Geographic Information System (GIS) and geospatial technologies are playing a critical role in aiding economic growth and dealing with disasters, says Agendra Kumar, MD, Esri India
Esri India is actively involved in bringing better technology and guiding smooth run for modern urban infrastructure of future smart cities that are using GIS technology.
An industry veteran with over three decades of experience in the IT industry, Agendra has been promoting the use of geospatial technologies in the country. Under his leadership, Esri India has partnered with various government and private organizations to execute critical and transformative projects using Esri’s GIS (Geographic Information System) technology.
GIS technology has a myriad of uses in areas such as disaster management, healthcare, emergency management, public safety, and land management among others. The role played by GIS technology in tracking the recent cyclone YAAS cyclone is a recent example that most people are aware of.
Analytics India Magazine caught up with Agendra Kumar, Managing Director, Esri India, to understand location intelligence India’s GIS landscape and Esri’s innerworkings. “With the new Geospatial Policy in place, we foresee an increase in data availability that will further fuel application development."
Information and communication technologies (ICT) have redefined the order of the world in many ways in the 21st century. With its footprint across governance and businesses, ICT connectivity has transformed the way we see, the way we think and the way we work.
Epidemic/disease outbreak management has been an important application of GIS. Even during normal times, it is part of people’s lives in the form of maps, telecom services, utilities such as electricity, water, in healthcare, weather applications and agriculture.
Esri India has created a map to follow Cyclone Yass Live Path. The map is built with ArcGIS Online, Esri’s mapping and analytics system, and provides updates on the weather, wind speed, number of households and population in the area. The map is consolidating the information from various authoritative feeds and sources for an integrated view on the movement and impact of Cyclone Yaas.
As a part of their transformational journeys, cities are strengthening their geospatial infrastructure to unleash the power of spatial analytics, Internet of Things (IoT), big data and artificial intelligence (AI) to improve the quality of life for their citizens and strengthen resilience.
Esri, a provider of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software and solutions to various government and private entities has been in India since the mid-1990s. In an interview over Zoom, Kumar discusses the new mapping policy, initiatives around Covid, challenges for mapping companies and more.
Geospatial infrastructure is now widely acknowledged and accepted as a critical component for sectoral development and economic growth. With enhanced awareness and affordable access, governments and enterprises today rely on location-based information more than ever to support strategic priorities, making decisions, and monitoring outcomes.
The use of maps and mapping technology within the transport industry is growing significantly. Location is vital to many of the operations that railways / metro needs to carry out, hence, the use of GIS (Geographic Information System) is the optimal means for centralizing and coordinating these activities.
During tough times, tough leaders survive. And along with them survives their companies. India’s leading Geospatial Information Systems (GIS) solutions provider Esri India Technologies (Esri India) managed to hold their ground and grow their business during the pandemic. We talk to Mr. Agendra Kumar, President, Esri India to understand their journey in the times of COVID-19 pandemic.
India and the United States today signed a long-pending agreement for geospatial cooperation that will provide a deadlier edge to Indian missile systems, even as they decided to hold the inaugural Industrial Security Annex (ISA) summit later this year to further cement the two nation’s defence trade and technology cooperation.
Situational analysis with real-time data in a spatial context is critical to understanding Vector diseases, causative factors and their interrelationships for effective planning, response, decisions and actions for vector control programs.
Location is fundamental to all aspects of business, from deciding where to locate a new store to optimizing a supply chain or creating more engaging marketing campaigns that resonate with the best customers.
GIS has evolved into a ubiquitous technology that is at the heart of all major digital transformation initiatives . Whether its health, agriculture, water, smart cities, utilities, gas distribution, banking, insurance, infrastructure development, manufacturing, logistics, retail, modern e-commerce or consumer apps for transportation or food delivery, GIS is the enabling technology for management.
As the COVID-19 virus spreads across the world and in India, the government has realized that its healthcare segment requires a lot more attention than it has received ever. This has established a visible need for technology transformation of the public healthcare segment with a mission to drive better understanding, enable efficiency, multi-agency collaboration and rapid decision making.
In the past, various government departments, including education, forestry, and disaster management have used geographic information systems (GIS) to map out demographics and asses information to handle calamities and crises. In the private sector, retail store chains and banks use maps frequently to decide the locations of their new branches.
Often considered critical for the retail sector, location is really the underpinning for nearly every economic activity. We may not realise it, but geo-spatial location has become an essential dimension in business and social transactions that permeate our lives.
The conference theme, ‘GIS – Interconnecting our World’, highlighted how this geospatial technology integrates everything and engage everyone to overcome unprecedented business and social challenges.
At least six global giants have backed the city’s War Room, which had recently won praise from the Ministry of Health. Set up by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) in response to Covid-19 outbreak in the city, the two-month-old command centre has been helping the authorities in decision making and identifying gaps to contain the spread of coronavirus.
Government and other authorities have been using a combination of varied technologies to contain the spread of the virus. GIS mapping software has found a greater purpose in an emergency like the COVID-19 outbreak. Esri, a geographic information company, has been developed a unique dashboard that has been helping the government with timely and accurate location information.
Experts said on Saturday that it is time to reset the Indian healthcare ecosystem by actively leveraging technologies like cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI) to build products and solutions that can be widely adopted.
India, as a country, has united together in its fight to contain the spread of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). As the situation around COVID-19 continues to evolve, multitude of initiatives have been undertaken to reign in the spread.
ESRI's tech based on geographic information system (GIS) is being used by some states to understand the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic and the unprecedented challenges presented by it.
The COVID-19 pandemic is wreaking havoc across the globe and governments all over are looking for solutions to battle the spread of the deadly virus. One such technology that is helping keep a check on the virus is called Geographic Information System or GIS.
In a pandemic situation, a location or a place becomes the basic tenets of an investigation of this kind. The question where becomes equally important with who and when in terms of identifying the infected person. And to answer the question – where– Geographic Information Science, Systems, Software (collectively known as GIS) and methods are the most reliable and valuable.
GIS technology has been utilized by varied set of industry verticals for decades.In a conversation with ETCIO, Esri President Agendra Kumar talks about how the company is helping enterprises in these tough times with decision support by offering them free access to their latest tool ArcGIS Hub.
Esri India has created a similar real-time dashboard to map the spread of COVID 19 cases in India including infectious cases and emerging pattern among population/geographies.
Utility Management
Started in 1969, Esri is a more than 50 years old global company. Esri India Technologies was formed in 1996. In India, government organizations have been using their software since 1980s. With a fairly large customer base, Esri India works with national mapping organizations like Survey of India, Geological Survey of India and National Thematic Mapping Organization.
In a recent turn of events, the Jammu & Kashmir Government was reported to be mulling over declaring the November 7th, 2019 snowfall as ‘natural calamity’ in the valley. Leaving a trail of death and destruction, the calamity claimed at least 7 human lives.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that they will be encouraging the manufacturing of mobile phones, semiconductor packaging and electronic equipment. The government of India also took other actions in order to help the tech industry.
Esri is a market leader that aims to deliver GIS, Mapping and Location Analytics solutions to its customers, transforming how organisations identify opportunities and unlock potential to improve business results.
This year, on 13 November, the world is celebrating GIS Day. GIS stands for ‘Geographic Information System’, as a technology, GIS is best positioned to understand ‘Where’. In other words, ‘where’ is the best location to build a wind farm, predict regions liable to flooding or even plan the most efficient logistics route. Simply stated, GIS can collate, display and then analyze location or spatial
Esri India User Conference outlined the imperative and integrated role of GIS in realizing the government’s vision for an inclusive and sustainable growth across various regions and sectors.
Esri India concluded it’s flagship event, Esri India User Conference (UC) on 11th September. Centred on the theme, “GIS: Inspiring What’s Next”, and spanned across three cities – Kolkata, Hyderabad, and Delhi-NCR, the 19thedition of the User Conference witnessed participation of over 80+ speakers and 2500+ GIS users.
B-Nest, a venture of Bhopal Smart City Development Corporation Limited announced a strategic partnership today with Esri India, India's leading Geographic Information System (GIS) software and solutions provider. This partnership will fuel the growth of GIS focused start-ups from Madhya Pradesh and enable them to innovate new solutions for complex challenges India is facing and scale them further
Esri India announced as winner in “Innovative Enterprise Solution” category at Aegis Graham Bell Award 2017, honoring the best innovation in the ICT domain in India. Esri India has been applauded as winner at the 8th edition of Aegis Graham Bell Award at NDMC Convention Center, New Delhi.
PEC University of Technology, Chandigarh and Esri India has launched a Centre of Geospatial Excellence (CoGE) to impart GIS skills to graduates and working professionals through a set of comprehensive Geospatial education programs.
T-Hub - a startup incubator set up by the Telangana government today announced the launch of 'GIS Innovation Hub' (GIH) for the start-ups belonging to the capital Hyderabad. The facility was inaugurated by Jack Dangermond, co-founder, president and CEO, Esri Inc.
The launch was done at ESRI India’s User Conference 2017 on 19th of January where R2 showcased its revolutionary technology. ESRI has recognized R2 as an emerging business partner, thereby granting R2 access to such marketing and branding events.
The world leader in mapping technology, Esri, kickstarted its 2017 India User Conference in New Delhi today with a major announcement that its flagship Cloud-based geographic information system, ArcGIS Online, will soon be available in Hindi and other Indian regional languages.
These startups are using digital maps to do bigger things than find out the nearest coffee shop. Innovation in these areas however come at a great price, literally..."That’s why we work with Esri India as one of their emerging business partners,” says these entrepreneurs.
