Tuesday, February 6, 2007

Start of a Different View - Indian GIS Industry

On 4th of January this year, I bid a formal farewell (that was preceded by several informal farewell parties) from RMSI. In August 1992, at the suggestion of my guide at IIT Delhi Prof Rema Devi, I met with Ajay Lavakare who was in the process of setting up RMSI in a small basement office at Pushp Vihar, South Delhi. That’s when I first heard about GIS! Ajay and GIS got me motivated enough to deviate from my focus on programming, fuzzy logic, modeling & simulation techniques for EIA (Environmental Impact Analysis) and join a GIS start-up!

The last one month has been really hectic and interesting where I have spent hours in preparation of setting up a new venture. Several tasks like government approvals, liaison with Chartered Accountant and legal experts, portal as well as website development, meeting with VCs, meetings with potential customers, partners and employees, networking with entrepreneurs and industry professionals, connecting with friends and associates for guidance & support in addition to firming up my business plan have really kept me engaged, engrossed and energized. AUGTICS formally got incorporated on February 2, 2007!

My hope was that I will remain away from GIS Industry related activities, for some time, but persuasiveness of Sanjay Kumar CEO, GIS Development got me to Map World Forum where I presented a technical paper titled “Metadata and data quality: Will it impact interoperability?” in the seminar on "Standards and Interoperability". It was a privilege to meet with fellow speakers of the session Michael Jones (CTO Google Earth), Dr Sailelesh Nayak (Director INCOIS, India), Murray Armstrong (CustomWeather Inc., USA), senior executives from Autodesk, ESRI, Oracle and chair of the session Mark Reichardt, President OGC.

I also met with several other GIS professionals at Map World Forum and what amazed me was the very high participation from international delegates – so Map World Forum was truly a global forum. I must mention about my meeting with Dr N C Gautam that left me extremely impressed with his energy and enthusiasm for GIS even years after his retirement from NRSA . His enthusiasm, in some ways, reflects volume about the opportunities in GIS industry in India!

Although I could make it to Map World Forum only one day, I filled myself up by following the exceptionally informative All Points Blog . The one article, titled” “GIS Technology: An International Market of Enormous Potential” by Joe Francica on directions magazine specially caught my attention. This provides a great perspective on what is happening and can happen in GIS industry in India. The world is taking note!!

Few days back I received an email from Tie Delhi describing the success story of fellow Tie Delhi chapter members. One of the stories was about the award grant to RouteGuru by Techtribe. (Press release at techtribe website reads --- “RoutGuru’s founding team leveraged the techTribe platform to collaborate with others in the GIS domain, receive mentorship from successful entrepreneurs in the mobile and GIS domain, and receive grant money of up to 1 million rupees to bring the concept to reality”). Clearly a lot is happing within Indian in and around GIS industry.

The beautiful “Best Paper Presentation Award” trophy that I got at Map World Forum, the elegant Diamond Star trophy (highest award instituted by RMSI and first one awarded to me on Jan 4) that adorn my office and eye opening learning from meetings at Map World Forum and press of the past one month keeps me reminding of my association with GIS industry and makes me think a bit more about geospatial industry in India…

I am initiating this BLOG to share with you, some of, my past 15 years of experience with Indian industry, reflect on the current market trends and attempt predicting the future of Indian geospatial Industry. So stay tuned to get - A Different View!!

Your feedback and comments are highly welcome, specially on what issues and subjects will interest you most!

Manoj Misra

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good Start. Will keenly look forward to see more details!!!

Malabari said...

Dear Manoj

CONGRATULATIONS on kick starting your venture - AUGTICS Systems And Service Private Limited.

We look forward for the "Different View" on the GIS and Real Estate Industry that you will bring forward.


Regards

Anwar

Manoj Misra said...

Thanks Anwar!

I will concentrate on GIS on this blog!

Unknown said...

Manoj:

Good article and good way of knowledge share.

With the emerging trends in industry and increased usage of GIS in India it will be very interesting to know the Future of GIS in Indai

Regards,

Sridhar

Unknown said...

Dear Manoj Sir,
Thanks for sharing this wonderful experience and professional ethics.
All the very!! best for the future.

Sagar Gupta
ASIAWEBMEDIA TECHNOLOGIES,
http://www.asiawebmedia.com

Anonymous said...

Dear Sir,

i like the way you see things,
Wish u a good luck

Regards
Manish Sharma

Manoj Dangwal said...

Congratulations ! Manoj
Wish you all the success.
Manoj

Anonymous said...

Great news - looking forward to hearing more.
Congratulations!

---Milan

Gopi said...

Hello Manoj,

This was really inspirational and highly motivational stuff from you.

Of course I am more excited about the future of GIS in India.

All the best for your new venture.

Regards,
Gopi P
Software Engineer (GIS)
Sarnoff Innovative Technologies

Anonymous said...

Dear Manoj,

CONGRATULATIONS for Incorporating AUGTICS Systems, I firmly believe with Rich GIS and Enterpreneural Experience and Skills you posses, you will make AUGTICS a dream company, I sincerely convey my Best wishes for your success.

Congratulations for starting GIS blog, which would allow to share the knowledge and wisdom in GIS business.

Congratulations for the “Best Paper Presentation Award” trophy at Map World Forum by
instituted by RMSI.

Regards,
Shanti Kumar Chiluka

Anonymous said...

Good Luck Manoj. Cheering for your success

Anonymous said...

Dear Manoj

Congratulations for a splendid launch of AUGTICS SYSTEMS.
It was enlightening to know your views on Future of GIS in India.
Also, Congratulations for the “Best Paper Presentation Award” trophy at Map World Forum, well there is no doubt you deserve the best and I foresee AUGTICS SYSTEMS to be a great Company in the very near future.

Best Wishes
Wg Cdr (retd) Subhash Punhani

Anonymous said...

Way to go Manoj. Exciting times ahead for you.

Congratulations and Good luck.

I reckon you would need to start linking to a lot of blogs and websites etc. and get this blog mentioned at a few places to let the search engine web crawlers reach you faster and display it in the first few listings in the search results.

Look forward to visit this page often.

Unknown said...

Congratulations Minoj! We wish all the best in your new endeavor!

Unknown said...

Dear Manoj..

Congrats for this venture. The Indian GIS industry is reaching the urban India in almost every possible way. the Main impact will be when we can make this Powerful Platform reach the rural masses.

As 80% of our Indians dwell in rural areas, this can have a tremendous impact on our country's development cycle.

All the Best.
cheers.. S.P.Bhasker

Unknown said...

Dear Manoj Sir,

CONGRATULATIONS for this new starts. After reaching at such level and starting again is decision which can be taken only peoples like you. I wish you best of luck for AUGTICS.I hope it will not be just money making company and will show some good way to reach on new heights of GIS industry in India.Thanks for such nice blog.I wish you all the best in your new endeavor!


Regards

Surender Singh Raghav

Anonymous said...

My heartiest CONGRATULATIONS on launch of a new GIS company AUGTICS Systems And Service Private Limited.

I hope it will be do a nice work in the field of GIS.

RAJIV RANJAN

Unknown said...

Many Congratulations!
And wish you all the success!

Ramesh Nougain

Anonymous said...

Dear Manoj,

Congratulations on your new venture. I have firm believe that your ZEAL, PASSION and CONFIDENCE will take AUGTICS to scale new heights !!

All the best...

Paul

kumar said...

Dear Mr.Manoj,
CONGRATULATIONS for you new venture. Recently I came to know this and i am heart fully wishing you to success in this GIS industry once again. I like the way you see things. It’s really good to learn some thing from you I am always follows your steps.

Rgds
Kamma.kumara swamy

ljack said...

Hi Manoj

Although i havent met you ...
you seem to be a GIS Guru !!

Nice to read your blog ..

if you have sometime please go through my blog as well

http://jakkarajus.blogspot.com/

ljack said...

Hi Nice Blog ..

thanks
Sandeep
http://jakkarajus.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

HELLO SIR,
THAT WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR THE ARTICLE ABOUT THE GIS INDUSTRY IN INDIA.
WISH A GREAT FUTURE....

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