India has always been synonymous with software services and business process outsourcing. But in the past decade, the tides have changed. India is now racing ahead as an innovation hub and research destination in technology. More companies are keen on building their own hardware and devices, while adding a layer of cloud integrated software tools and applications. 

Cyclops Medtech: This Bangalore-based medtech company is building clinical and wearable diagnostic products for neuro-vestibular disorders using eye-tracking technology. BalanceEye, the product they have built, can detect dizziness, migraine, vertigo, and issues related to balance. It has been designed by oto-neurologists and is a patent-pending design. The company recently raised $1million in funding from Unitus Ventures, and is also supported by veteran investors like CP Bothra. BalanceEye is being used in several Tier2/3 towns in India as well as Europe, Middle East and parts of Asia. 

Kaaenaat: Another Bangalore-based company, this time building autonomous technology to manage burgeoning traffic in emerging economies in South Asia, Southeast Asia and Africa. Kaaenaat's products leverage Computer Vision at the "edge" and analyze video data in real-time without needing them to be streamed to the cloud for analysis and processing. This is being done with the help of two products the company has designed - namely Kount Traffic and Krooze ADAS. The company's focus is on automotive, smart cities, transportation, retail & UAV aerial imagery.

Maxerience: Maxerience provides advanced image recognition and Internet of Things (IoT) solutions that digitize physical retail environments to enable CPG brands and retailers to measure, analyze and optimize how their products and promotions perform in the marketplace. Users can eliminate the retail execution “blind spot” and take immediate corrective action to drive increased sales, grow market share and elevate customer shopping experience. Some of their flagship products include Store360 for retail execution and PicToPOG for category management. 

Terrablue XT: After her son was diagnosed with epilepsy and suffered an attack, Raji Borthakur wanted to make a device that would simplify detection and allow for early intervention of attacks. This led to the genesis of TerrablueXT, where Raji began with developing a bio-medical sensor that would generate alerts & notifications. Eventually, the company developed two major products Xaant and TJay. Xaant is a patent-pending wearable device, brought to you in the shape of a smart strap or a smart jewellery. Xaant collects data about your health from your hand and you get to see this data in your Xaant mobile app. The app processes the data and provides useful insights about the state of your mind and overall mental health. TJay is currently designed for the early detection and management of epilepsy. The TJay glove has several sensors that extracts information from the palm of a hand. This information is transmitted continuously to Poketee, which is a personal data gateway and intelligent system that comes with TJay. Poketee keeps sending this information to our cloud environment at set intervals.

Parkzap: This Gurgaon-based company is developing products for automated parking and electronic toll collection, using sensors, microcontrollers, ML software and an integration of hardware systems. Parkzap allows seamless e-payments in parking using just a smartphone, it develops E2E cloud based parking management systems for smart cities, and it provides live parking availibility. 

QNu Labs: QNu Labs is developing quantum-safe cryptography products and solutions assure unconditional security of critical data on the internet and cloud across all industry verticals, globally. Quantum safe encryption will play a big role in AI and ML. Products made by QNu Labs are Tropos - a quantum random number generator; Armos - a quantum key distribution; Hodos - quantum resilient platform and Entropy as a Service. Their products are being used in automotive, cloud & data centres, finance and banking, government and defence, healthcare and telecom. 

Cardiotrack: This is a B2B healthtech platform that assists primary healthcare centres diagnose and capture heart health data for their patients. Cardiotrack also permits primary care physicians to perform heart health checkups and share their information with specialists, especially in cases where immediate intervention is needed. Products include the Cardiotrack Impact, an easy to use ECG; Cardiotrack Impact + for monitoring BP, pulse oxygen and works as a home ECG & non-contact thermometer. 

SwitchOn: SwitchOn, based in Bangalore, is pioneering digital twins of critical assets, powered by AI on the edge. The data is automatically analyzed to provide root-cause of failure in the assets and create smart workflows to drastically improve operational efficiency through a Comprehensive Maintenance Program. Proprietary AI-based digital twins of multiple assets help understand how the assets operate in the real-world environment. 

Entropik Tech: A leader in Emotion AI, Entropik Tech has built proprietary multi-modal emotion recognition technologies combined with AI that help brands measure the cognitive and emotional responses of consumers to their content and product experiences. Turning emotions into actionable insights, Entropik Tech helps them optimize brand experience journeys and solve real business problems across industries.

Skincurate Labs: Developed by IIT-Kharagpur, SkinCurate Research is developing products for imaging, diagnosis, intervention, treatment and clinical management of skin lesions, melanoma and related dermatological disorders and diseases. This hardware-software co-designed smartphone app can assist clinicians perform fast and accurate diagnosis of skin cancers and related abnormalities. Coupled with a special computational imaging service on the cloud the app can be used by semi-skilled paramedics working at rural and primary healthcare centers for fast and high-precision screening of skin lesions and abnormalities.