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NEC Laboratories India

Industrial Solutions for Better Society

November 2, 2021

About Us and Our Work

NEC Laboratories India (NLI) was established in 2018 as the sixth overseas research center of NEC Corporation. Our primary focus is on research and development (R&D) of social solutions for and digital transformation in developing countries such as India.
Since our establishment, we have been pursuing R&D of open innovations and agile solutions while learning from the spirit of “Jugaad” through the collaboration with top universities, governmental agencies, and enterprise partners.
Furthermore, we frequently host hackathons to collect and utilize great ideas of young and smart engineers and entrepreneurs in India.
We are currently developing several social solutions based on advanced AI and system platform technologies to improve logistics, transportation, healthcare, and productivity in the primary industry.

  • 1)
    Logistics solutions: We are working on automation of container terminal gates in order to connect various stakeholders and improve productivity of the entire value chain. This allows for various automated tasks at gates, such as container number tracking, security and safety check, and damage inspection.
  • 2)
    Transportation solutions: We developed a MaaS (Mobility as a Service) solution to realize end-to-end mobility services by connecting multiple transportation modes. Predictive analysis and predictive optimization are used to minimize the waiting time for transit and to maximize the revenue for mobility service providers. The solution will contribute to mitigate traffic congestion in urban areas and to improve the traffic economy.
  • 3)
    Healthcare solutions: We are developing a remote diagnosis solution for CVD (cardiovascular disease) to help physicians in the countryside, where there is a shortage of medical professionals. CVD is one of the most deadly diseases in India. Our solution will improve the equality in healthcare between urban and suburban areas.

Primary Areas of Focus

  • Video object recognition
  • Recognition of characters printed on various surfaces
  • Predictive analysis, predictive optimization
  • Time-series signal analysis/understanding
  • Causality analysis of incidents
  • Risk analysis, risk prediction

Our Visions and Goals

NLI is developing digital transformation solutions to transform the industries in India and other countries.
For our applied research and social solution development, we use the AI and system platform technologies invented by the NEC laboratories and implement the solutions in India through open innovation collaboration with top Indian universities, governmental agencies, and enterprise partners.
Our goal is to enhance the efficiency and productivity of the entire value chain in an industry, rather than improving only a part of the existing industry. Such comprehensive improvement will drive innovation across the entire society and be in line with the SDG’s targets.
We have identified significant social indexes and are focused on improving them using advanced technologies and verifying the solutions in a real-world environment with partners in India.
For example, in developing logistics solutions, we employed the Tracking & Tracing and Timeliness scores among the LPI (Logistics Performance Index) created by the World Bank. We also use the LEADS index proposed by the Indian government. For healthcare solutions, we aim to improve CVD care service given the mid-term healthcare target of the Indian government, i.e., improved primary care and CVD care in suburban areas.
These are just examples of NLI’s goals.

Since our establishment, we have been working on identifying social issues and developing solutions for these issues in three industries: logistics, transportation, and healthcare.
NLI will extend its activities into three directions in the future:

  • 1)
    We will enhance our existing solutions to provide the users with additional values.
  • 2)
    We aim for developing other social solutions including those for food issues. We have already identified some productivity issues in agriculture and aquaculture and started development of AI to address these issues, which is expected to resolve problems with water quality monitoring, nutrient control, and early disease detection. NLI will make solutions that are easy-to-use for small- to mid-scale producers. The solutions will result in stable production and safe delivery of food. Through R&D of such social solutions, we will contribute to a safer, more secure, more efficient, and fairer society.
  • 3)
    We will systematize the solutions to make them easy to implement in other regions. We will provide solutions not only for developing countries but also for developed countries.

Location

Floor 5th, Tower C, IBC Knowledge Park, 4/1, Bannerghatta Main Rd, Bhavani Nagar, S.G. Palya, Bengaluru, Karnataka