Geospatial technologies drive progress in various sectors by offering unique advantages like enhanced information sharing among multi-location teams, improved progress monitoring, superior asset management, increased productivity, and significant cost savings.
Today’s smart infrastructure projects necessarily warrant the usage of advanced technologies such as GIS, BIM, Digital Twins, etc. In large infrastructure projects, the cost overruns are usually in the 20 percent to 60 percent range. “By using GIS and associated BIM technology, an average of 13 percent in terms of cost savings can be realized. GIS plays a crucial role in assisting project teams in site selection and evaluation based on geographical, resource, and environmental factors. It enables building professionals to visualize the landscape, strategically plan structure placements, and harmonize the built environment with nature. This location-based approach proves valuable in planning roadways, railways, and airports, allowing planners to assess terrain and environmental variables along proposed routes for optimal and environmentally conscious decisions,” Agendra Kumar, Managing Director, Esri India, tells Financial Express Online.
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How has geospatial technology contributed to advancements and operations across diverse sectors including infrastructure development, defense, and utilities management?
GIS has proved to be an irreplaceable tool for demystifying utility data and providing location-rich “contextualized” insights. For addressing the complex challenges utilities are faced with, the “Geo-Enabled Smart Utility Management” approach provides a bird’s eye view of the utility infrastructure with the ability to narrow it down to individual assets and consumers. Along with tools for analysis, visualization, modelling, and collaboration – GIS amplifies the digital utility operations multifold by enhancing situational awareness.
Defense organizations use GIS as a framework to integrate the intelligence warfighting function into the planning process. GIS helps defense organizations assess terrain conditions, plan optimal routes, and simulate and evaluate mission scenarios. It also provides tools for intelligence analysis, such as spatial and temporal pattern analysis, change detection, and image classification. These tools support the integration and analysis of intelligence data, including satellite imagery, aerial photographs, and data from other sources.
What are your thoughts on recent policy developments and how do these policies impact the accessibility and utilization of geospatial data?
Strategic policy announcements by the government are significantly helping reshape the geospatial landscape. The new geospatial guidelines have effectively lifted numerous restrictions on the collection, creation, storage, and sharing of geospatial data.
The 2021 Geospatial Data policy democratizes the use of geospatial data by easing collection, generation, preparation, and dissemination of geospatial data and maps within the country, the policy enables sharing, collaboration, and easy access to data without any constraints. This, in turn, unlocks tremendous opportunities for applications of GIS in sectors like agriculture, mining, water, urban utilities, public safety, and infrastructure which rely heavily on geospatial data. Even private sectors like insurance, manufacturing, retail, and banking can now tap into a multitude of new opportunities enabled by geospatial data.
Government launched the National Geospatial Policy, addressing aspects like geospatial knowledge infrastructure, data sharing platforms, and skill development. The policy is progressive and well-structured, focusing on innovation, public-private partnership & strengthening the Geospatial Infrastructure with new data sets & technologies is highly encouraging. The democratization of data is poised to not only increase the adoption of geospatial technologies within the government sector but also allow the industry to innovate and develop solutions for various purposes.
Recent Government initiatives facilitated the use of GIS technologies throughout the country’s rural area development. How are Esri India’s technologies leveraged for such developments?
The government has facilitated the use of geospatial technology in the rural areas of the nation with its flagship schemes like SVAMITVA, Har Ghar Jal, and Digital India among many others. Rural communities often face unique challenges due to poverty, social disparities, and limited education, leaving them particularly vulnerable to natural disasters and health crises. GIS offers a unified platform to address these issues, enhancing rural resilience and community empowerment.
Food producers and agriculturists need GIS to understand the dynamics of agro-climatic features, evaluate risks, and work towards adopting sustainable agricultural practices and strengthening resilience. By integrating location intelligent IoT based devices, and farm infrastructure, geo-enabled precision agriculture offers transformative economic potential for sustainable climate-smart-agriculture. Integrating location-intelligent supply chain infrastructure with financing and farming activities on a GIS platform strengthens the market linkages and reduces losses.
Esri India’s Indo ArcGIS offers unique solutions and data products for land administration, agriculture, etc. that can effectively address the challenges in rural areas and lead to informed decision-making.
What are the recent innovations that Esri India is working on, and plans for the future?
Esri India now provides over 900 layers of Indian geospatial content to our users, these layers are hosted on a cloud in India. This has increased the adoption of our technology very significantly taking our user base to over 1 million in the country. The data layers and about 200 solution products that are part of Indo ArcGIS continue to fuel our growth. Esri India has partnered with MeitY approved Cloud service providers to offer Indo ArcGIS on Indian clouds along with Management Services for Geospatial Infrastructure to our users. Indo ArcGIS integrates all types of data, e.g., data coming from IoT devices, Drones, Lidar, Satellite Imagery, big data, etc. These along with the support for AI/ML, AR/VR, Gaming engine and ArcGIS Reality are helping customers address some of the challenges in social and economic development. ArcGIS Reality helps in building geo-referenced Digital Twins of Urban areas to address issues like better utility management, urban flooding, safety and security, etc.
We recently announced the availability of ArcGIS Business Analyst, a Location Intelligence solution suite designed to aid organizations in making data-driven decisions. ArcGIS Business Analyst is a unique solution comprising data, maps, workflows, and infographics that will enable businesses to make smarter decisions. Using ArcGIS Business Analyst, businesses can gain invaluable insight into changing populations, housing, demographics, consumer spending, competition, etc., and thus make more informed decisions for market planning, site selection, territory management, and customer analysis. Such in-depth analysis will help them gain a competitive edge and improve operational efficiency.
In what ways is Esri India bridging the location mapping gap with its technological skills and sectoral expertise?
Through ArcGIS Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), Esri India offers a comprehensive suite of maps and location tools, equipped with SDKs, APIs, and low-code options that reduce time to market and foster creativity. This enables developers to seamlessly integrate maps and location services into their products and solutions.
Next, when the precise data provided by the Indian edition of ArcGIS Living Atlas in the form of detailed boundaries down to the village level, PIN Code boundaries, demographic data, information on soil, natural resources, weather, and commonly used Points of Interest, enables organizations to make informed decisions, the location mapping gap reduces further.
To reduce the location mapping gap, it is necessary to address the skill gap that exists in the geospatial industry. Esri India is working with 800+ colleges and universities across the country to inculcate geospatial skills in students. Initiatives like the MMGEIS program, Master’s Scholarships in GIS, and the Young Scholar Program are also making a difference.
Esri India also supports early-stage startups in integrating mapping technology and location intelligence into their products. This assistance helps startups contribute to addressing the location mapping challenges, playing a crucial role in bridging the gap in this domain.
What are the emerging trends that are shaping the geospatial sector?
The integration of IoT devices with GIS, facilitating real-time data collection and analysis has emerged as a notable trend. Advancements in spatial analytics and visualization techniques are enabling organizations to analyze data with greater accuracy. Cloud-based solutions offer accessibility to GIS data anytime, anywhere, and on any device, at a more affordable cost. Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are also converging with GIS applications, helping visualize spatial data and gain deeper insights into operations. Digital twins and 3D digital twins are also set to provide organizations with a precise understanding of their operations, revolutionizing decision-making and transforming work processes.
Moreover, GeoAI is accelerating real-world understanding of business opportunities, environmental impacts, and operational risks. GeoAI leverages AI to extract meaning from complex datasets, aiding in addressing pressing challenges. With the integration of Generative AI (GenAI), automation of map creation and geospatial data management becomes feasible, further enhancing efficiency and productivity.
