecom Summit 2013

Telecom Summit 2013 on ICTs and Road Safety by MIT School of Telecom Management.

MIT School of Telecom Management, today organized a Telecom Summit 2013 on Information and Communication Technology and Road Safety. Corporate Delegates from across the Country had come to attend the event and to take part in its proceedings. The event was divided into expert panel discussions where various dignitaries shared their insight regarding the possible use of Information and Communication technology to reduce road accident fatalities leading to safer and efficient road travel.

MIT School of Telecom Management, today organized a Telecom Summit 2013 on Information and Communication Technology and Road Safety. Corporate Delegates from across the Country had come to attend the event and to take part in its proceedings. The event was divided into expert panel discussions where various dignitaries shared their insight regarding the possible use of Information and Communication technology to reduce road accident fatalities leading to safer and efficient road travel.

As part of the Telecom Summit 2013 on ICTs and Road Safety organized by MIT School of Telecom Management, Mr.Shashank Todwal, CEO, UMS Tech Labs was invited to be present as a panel member on the panel discussion on ‘ICTs and Improving Road Safety’.

The ‘ICTs and Improving Road Safety’ panel members discussed various ways in which Information and Communication Technologies are helping improve road safety by making road travel on the highways and inside the city more efficient and less stressful.

The first panel on ‘ICTs and Improving Road Safety’ included the following members

The above panel first discussed the challenges faced by road users every day and how each one of them are helping improve the road safety of fellow road users by employing ingeniously simple solutions to complex problems. As an example, Mr.Kiran Mankeshwar from Kat Technologies, Pune detailed about their low-cost system which automatically detects the type of vehicle approaching a toll-gate and display the appropriate toll amount to be paid to the driver and the toll operator. Apart from this, the system also automatically deducts the toll amount from an RFID-based smart-chip if such a system is installed in the approaching vehicle. Such an automated toll collection system ensures that there is no malpractice possible at any stage by the toll operator and it also ends up saving precious time at the toll-gate and hence easing the flow of traffic and reduces the chances of road rage among drivers waiting for their turn.

Mr. Shashank Todwal from UMS Tech Labs, Nasik illustrated how UMS Tech Labs is helping regular telephones talk to cloud-based systems and how such systems can help in case of emergencies. As part of a system developed by UMS, all the drivers of a particular logistics firm are provided with an IVR system they can call into in case they run into mechanical issues with their trucks. Since truck breakdowns can happen in the middle of nowhere, the existence of such a breakdown assistance system is essential to ensure driver and cargo safety. Such systems can also be implemented in other applications which can help save hassles for many more types of road users.

Mr. Hemant Joshi from Deloitte then talked about machine to machine communication where in a city driving situation, cars can talk to each other informing them about their presence just in case the driver fails to notice them in the way. Such communication can help ease millions of lives who are stuck in traffic as you read this text.

The second Panel of Discussion was on the topic ‘Vehicle Telematics - The Road Ahead’ with the following panel members:

This panel discussed the role of Vehicle Telematics in our lives currently and the business opportunities it presents. They also discussed the money aspect which the customers of today will be willing to pay for it and its practicality to them.

Mr.Parag Harolikar from Tech Mahindra, who had recently moved back to India after a decade settled in the US described the extremely low acceptance levels and limited usability of vehicle telematics systems of today and stressed the need to bring in seamless connectivity technology which will ensure much better acceptance, utilization and hence revenues attached to the same.

Mr. Shrikant Natarajan from Wipro Technologies on the other hand talked about the legal challenges faced by the Vehicle Telematics industry and why rapid growth in that segment of the ICT industry has not been possible. He also talked about steps that Wipro Technologies has been taking to take the industry forward and boost revenues and productivity of vehicle telematics making it a win-win situation for the industry, as well as the final customers.

This session was followed by a vote of thanks by the Guest of Honour, Mr. Jitendra Patil, Dy. RTO, Pimpri who stressed the industry to continue their efforts to make road travel all over India less stressful, faster and much safer than it is right now. Finally, the Chief Guest, Mr.Vishwas Pandhare in his inimitable style appealed to the audience to consider their safety on the road the highest priority and suggested small measures which everyone can take to make road travel safer and curb the loss of lives in road accidents in the long term.

The ICTs and Road Safety Summit arranged was, in the end, a tremendous success. It gave the students of MITSOT an insight into the efforts taken by the industry behind the scenes to ensure that the general public have a safe drive on their next road trip. They also got to know about the business opportunities presented when investing time, effort, money and technology towards improving road safety and saving lives.