Indian Open Technology Alliance is a co-creation platform where anyone can propose, collaborate, build and share, a complete ecosystem for creation from concept to product. Our FAQ provides more information

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INDIAN OPEN TECHNOLOGY ALLIANCE – FAQ
Q. How would you describe the work of Indian Open Technology Alliance (IOTA) in one
sentence?
A. IOTA is a co-creation platform where anyone can propose, collaborate, build and
share, a complete ecosystem for creation from concept to product.
Q. How would you describe the work of Indian Open Technology Alliance (IOTA) in one
paragraph?
A. IOTA aims to develop a strong and sustainable ecosystem of innovation based on
open source hardware. We understand that Indian entrepreneurs, start-ups and small
industries are stifled by high cost of capital, infrastructure deficit and deteriorating calibre of
fresh engineering and science graduates compared with global peers. Open Source
hardware provides us a unique opportunity to innovate faster at a lower cost, address the
needs of the country, and contribute to the global community. IOTA aims to hasten the
innovation process and enhance India’s potential.
Q. How would you describe the practical motivation of IOTA in detail?
A. India has deep resources on many levels but is not primed and organised in way that
can contribute to our national growth. We are losing competitiveness at an alarming rate
and our manufacturing sector is losing sheen. We have to enhance our capabilities to
remain relevant in the global stage and become self sufficient, sustainable and not import
dependant. IOTA aims to be the platform to address these concerns.
Q. Do you have the metrics to justify that we are losing competitiveness on a global scale?
A. The Global Innovation Index which studies the human factor in Innovation is
released every year and ranks countries based on their innovation capabilities. India was
ranked 64th
position in 2012 and was 66th
in 2013. In the year 2014 India was ranked 76th
.
Our manufacturing sector’s contribution to GDP has also declined and is well documented.
National Employability Report focussing on Employability of Engineering Graduates and
India Skills Report reveal that standards needs to be raised as high percentage of Indian
engineering graduates are not employable.
Q. Please explain how India has deep resources.
A. Nature has blessed India with good climate, vast arable land, water resources and
minerals. We have a very successful, dynamic NRI (Non-Resident Indians) community that is
in the cutting edge of technology. The willingness to contribute to the upliftment of India is
very evident among the NRI community. We also have a successful talent pool of software.

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We also have a good institutional framework in our educational system. Indian Jugaad or
frugal engineering is well known, our small industries are very dynamic, resourceful and
have created more jobs and contributed to GDP growth than the corporate sector. We just
need a platform to link all our resources to succeed in the open hardware revolution.
Q. What is Open Source Hardware Revolution?
A. Hardware used to be capital intensive, technology heavy with long development
time and expensive distribution. Hardware is today becoming easier with lowering cost of
fabrication, lean manufacturing methods and simplified distribution. New open source
hardware sharing methods like programmable microcontrollers are revolutionizing
electronics merging software and hardware. Similar to open source software for computers
this ability to share designs has resulted in rapid reduction in costs and skyrocket
innovation.
Q. Can IOTA develop India’s capability to compete with the modern industrial system?
A. To quote Jim Whitehurst, CEO of Red Hat – ‘’Open source software created new
business models enabled by the linux platform, namely cheap innovation, quick scale out
and mass collaboration, is directly responsible for the success of top Web 2.0 companies
including Google, Facebook and Amazon”. Many have tried to replicate Silicon valley in their
countries and have not succeeded because they have failed to create a vibrant open source
community. IOTA believes Open Source Hardware can contribute to India’s economy and we
are keen on creating a vibrant open source hardware community consisting of curious
students, graduates, industrialists and more importantly people with passion, experience
and knowledge in hardware and software keen to contribute for India’s development.
Q. What licensing terms are you adopting in IOTA?
A. Indian Open Technology Alliance (IOTA) and all its projects and products will be
operating on the terms of CC-BY-SA 4.0 License. We do not encourage other license terms as
it stifles innovation and wide adoption.
Q. Why is sustainability and agricultural equipments an important agenda of IOTA?
A. India has the highest degraded agricultural lands among Asia Pacific countries - 66 %
of cultivated land. About 70% of the area under cultivation is heading in a direction where it
will become incapable of supporting agriculture. India is the world’s largest user of
groundwater for agriculture in the world. Increased dependence on groundwater irrigation
is unsustainable due to high rates of documented depletion of groundwater. Groundwater
levels are already in a critical condition in most regions. We have polluted our air, water and
our urban living space is becoming contaminated. We need to embrace sustainability to
survive.
Conventional plow-based farming leaves soil vulnerable to erosion and promotes
agricultural runoff. Recent advances in crop production technologies like no-till agriculture
now helps us to preserve soil organic content, reduce soil erosion, enhance soil fertility and
water holding capacity with low labour costs. Our challenge is in addressing the high

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equipment costs, steep learning curve hindering the widespread adoption of no-till
practices. Of 525 million farms worldwide, roughly 85 percent are less than five acres. The
overwhelming majority of these small farms (87 percent) are located in Asia. The adoption
of no-till farming in these regions, where the potential benefits are the greatest, is
practically negligible. Our country needs precision agriculture equipments like no-till
precision planters, precision sprayers, precision harvesters, to transform open field
agriculture. Imagine a scenario where farmer do not plough their land, sowing is done
precisely with GPS guidance and mechanized spraying is done by auto steered tractors and
precision harvesters harvest the crop. Our challenge is in reengineering these existing
technologies and making it affordable and reliable. We need affordable hydroponic fodder
production systems, pivot irrigation, sugarcane harvester, farm utility vehicle and precision
agricultural equipments.
Q. Can businesses run profitably using open source hardware?
A. Yes many companies like Arduino, Adafruit, Raspberry Pi, OpenROV, DIYdrones have
successfully embraced open source hardware and are very profitable. Lars Zimmermann has
written an interesting chapter on open hardware business in a book titled Building Open
Source Hardware - edited by Alicia Gibb, the founding president of Open Source Hardware
Association. The chapter is made available as free download and can be downloaded here
(http://bloglz.de/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Business-Building-Open-Source-Hardware-
Gibb-Zimmermann.pdf)
Q. Why IOTA is started in a Tier-2 city – Coimbatore?
A. Coimbatore is one of the top ten industrialized districts of India and is a major player
in pumps, motors, gears, wet grinders, auto-components and has a strong culture of
manufacturing based start ups. Coimbatore also has a vibrant educational and health
infrastructure and is well known for its entrepreneurial spirit. The industry is currently in
transition due to commoditization and needs to embrace futuristic technologies to remain
relevant. IOTA believes a vibrant and thriving community is essential for the success of open
source hardware and Coimbatore has all ingredients essential to start this open hardware
revolution in India.
For More FAQ’s regarding Open source hardware and open source movement
Links
1. http://www.oshwa.org/faq/
2. http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/FAQ
3. https://wiki.creativecommons.org/FAQ
4. http://freedomdefined.org/FAQ
5. http://opensource.org/faq

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Resources For Open Hardware as a Business
1. http://bloglz.de/full-business-chapter-of-the-book-building-open-source-hardware/
2. https://openhardwarelabs.com/open-source-hardware-pricing/
3. https://openhardwarelabs.com/calculator/
4. http://makingsociety.com/2013/05/10-steps-for-creating-a-hardware-company/
5. http://makingsociety.com/
6. http://bloglz.de/category/open-source-hardware/