Bangalore,  July 3, 2014: Electronic City, the Infotech heart of Bangalore  will become  Asia's first end-to-end ‘Internet of Things (IoT) Innovation Hub’.
The    Electronics City Industries Association (ELCIA)  has joined handa with Cisco who will  provide the network infrastructure and expertise for testing and production of electronic product prototypes for an IoT enabled smart city environment. 
Through the ‘Living Lab’, Electronic and Semiconducter Design and Manufacturing  start-ups and other electronic city companies can build solutions for City Infrastructure Management (CIM) including Smart Parking, Smart CCTV Surveillance, Smart Street Lighting, Smart Water Management/Leak Detection and Community Messaging. 
he project will utilize the Cisco  Smart+Connected  City WiFi solution that will help enable community WiFi services and allow access to public utility offerings. 
ELCIA will also embed Cisco network equipment comprising of access points, routers, switches, and other required hardware and software applications that will be connected to the smart city’s fibre-optic backbone network. 
The first phase of this smart city project at Electronics City and will serve as a replicable model for the rest of Bangalore as well as other cities in India, across the region and other emerging markets. 
This project is being undertaken as part of the Cisco Smart+Connected Communities concept that places technology at the heart of economic development and better quality of life in modern cities. The focus is on using the network to deploy digitally enabled transportation, healthcare, education, utilities, energy grid and real estate in cities.
Says Anil Menon - President, Smart+Connected Communities and Deputy Chief Globalisation Officer said, “India has always been at the core of our emerging market strategy, and we see this arrangement as a tremendous opportunity for us to demonstrate our global expertise in IoT enabled technology. According to our IoE value index, the potential value at stake in India is $34.8 billion, and this initiative underscores our commitment to build an effective ecosystem to enable Indian startups help realize this potential to the fullest, in turn creating employment opportunities and contributing to economic growth through innovation.”
Adds Kiron Shah, Chairman Electronic City Industrial Township Authority (ELCITA) said, “ELCIA together with ESDM and other electronic city companies have an opportunity to utilize the support of the Cisco Smart+Connected Communities team and collaborate with them during the sensor devices / applications development, testing, prototype manufacturing and field deployment phases by using the IoT Innovation Hub and Living Lab that will be set up in partnership with Cisco Systems”.
Cisco's engagement to 'smarten'  Bangalore began 5 years ago. Read our story from 2009