Commercial Truck Fleet Insurance Application: Fill & Download for Free

Blockchain and IoT are a marriage made in heaven. Blockchain can enable and augment a variety of application scenarios and use cases for the IoT. No longer are such possibilities too futuristic – as we will discuss in this post.IoT Meets Blockchain...Blockchain and Internet Of Things (IoT) are easily the two biggest buzzwords in technology at the moment. The IoT encompasses the world of sensors, moving objects like vehicles and any device that has embedded electronics to communicate with the outside world – typically over an IP protocol.Combine that with Blockchain – a distributed ledger architecture (DLT) pattern. Combining the two can facilitate the entire lifecycle of IoT devices and applications and prove to be the glue for business processes to act on these events. Consider the following scenario – a private blockchain for a driverless connected car that will enable secure and realtime interactions from the car starting with car startup, driver authentication, smart contracts to exchange insurance and maintenance service information and realtime location info to track safety.Blockchain-Based Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) Fills in Five Critical Gaps in IoTIn such typical scenarios as the above, a Blockchain-based distributed ledger provides the trust, record of ownership, transparency, and the overall (decentralized) communication backbone for IoT.It needs to be noted that over the years specific IoT communities will develop their private blockchains that can store transactions in a highly secure manner for their specific applications. IoT architectures that relied on centralized servers to collect and store data will be able to write to local ledgers that will synch with other localized ledgers to maintain a single yet secure copy of the truth.All IoT transactions on the Blockchain will be timestamped thus ensuring that they are available essentially – for posterity.Next up, the true innovation of Blockchain – digital agreements or Smart Contracts. Smart contracts can then be applied to the data in the blockchain to enforce business conditions on the IoT interactions.Finally, one of the big knocks against IoT has been the relative lack of security standards. Blockchain due to its background on high-end cryptography helps with IoT security. A future post will discuss such a reference architecture.With that background, let us consider low hanging use cases across key IoT applications in verticals.Industrial manufacturing: The manufacturing industry is moving to an entirely virtual world across its lifecycle, ranging from product development, customer demand monitoring to production to inventory management. As devices and systems become more interactive and intelligent, the blockchain can serve as a plant level, regional level, and global supply chain level ledger. This will dramatically cut costs and drive more efficient just in time (JIT) processes enabling better usage of plant capacity and improved operational efficiencies.Connected and driverless vehicles: The Connected Vehicle enables the car or truck to behave as a giant Smart App. With the passing of every year, vehicles have more automatic features builtin – ranging from navigation, roadside assistance, etc. Blockchain will enable these devices to be tracked on the digital mesh thus enabling easy inter-vehicle communication as well as automatic tracking of fleet insurance policies, vehicle registration renewals, etcTransportation: IoT + Blockchain = Connected Transportation. A range of scenarios can be imagined around a connected mesh of vehicles that exchange everything from traffic information to avoiding gridlocks and bottlenecks. Extending this to global trade, this mesh can incorporate shipping, air freight as well as ground transportation to track shipments.Public infrastructure and smart cities: Smart devices are already being used to track the health of bridges, roads, power grids, etc. Blockchains can be used to interconnect these to share efficiencies and to conduct maintenance, forecast usage trends for power usage, pollution, etc. Another key area of usage would be to help remote areas such as forests to monitor natural incidents and to prevent catastrophic occurrences like large scale forest fires or farm infestations by blight etc.Financial services and insurance: Banks could use Blockchain backbone to track IoT enabled devices like ATMs, remote tellers to conduct maintenance. Insurance companies that have already started deploying drones to verify property claims in remote areas can use the Blockchain to validate and verify claims.Home and commercial real estate management: Using sensors deployed on both homes and commercial buildings helps with automated home and office monitoring. The use cases will diverge across both areas but many can be built on having a foundational distributed ledger capability.Smart contracts: Blockchain-based cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin enable two business capabilities at a high level – a) transfer of cryptocurrency and b) business rules that specify when the payout has to happen – typically once conditions that have been met – which satisfy fulfillment of contractual terms.These rules are termed “Smart Contracts.’ Smart contracts are applicable across all of these business areas and can be used to keep track of business rules and take actions based on thresholds that have been met or have been breached. E.g A driverless vehicle that has failed inspection can be grounded, non-payment of homeowners' insurance can trigger an alert to the homeowner's housing society, etc.Retail: Retailers are already using IoT devices and endpoints to help across the business lifecycle – ranging from the shop floor to tracking product delivery to store, to understand their customer traffic patterns, wearables, etc. The vision of the Connected Store with IoT enabled shelves, an ability for customers to perform more actions using smartphone apps to reducing checkout times with self-checkout, etc are all taking place. The Blockchain can augment all of these use cases by providing the critical link between retailer and consumer in a way that it automates away the middle man- be it a credit card issuer, or a central server. For instance, consumers can store their product preferences, sizes in a Blockchain and the retailer can access these seamlessly and securely.Does your IoT devices leverage blockchain distribute ledgers? Are you improving security with better customer experiences with blockchain-based IoT solutions? Are you performing IoT and blockchain pilots in your industry where the speed of assets is critical? he terms IoT is mainly used for devices that wouldn't usually be generally expected to have an internet connection, and that can communicate with the network independently of human action. For this reason, a PC isn't generally considered an IoT device and neither is a smartphone -- even though the latter is crammed with sensors. A smartwatch or a fitness band or other wearable device might be counted as an IoT device, however. Even dog tags! A project that I know implemented IoT tach into a word of pets. The project is called Pawtocol.This project is designed for the connected world and will launch the platform with it's first IoT device, Blockchain Dog tags. It will help you collect data about your pets' medical records, the food you feed them, even the amount of exercise they get. If your pet is ever lost anyone with access to a phone will be able to see pertinent data about your pet, such as foods to avoid, where it lives and the reward for its safe return.Pawtocol dog tags are readable at a distance and transmit exactly what the owner wants people to know. This can include the pet's name, any medical conditions, return instructions and even a reward using blockchain technology.Finally, it needs to be mentioned that there still exist critical gaps in Blockchain technology – whether one considers the public Blockchain on which Bitcoin is built or technologies like Etherium – in terms of interoperability, security standards, throughput, and mature developer tooling. These will need to be worked on over the next few quarters before we see production-grade IoT deployments on Blockchains.

Thanks for A2AAshok Leyland serving our country for 71 yearsWhat do Ashok Leyland do?Trucks : They built trucks for all business needs.Ashok Leyland has grown over these last 70 years, from a company assembling 350 Comet trucks in the year 1951, to a company that has registered sales of more than 1,00,000 medium and heavy domestic truck sales in the domestic market, during last year.Today we boast of having at least one touch point every 50kms, across the length and breadth of the country. The quality and the skill at our touchpoints is reflected in the recently conducted 3rd party customer satisfaction survey, wherein, Ashok Leyland topped the commercial vehicles category at the dealer points.In this long journey, Ashok Leyland has moved on from being a single model manufacturing company, to an organization which today feels proud at offering more than ~500 truck variants, catering to almost each segment/application. The continuous growth in Ashok Leyland truck market share over the last few years is an ample testimony of our products’ reliability, performance and customer preference. Our customer base has continuously grown, and today we are the preferred truck brand for all segments, be it Tippers, multi axles, tractors or intermediate commercial vehicles.The Indian automotive industry is on the cusp of entering the digital age, with the onset of digital technology and electric vehicles. We are committed to keeping our customers and channel partners ahead of competition by continuously developing solutions to improve operational efficiency of their trucks.Buses:Ashok Leyland, the market leader in buses in India & 4th largest bus manufacturer in the world in volume terms, facilitates millions of people in getting to their destination every day through its wide product range of 18 to 80 seater buses- truly living it up to its ethos of serving national interest through every business venture.In FY18, the company continued to strengthen its product offering by migrating all bus products to BS4 with iEGR (intelligent Exhaust Gas Recirculation) technology and making them more environment and customer friendly. iEGR has better fuel efficiency than BS3 engines and does not need urea for emission control, leading to better savings for our customers. Developed by capturing customer voice in terms of feel, emotion, safety and comfort, our buses cover the entire range with different floor heights for varied applications for travel within the city, intercity and special applications like airport shuttle. As market leader, we have introduced tubeless tyre in our entire product range for superior comfort and safety along with enhancing the mileage, resulting in savings to our customers.We offer our buses in Intermediate Commercial vehicles (ICV), and Medium Commercial vehicle (MDV) segments of the market. In ICV, our brand Sunshine dedicated to school application, symbolizes safe journey and happy memories to the school children. In MDV, our Viking brand continues to promise versatility and reliability. 166” (wheel base) Cheetah was launched for our customers for their travel suited for hilly terrain. We continued to work alongside progressive State Transport Undertakings (STU’s) to provide safe and comfortable public transport solutions by supplying about 3000 buses last year.Keeping in line with customer expectation, we offer stylish, comfortable, durable, reliable & safe fully built buses from our plants in Alwar, GTVS Trichy (Joint venture of AL and TVS) and Ras-al-khaimah (RAK). To address the increasing demand of fully built buses, a new bus plant is being constructed at Andhra Pradesh.Light Commercial Vehicles:The Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV) vertical completes Ashok Leyland’s presence in the Commercial Vehicle space as a full-fledged CV player, offering customer solutions from 2.5 T to 55T and 13 seats to 79 Seats. The LCV Business also helps the company de-risk from the usual business cyclicity, associated with Medium & Heavy Commercial vehicles.Rising fuel costs pinch our customer’s earnings and hence we have invested in superior engine technology and design which delivers best in class fuel efficiency. We have focused on superior ergonomics, driver comfort and safety, so our vehicles are not just meant for delivering goods, but also provide a superior experience. We were the first to launch AC cabins in our DOST (2011) and PARTNER (2014). We were the first to make power steering popular in small commercial vehicles. We have been robustly growing our After-Market presence, with more than 495 dedicated LCV touchpoints and 128 SAS Vans (Service at Site Vans). 14% of vehicle repairs happen through SAS Vans at customer door steps.This holistic approach is ensuring at every stage our customers Win and thereby ensuring they experience ‘Aapki Jeet Hamari Jeet’ in its true sense.We achieved a significant milestone with the rollout of the 200,000th LCV from its manufacturing facility in Hosur, Tamilnadu. Achieving the 200,000 mark in less than 6 years bears testimony to how customers find value in the offerings from the house of Ashok Leyland.Defence:For a vehicle to wear Armed Forces camouflage, it must demonstrate extraordinary levels of strength and endurance in extreme conditions, worthy of the soldier who will take the wheel. That Ashok Leyland manufactures Defence vehicles is a nod to our engineering capability. That we have earned the trust of India’s armed forces–one of the largest in the world–is a testament to the performance, durability and reliability of these vehicles, across a staggering range of terrain, temperature and operational conditions.Ashok Leyland is a complete mobility solution player for the Armed Forces.Our association with India’s armed forces spans more than 40 years, during which we have pulled our weight to secure borders, carry supplies and help soldiers through some of the harshest terrain and, occasionally, even into battle.The Stallion, our flagbearer brand, represents the largest fleet of vehicles in an armed force, anywhere in the world. With over 70,000 vehicles produced, the Stallion is synonymous with an army vehicle.Equipped for military payloads ranging from 2.5 to 30 tons and a full range of special applications, Ashok Leyland vehicles also bolster the defence forces of governments across the world and have also supported the United Nations in its peacekeeping efforts.Ashok Leyland vehicles are globally recognised as an asset in defence logistics. Every one of our machines is infused with the very qualities we salute in the soldier–extraordinary endurance, power under pressure, rock-solid stability in hostile terrain and weather and above all, reliability.Power Solutions:Service:Higher down time, inefficiencies in the system and higher maintenance costs can cripple day-to-day operations. Standard service network and policies have therefore become part of basic hygiene for vehicular maintenance. However, in a relentlessly demanding business, a customer needs more than policy. He’s looking for a promise.Our service network and offerings revolve around powering your success. This is why they are designed to ensure highest up time and total continuity in business–no break, no interruption–and when there is a break, the quickest possible turnaround at the lowest possible cost.Ashok Leyland brings together comprehensive coverage, proactive service and rapid response in a wide gamut of services that include everything our stakeholders might require–from reliable Annual Maintenance Contracts to user-friendly insurance, intuitive maintenance programmes and the latest technology innovations in Telematics.Spares:In the quest for higher uptime and greater efficiency, the onus is not on any one or a group of aggregates, but on every single part of the vehicle. Ashok Leyland spares no efforts in ensuring the highest uptime and operational performance for your vehicles.Each of the nearly 89,000 parts that go into making an Ashok Leyland product is the result of years of research and rigorous quality standards, to deliver durability, And when it comes to spares, all of these parts, without exception, are made available to the customer.So, Ashok Leyland manufactures from heavy vehicles to light vehicles, trucks to buses, defence to school Vehicles. From power solution to spares and services.Source: Ashok Leyland’s official websiteAt one click of the button, you will get the detail quote of Ashok Leyland:Source: Fyersonehttp://www.motorindiaonline.in/commercial-vehicles/ashok-leyland-addressing-market-challenges-with-innovation/Ashok Leyland is ready to migrate to BS-VI, says Vinod Dasari - OverdriveAshok Leland is ready to take the new challenges ahead.Hope that helps and thanks for reading.Good Luck.

According to a recently released TechSci Research report, “India Internet of Things (IoT) Market Opportunities & Forecast, 2020”, the IoT market in India is projected to grow at a CAGR more than 28% during 2015 - 2020.However, there are some voices that warn that IoT is today overhyped, and that it will take a few more years for the real use cases and benefits of IoT to become visible. Some of this scepticism is driven by the fact that we are yet to see real applications of IoT at and end consumer level. Use cases such as “refrigerators that order milk from the super market once the levels come down” - are still restricted to prototypes and academic discussions. Apart from a few fitness related wearable devices, automobile telematics (which in many ways is less “visible” to consumers), and “smart home” systems, we are yet to see other major consumer IoT adoption stories.IoT in IndiaLast year, Government of India announced that it has plans to create a $15 billion internet of things market in the country by next five years. This did create some spike in the interest around IoT. However, IoT is yet to create any major buzz in India. Even the mainstream media has not started talking about IoT in any major way, and the vendor activity has also been subdued to a large extent.[Government of India’s IoT Announcement: Department of Electronics and Information Technology, has come out with a draft IOT Policy document which focuses on following objectives:To create an IoT industry in India of USD 15 billion by 2020. It has been assumed that India would have a share of 5-6% of global IoT industry.To undertake capacity development (Human & Technology) for IoT specific skill-sets for domestic and international markets.To undertake Research & development for all the assisting technologies.To develop IoT products specific to Indian needs in all possible domains.Consumer IoT adoption would be slow in IndiaDue to various challenges, consumer IoT adoption would be slow in India. Some of these IoT adoptions challenges (data security, lack of standardisation, data ownership issues, ROI, etc.) are really not unique to India. Apart from these challenges, IoT in India, especially in the consumer space, would need to reckon with a few other hurdles. These are:Internet availability / bandwidth / reliability: Even today Internet connectivity is a major challenge in India. For consumer IoT adoption – this would remain a major challenge.Cost of IoT enabled systems and devices: Even products such as wearable fitness bands are yet to take off in India, and price is a key reason. Indian consumers are very selective in terms of where they would invest when it comes to technology.Lack of vendor activity: Global vendors, often mistakenly, assume that Indian consumers are “not ready” for advanced products. This is very much evident in the IoT space, with hardly any kind of vendor activity today. This in turn has led to low awareness levels of IoT devices and systems among consumers.Overall infrastructure challenges: Apart from internet the supporting infrastructure such as smart grids, traffic systems, etc., are far from being ready for IoT.Commercial IoT has much better prospects in IndiaThe challenges listed above for consumer IoT adoption becomes less of an issue when it comes to commercial space. It is not that these challenges (especially internet connectivity, and cost of IoT) are not there in the commercial space; they can just be more easily addressable by commercial organizations. Even globally, IoT adoption and usage is much higher in the commercial space.Some of the areas where commercial IoT adoption can grow in India are:Logistics, fleet telematics: Logistics as a sector is expected to grow rapidly in the coming years in India. Regulatory changes such as GST implementation would drive consolidation and growth. The booming ecommerce sector is another key driver for the logistics industry. With growth and consolidation, logistics companies would be looking to better leverage technology to drive efficiency in operations and this where IoT could play a key role. Tata Motors as begun putting sensors into its trucks, so that fleet owners can get information on how the vehicles are used, and even predict potential breakdowns. Vendor community also see to be interested in the IoT opportunities in the logistics space. Cisco and L&T Technologies, announced a tie-up in September 2014, to explore IoT opportunities in transportation and other infrastructure sectors.Smart cities and utility services: With the new government coming out with an IoT policy, and the stated plans of developing smart cities, there is significant scope for growth of IoT in multiple government and utility services. There are signs of some vendor activity also. Late last year, Tech Mahindra announced a tie-up with Bosch Software Innovations, to develop an ecosystem to enable innovative solutions for the connected world and connected enterprises.Industrial automation / supply chain / inventory management: Indian manufacturing sector has seen a significant growth in IT adoption. IoT applications for the manufacturing sector whether it is automation or supply chain management would be a key growth areas in India.Other areas of possible growth include insurance sector, where some of the insurance companies in India have started experimenting with IoT, primarily in the automobile insurance space; and the healthcare sector which is growing very rapidly and modernizing fast.IoT will continue to evolve in the coming months and one can expect significant growth in the long run. However, reliable internet connectivity and overall supporting infrastructure will be a key prerequisite for this growth. If things fall into place, IoT has the potential to provide substantial benefits.