Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has signed a global partnership agreement in the industrial IoT space with General Electric (GE), to build applications on GE’s Predix platform. RIL will act as an independent software vendor, developing solutions for clients using Predix and offering them connectivity infrastructure through its Jio network. GE will be responsible for security, availability, and monitoring the platform for RIL and its customers. The partnership will target onboarding companies in oil & gas, agriculture, power, healthcare and telecom among others, for automating various aspects of business operations. Predix is an application platform that GE offers for developing industrial IoT solutions. It enables developers to build connected applications for industrial equipment, analyze data and provide real-time analytics. RIL’s partnership should essentially let companies hand over automating operations entirely to the company, which can use GE’s platform and its own mobile network for deploying solutions end-to-end. RIL has been investing heavily in IoT this year - in June it invested $16 million in IoT based technology startup NetraDyne, and said it would launch an IoT device for cars in September. Given that telecom operators operate networks critical to IoT delivery, it makes sense for these companies to invest heavily in the technology. Other telecom operators have been taking their first steps to deliver wider IoT coverage across the country as well. Earlier this month, Spice Mobility set up a fully owned IoT subsidiary, although it did not provide additional details. Last year, Vodafone partnered with JCB for M2M solutions, Aircel…
