The IoT Innovation Award
IoT is judged on what happens after deployment — power budgets, connectivity gaps, firmware in the field and devices that must work for years without a visit. This category recognises sensing, connected products and industrial IoT that survived contact with reality.
- Independent jury
- 250
- Innovations evaluated
- 4,500+
- Star rating
- 1–5
- Running since
- 2010
Academics, scientists, officials, investors
Across seventeen editions
Every nominee earns an AGBA Innovation Star
India’s longest-running innovation award
Three categories sit close to data. This is the one about method and evidence.
Most nominations that fail here fail because they were in the wrong category. Read across before you write anything.
Innovation in IoT
Sensing, connected products and industrial IoT, judged on what happens after the pilot.
This category
Innovation in Telecom / 5G / 6G
Networks, spectrum and the connectivity layer these devices depend on.
Innovation in Smart City
Urban systems — mobility, utilities, safety and civic services at city scale.
Who should enter
- Industrial IoT with measured plant, fleet or asset outcomes
- Connected consumer products where hardware and service were designed together
- Sensing and instrumentation innovation, including low-power and long-life design
- Fleet management, tracking and utility metering at scale
- Device management, over-the-air updates and security across large deployments
What this award recognises is a deployment that holds — units in the field for years, updates that land, data someone acts on. A working prototype is not the same thing.
If the innovation is in the network itself, enter Innovation in Telecom / 5G / 6G. If it is a city-scale civic system, enter Innovation in Smart City.
What the jury looks for
- Problem definition & market opportunityWhether the innovation solves a real problem, backed by evidence and a measurable impact on its target audience.
- InnovativenessNovelty and uniqueness — new technology, functionality or business model — measured against what already exists, including IP.
- Market potential & impactSize and growth of the addressable market, competitive landscape, and scalability across geographies.
- Social impact & sustainabilityContribution to society and the environment, including social responsibility and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
These are the same four criteria — problem definition, innovativeness, market impact and social/sustainability impact — used to assess every category. In this category the jury also weighs methodological rigour — including what you did to avoid fooling yourselves — the decision that changed as a result and what it was worth, the reproducibility and honesty of the evaluation, and the engineering quality of the data foundation underneath. Read the full evaluation criteria.
Who judges this category
Nominations are assessed by an independent jury, not by the organisers. Jurors are matched to the categories where their expertise lies. These are among those who read IoT, sensing and connected-product entries.
Dr. Aloknath DeFormer Chief Technology Officer, Samsung R&D Institute India
Prof. Subrat KarSabnani Chair Professor in Computer Networking, IIT Delhi
Prof. M. BalakrishnanProfessor, Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Delhi
Dr. Suchetana ChakrabortyAssistant Professor, Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Jodhpur
Prof. Satish Narayana SriramaAssociate Professor, Computer and Information Sciences, University of Hyderabad
Prof. Abhishek SrivastavaProfessor, Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Indore
Ms. Kavita BhatiaSenior Director, Emerging Technology, MeitY, Government of India
Dr. M. SreekumarProfessor, IIITDM KancheepuramEight of roughly 250. The full panel spans the IITs, the IIMs, the IIITs, the Indian School of Business, NITI Aayog and central ministries, the Department of Science & Technology, MeitY and CERT-In. See the full jury panel.
Deployments on the podium
IoT has been recognised in every recent edition. These are among the most recent winners, photographed at the ceremony.
Previous winners
IoT has been a category in its own right since the early editions, sitting alongside the hardware and analytics recognitions of the older years. The complete edition by edition record sits in the winners archive.
Category names have changed across editions as the field has moved; the rows above are the closest equivalents in the published record. See the winners archive for the full 1st–16th edition history.
What happens after you submit
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Stage one · nowNomination registration
Register your company and category through the nomination process, then complete the detailed nomination form and processing fee.
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Stage twoJury presentation
Present the innovation to the jury and take questions. Jurors score each entry against the four evaluation criteria and rank it within its category.
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Stage threeStar Certification
Nominees are also assessed for AGBA Innovation Star Certification, an independent maturity rating alongside the category judging.
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Stage fourFinalists announced
Once every category has been evaluated, finalists are announced on the website ahead of the ceremony.
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Stage fiveAward ceremony
Winners are honoured on 18 February 2027 at Hotel Ashoka, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi.
Before you write your nomination
Is a consumer connected product eligible, or only industrial IoT?
Both. Consumer, industrial and infrastructure deployments are read together and judged on the same evidence of scale and reliability.
How much does the device itself count?
The device matters, but so does everything around it — provisioning, over-the-air updates, connectivity fallback and what happens when a unit fails a thousand kilometres away.
Should we disclose failure rates?
Yes, and it helps rather than hurts. Deployed scale with honest field data is what separates a product from a pilot.
How do I submit a nomination?
Nominations are submitted through the nomination process, which sets out the stages, the supporting material required and the current edition’s dates.
Put your deployment in front of the panel
Nominations for the IoT Innovation Award are read by an independent jury of engineers, researchers and technologists. Bring the field numbers — units deployed, uptime, battery life, failures — rather than the datasheet.