Telugu states among top 3 in India in GIS use

 ​Hyderabad: The Telugu states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have been ranked second and third respectively behind Maharashtra in terms of generating demand for GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) & Positioning segment, and GIS (Geographic Information Systems)/Spatial Analytics technology for the FY18.  While AP falls into the category of a state that has GIS-based schemes above 10, Telangana comes under the 5-9 categories, opined an expert.

“The State of Telangana holds the same rank for urban development where, municipal bodies are the biggest users, whereas, AP is yet to improve its usage of GIS in this segment” said Dr Aniruddha Roy, Co-Chairman, Assocham National Council on Geospatial Technology.

“However, within the education & research sector, where there is a great demand for earth observation data by research institutions such as DRDO, and autonomous research institutes under various ministries, AP ranked first followed by Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh for generating the maximum demand during FY18,” he added. 

In an exclusive chat with The Hans India, Roy who was in the city for a conference on “Geospatial Technologies,” on Friday, said “India’s geospatial market has grown from Rs 5,338 crore in 2014-15 to an estimated Rs 7, 679 crore in FY18 at a CAGR of 12.9 per cent - notably higher than the global average of 11.5 per cent CAGR for geospatial technologies during the same period. 

The major growth drivers have been the central and state governments’ push for robust physical infrastructure, effective governance delivery including e-governance and digital economy initiatives, integrated programs on urban and rural development initiatives such as smart cities, RURBAN clusters etc. These initiatives have provided a significant momentum for enhanced adoption of geospatial technologies.” 

A geospatial economy comprises - Market size through commercial procurement of equipment, software, data, services; Exports of geospatial equipment, software, data and services; Public expenditure on creation and maintenance of geospatial data, infrastructure and institutions.    

In terms of geospatial technology subsegments, it is found that the Indian sub-continent is dominated by the services segment. The services segment accounts for 74.4 per cent of the total market share, followed by hardware at 17 per cent.  

Software, solutions and data segments account for 5 per cent, 2.3 per cent and 1.3 per cent respectively, Roy said and added, in terms of end-use sectors (or application areas), the geospatial market of India is dominated by infrastructure, urban development and utilities. Together in FY18, these three sectors have an estimated market share of 22.1 per cent, 13.9 per cent and 15.7 per cent respectively, representing nearly half of the total geospatial market of India. 

Mining, education and research, water resources and irrigation sectors are the next three major user segments contributing nearly 5.5 per cent, 5.3 per cent, and 4.9 per cent respectively in FY18.