Internet of Things could cut almost 1 lakh jobs in India: study

As many as 94,000 jobs could be lost in India by 2021 due to the increasing adoption of Internet of Things (IoT), says a report by consulting firm Zinnov.

Internet of Things basically means embedding everyday objects with sensors and chips to monitor and control them remotely using the internet. Therefore, it reduces the requirement of manpower to operate devices manually. It impacts people in jobs such as office administration, supervisory roles, installation and maintenance and support staff.

Companies across sectors such as automotive, telecommunications and healthcare are increasingly adopting IoT to increase efficiency and reduce cost. Indian corporate houses currently spend $1.6 billion on IoT technology, which is expected to go up to $3.8 billion by 2021, says the report.

Globally, the spend on Internet of Things currently by corporations is estimated at $120 billion and is expected to grow to $253 billion by 2021, says the report.

However, IoT will help in creation of new jobs such as data scientists, product managers, robot coordinators, industrial programmers, solution architect and network engineers, says the report. In India, IoT is expected to create as many as 25,000 such new jobs, it adds.