Dr. Swarna Subba Rao, Surveyor General of India during a FICCI seminar on Geospatial Technologies said, “Government needs to recognize the importance of geospatial data and encourage the private partnership in this sector”. He also mentioned that there is an opportunity of penetration of geographic information system (GIS) technology and realization of its importance in all government sectors.
Dr. Shailesh Nayak, advisor and distinguished scientist, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Govt. of India, underlined the importance of big data approach to GIS, which allows analysis and decision making from huge spatial datasets, by using algorithms, query processing and data mining. He also mentioned that there are many areas such as disease surveillance and disaster response where geospatial technology has applied big data for enhanced analysis.
Stressing on the need for innovation in geospatial technologies, Sudeep Singh, director of India and West Asia operations for global startup community, Startup Grind, suggested that the Government and big industry players need to support young entrepreneurs to innovate and not just copy the available solution from the west.
Something which
Esri India is looking to do.
Esri is the California headquartered undefeated world leader in GIS software developing with a market share of over 40 percent in every operating region across the world. Esri India, formed through a joint venture with NIIT Technologies, has a mentoring program for Indian geospatial startups.
“Geospatial tech and software is very expensive and not something a startup can afford. Free access to Esri’s state of the art mapping software and geodatabase management applications has helped us develop our prototype, said Ashwini Khaladkar of
Maptoss, a smart water device manufacturing startup from Pune.
Ashwini further said, “India is morphing into a country of smart cities. And smart water devices like ours will be the future. Our prototype is good to go but there’s more we can improve on. We think having Esri’s support will definitely improve our chances of making this pilot a success.”
“The government is making efforts to expose Indians to emerging geospatial technologies and will be focusing on providing training in this area,” said Dr. Debapriya Dutta, scientist-G, NRDMS-NSDI division of the Department of Science and Technology.
BW Reporters
Regina is a reporter for BW Businessworld. In her previous assignments, she has worked with Independent television Network as a news anchor and reporter in Sri Lanka
