Reliance Industries, India’s country’s second-largest publicly traded company, said today it will start using Predix, GE’s cloud-based operating system for the Industrial Internet to optimize its operations and write applications for customers. Reliance said that it would partner with GE to develop Predix apps for the oil and gas, fertilizer, power, healthcare, telecom and other industries in which the holding and its customers operate.
Reliance will develop Predix apps as an independent software vendor. The software will draw on more than 30 years of industry data. The Indian company will also connect the apps to customers over its 4G network powered by Jio, a recently launched mobile voice and data service provider by Reliance Industries. GE will handle the software’s security and monitoring.
GE estimates that a 1 percent productivity gain could generate as much as $250 billion in value over 15 years in the energy and infrastructure industries alone.
There are some 19,000 developers already writing Predix apps for the Industrial Internet. GE software is helping everyone from tomato farms to wind farms become more efficient. GE’s digital division expects to earn $15 billion from software by 2020.
“India’s potential in driving the migration to digital is well appreciated,” said GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt. “The partnership with Reliance Industries will shape the future of the Industrial Internet not just in India but globally. The possibilities that it opens to develop solutions on our Predix platform for the industrial sector are endless.”