This Company Simulates Training For Indian Commandos, Creates a Living Atlas
As industries wake up to the power of location intelligence, Geographic Information System (GIS) technologies are becoming integral to sectors such as urban planning, agriculture, transportation, and disaster management. These tools empower organisations to make informed decisions, streamline operations, and deliver services with greater impact. The global GIS market is experiencing significant growth. Projections indicate an increase from $32.97 billion in 2024 to $55.75 billion by 2029, reflecting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.1%. In India, the geospatial solutions sector is poised for substantial expansion. It is expected to grow from $23.5 billion in 2024 to $79.3 billion by 2030, driven by advancements in 3D scanning and spatial analytics. When it comes to geospatial technology in the country, Esri India is a heavyweight you can’t ignore. The company, led by managing director Agendra Kumar since 2013, is quietly powering millions of daily users and thousands of government organisations with its GIS technology. “We have close to 6,500 organisational customers in the country. In terms of users, maybe 1.2 million people use some app running on our technology every day,” Kumar told AIM in an exclusive interview. The scope for Esri is quite vast—from national mapping agencies to utilities like electric distribution companies, city gas firms, and telecom giants such as Jio and Airtel. “About 70% of our revenue comes from the government,” he added, explaining the deep integration with various state and national bodies. Digital Earth, Living Atlas and AI Esri India is not just a software company; it creates geospatial technology and invests heavily in data. A flagship initiative is its ‘Living Atlas’, a cloud-hosted repository that curates openly published data from government sources. “If it’s not geo-referenced, somebody from our team will work on that, geo-reference it. If it’s available in PDF or Excel files, we geo-reference and bring that data into our Living Atlas, which is a very large repository of data now.” Kumar explained that more than a thousand layers of data are available in this. This freely accessible data resource is complemented by over 200 solution products developed to tackle common challenges such as disaster management, flooding, forest fires, drainage, and water distribution—all created by Indian teams for the country’s niche needs. A significant part of Esri India’s recent technological advances is in AI and machine learning. Kumar described how these are integrated for practical uses, with the initial use cases being primarily technical. This feature extraction is simply just object identification. Citing examples from traffic analysis to identifying defence vehicles or aircraft, he explained, “Human identification can be done. For example, we had done something in the office. We counted the number of people passing near the reception [using this]. Even face recognition can be done if it is required.” Keeping Secrets and Boundaries Handling sensitive data, especially in defence, demands tight security and ethical care. Kumar stressed that Esri India never holds defence data. “Their data remains on their premises on their computers. So even if there’s an application to be done, often our people will go to their office and work.” Esri India’s Indo ArcGIS is a comprehensive GIS software platform that enables organisations to create, manage, and analyse spatial data. It supports mapping, data integration, and location-based intelligence for diverse sectors including government, utilities, defence, and urban management. With capabilities like AI, machine learning, and 3D visualisation, ArcGIS helps users gain actionable insights from geographic data, improving decision-making and operational efficiency across India. The ArcGIS platform can be on the cloud or totally on-premises, not necessarily requiring a connection to the internet. Hence, this allows the solution to stay with the client. Highlighting the mutual trust in this arrangement, he said, “They also do not want to expose what they have, and we also don’t want to get into those things.” Defence and Security GIS Esri India’s engagement with defence and security agencies dates back long before Kumar joined the company. “Many of them have become advanced users of our technology. They don’t really need our help every day to use it. They know how to use it because they also deal with a lot of confidential information,” he said. The company supports organisations such as DRDO and homeland security agencies with mapping and weather modelling, which are crucial for extreme conditions like cold, snow, and avalanches. Kumar highlighted the importance of location intelligence in security operations. According to him, GIS is known as ‘the science of where’. It captures all types of information, such as what is happening and where an incident has taken place. This information then gets converted to a map and is available to the decision makers. Real-time situational awareness is vital in conflict. “Systems have to be created well in advance because you can’t create them when the action has to be taken,” Kumar added. Esri India processes drone data, providing both cloud and on-premise solutions, including 3D visualisation tools that support navigation, target setting, asset management, and strategic planning. “So, they are very realistic images, creating fly-throughs and walk-throughs. This helps in navigation, target setting, target identification,” Kumar said. While the data collected for defence remains strictly with the forces themselves, Esri’s technology supports its use in simulations, training, and planning. “If there is a monument which needs to be protected, and there is a suspicion that someday terrorists may attack it, you want to train some commandos. So you can use a 3D model to train commandos on how to go inside, what to expect inside,” Kumar noted. The Road Ahead Though the GIS sector in India is still emerging, Kumar is optimistic about its trajectory. He attributed this to recent government policies, adding that till 2021, there was a lack of clarity on geospatial data policies. The companies were initially uncertain about rules surrounding acquisition. This is why the new set of guidelines came out in 2021, followed by the National Geospatial Policy in 2022. “So these two documents, along with remote sensing data policy and drone policy, have made the whole ecosystem quite conducive for business,” he added. This clarity has enabled wider adoption beyond government into private sectors like manufacturing, retail, BFSI (banking, financial services, and insurance), and logistics. “Success for retail distribution, optimisation in manufacturing and logistics, insurance claims settlement—these are some of the things which are upcoming,” Kumar said. He also pointed to the rising interest in 3D mapping and digital twins, technologies that go beyond pretty visualisations to solving real problems such as urban flooding and infrastructure management. He acknowledged that the true value of a digital twin will come when it’s used to solve a problem, be it traffic, urban flooding or improving the utility infrastructure. The Indian government’s flagship projects, such as Gati Shakti, SVAMITVA, and Naksha, have been pivotal in boosting the geospatial ecosystem by creating foundational mapping data for villages and cities. Kumar noted that the industry still involves “a lot of service orientation and not so much of technology orientation”. He expects this to shift with time as startups and educational institutions increasingly embrace geospatial innovation.
Esri India’s ArcGIS platform supports mapping, data integration, and location-based intelligence.
Esri India’s ArcGIS platform supports mapping, data integration, and location-based intelligence.
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An information designer who loves to learn about and try new developments in the field of tech and AI. She likes to spend her spare time reading and exploring absurdism in literature.