Rakesh Verma

Rakesh Verma Founder and Managing Director of MapmyIndia

Hyper-local mapping will revolutionize the navigation sector

An innovator and a mapping pioneer, Rakesh

Verma, Founder and Managing Director of

MapmyIndia (MMI), formally known as C.E. Info Systems Ltd has been an active stakeholder in India’s geospatial industry for over three decades now. In an exclusive conversation with Jitendra Choubey, Geospatial Artha, he underlines that the future of the country’s thriving economy depends on the robust geospatial policy and MapmyIndia is at the forefront to ensure support to government agencies to capitalise on geospatial potential.

Journey of MapmyIndia

For me, 1995 was a momentous year. I was in the US – the place where I stumbled upon the idea. During those days, people barely knew what mapping data was. But deep down, there was this determination and conviction to acquaint common users with digital mapping. Maps were there for thousands of years but no one thought of using it to share knowledge about territories, as is being done today. Now, mapping data shuttles between businesses, industries, ministries and different developmental projects. In the absence of any geospatial policy in the country, it took me long to build a new India. It was in 2021 that the Indian government liber-

alized the sector which certainly gave impetus to the whole sector. I call my journey a map project. So, now after map creation, we generate major components that are location specific.

India’s geospatial policy in right direction

Now, India has a robust geospatial policy in place as it is promoting fast adoption of the technology. After the IPO debut, we had asked Frost & Sullivan to conduct a market study. The report was an eye-opener for us as it shows a huge market potential in the entire geospatial area. In terms of geospatial data and technology, India is way ahead of many countries or I can say rest of the world. It was only a lack of clarity on the policy that was holding it back. Now, that won't be a deterrent. I feel that the new policy would pose challenges before new entrants to make their way into the industry. Also, there is another challenge for the government to make all players to work together on the given platform and make the best use of the products available.

Mindsets need to be changed

Indians should believe in their proven indigenously developed technology instead of always looking to the West. We have proved our utility whenever it requires. For example: A year back when the government of India (GoI) started CoWin app – an application launched for the registration of COVID-19 vaccination, the GoI had plugged the CoWin application to MapmyIndia for the location part. Imagine, if our MapmyIndia platform wasn’t there, the government would have to start a project to create a digital map with all details. We have successfully created the technology and the superior data quality by proving ourselves and taking the leadership role in this domain.

Global expansion plan for MapmyIndia

Under self-reliant India vision of the country, we have made MapmyIndia for India – a platform. Like other foreign companies, they can move to other countries with their platform, we, too, have a plan to move to other countries with our platform. We are going to rebrand our platform as Mappls.

Location technology and fourth industrial revolution

MapmyIndia has two major platforms – IoT and mapping. We have a backend system for collecting sensor data. We bring it on our platform and then integrate it with mapping so that it generates the location. Besides, there is a huge artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning going on alongside. The future of any location technology has to deal with artificial intelligence. Some of the major trends in mapping location and visualization industry are expected to play a crucial role in 2022 and beyond, where one will experience the real-world mapping.

Global vision of MapmyIndia

One needs to create a strong base and then make the next move. Like German car companies have grown and expanded globally while using local resources, we, too, have created our strong base in India while pinpointing complex problems encountered by people, businesses and the government. Leveraging our experience, we started looking at some of the global problems and ways to

The future of any location technology has to deal with artificial intelligence. Some of the major trends in mapping location and visualization industry are expected to play a crucial role in 2022 and beyond, where one will experience the real-world mapping

solve those. In a similar way, many other big giants couldn’t solve India’s complex problems so we made our space in this field by offering reliable platform products and required serviced embedded in it.

Collaboration with government agencies

We have collaborated with NITI Aayog to verify logistics interface protocol with NICDC Logistics Data Services (NLDS) and are merging vehicle and driver license data, customs data, Indian Railways wagon data so the stakeholders (manufacturers, warehouse owners, logistic partners) can choose the best route for transportation. In the health sector, we have signed an MoU with the National Health Authority for using our platform to put all primary health centres, sub-centres and other health infrastructures on the map. We are in a pact with MEITY, working with UMANG app to provide real-time and cutting-edge services to commoners, and have a historic agreement with ISRO where we integrate the entire catalogue of images and maps. With MoRTH, we are mapping accident database of 6.3 million kilometres of road network. We are also in touch with the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare for providing farmers unified services such as weather information, agriculture markets, agri-inputs, and others through ‘AgriStack’ app.

David vs Goliath

Their (Google Maps) monopoly on Android Operating System made us helpless. We all want better platforms in this sector. There is a consensus among economists that monopolies stifle innovation and induces corporate somnolence. They practise monopoly to consolidate and protect company’s dominant market position rather than promoting innovations. We have been in this sector before the advent of Google Maps. The question of being afraid does not arise.

Super hyper local market

We have created a platform for super hyper local market, which big corporations couldn’t do. It is a concept where each building and street are mapped. For example: If you get into a housing society, you will be able to figure out which floor or flat you need to go. For this, we will integrate individual address and location with a six-digit unique alpha-numeric code.

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