Saturday, March 3, 2007

Will the younger generation bring in a revolution in Indian GIS industry?

The best part of being an entrepreneur is that you explore and experience new horizons on a continuous basis and learn new things regularly! With clearer business plan, core team in place, first few clients in sight and groundbreaking portal getting ready for testing and launch, we have started preparing AUGTICS for seed funding. My search for potential investors took me to a news item titles “GVFL to fund RapidRadio's RFID Technology”. Apart from the decent funding and the funding company, what attracted me towards RapidRadio are the technology (RFID) and the 20 something founders of the company. And it motivated me enough to write this post!

RFID technology holds immense potential and has been talked in US and other countries for last several years. The good part is that RFID Technology has now overcome the technology hype and is now on the slope of enlightenment.

RFID technology, combined with GPS and GIS technology holds lot of promises and we will see a several applications bringing in changes to the way we do things today. It will definitely help companies in better inventory management and better logistics but a lot more will be possible! Imagine picking up all your groceries from store and bill getting generated automatically as you walk past the payment counter (well the RFID tags on your groceries will be read and a bill generated automatically – no need for long wait in the long ques)!!

Few days back, a 20 something person contacted me after reading this blog and wanted me to see his creation a “map editor” and a “map viewer”. The person is not from GIS industry, has not met anyone from the GIS industry so far and I was the first privileged person from the GIS industry to view is creation! He has been working on the SW creation for last several years, as his passion is to create tools for visualization! I must tell you that the work he has done is really excellent and if it’s productized, can easily create some unease for the existing order!

My recent discovery of routeguru that is started by 20 something folks (read my Feb 6, opening post Start of a Different View - Indian GIS Industry), 20 something Indian GIS professional outnumbering professionals of all age and of same age from rest of the world to participate in GIS communities on ORKUT (read my Feb 15 post Indian GIS data - bright future ahead !), my meeting with 20 something person who has developed a fantastic GIS data editor and viewer, & RapidRadio, set-up by 20 something, prompted me to ask this question: “Will the younger generation bring in a revolution in Indian GIS industry?”

The question is open to everyone to interpret & respond, but I must confess that looking at this trend, I do feel a lot more aged at 36! Happy Holi and go out and get a DIFFERENT COLORFUL VIEW!!

Manoj Misra

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Manoj.

Any Booming Industry Definitely Needs Younger and Smarter People who can bring in their Vibrant Ideas and use their Grey Cells more effectively.

Whenver i have a look at some of the research activities done across the GIS domain ,we find many of the GIS algorithms , modules developed by Youngsters within the age group of 21 to 23.

Also my opensource community friends do send me their details and i find many of them below 30.

The Younger generation are and will definitely make an impact in the Indian industry as well.

cheers
Bhasker

Manoj Misra said...

Bhasker:

Great to see you actively providing your comments!

Manoj

Anonymous said...

Good Blogs, keep writing.

All the very best for Augtics.

Sajid

Unknown said...

Hi Manoj,

All the best for AUGTICS.

Next couple of years will witness a sea change in use of RFID and GIS technology. Some people have understood it pretty well. Some people still haven't.

An organization which has a healthy mix of these two practices will see rapid growth in the years to come.

India has its resource in its youth. The greatest advantage India has today is not only that of a low cost high quality delivery capability but also that of high ratio of youth to senior citizens.

IT industry as a whole and GIS industry in specific (those who have good understanding of RFID) has every possibility (and rights also) to leverage this benifit and stay at the top of global IT outsourcing hubs.

cheers
kaushik

Unknown said...

Hi Manoj,
Good luck for AUGTICS.

With Wall-Mart striking a deal to enter Indian Retail, the industry as a whole is going to witness use of more technology. The first thing that comes to mind is use of RFID. Not only retailers but also Suppliers and Logistic companies will have to make good use of RFID to cater to the specifications set by the Retailers. And the next big thing that will be in focus for next couple of years will be GIS.

So any IT organization that has a good blend of both the practices will be in a position to milk the cow. India has an added advantage being a low cost high quality delivery destination. However this is not the only factor that Indian IT industry looks forward to cash in. India is young today. More than 55% of her population is under 25. The percentage goes up to 63% for age under 30.

Youths today like challenges. That is what brings best of them. We have a challenge today. Not only had to leverage the low cost high quality ration to bring home major out-sourcing low end work, but also to think, innovate and sell high end solution. The challenge will be taken and delivered in style to keep India at the top of global IT industry.

Cheers
Kauhsik

Anonymous said...

Dear Manoj,

Youngsters are cathing up, its true, but I still feel that majority of them still lack passion, and zeal to do something new and niche, especially in Remote Sensing field, atleast !

What do you say..

Paul

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