Since the Y2K, India has established itself as a reliable hub for IT (Information Technology) services offshoring. What’s less noticed, but equally storied, is the thirty-year footprint of geospatial outsourcing.
“India has always held the lion’s share of geospatial outsourcing. Some of the biggest players have been there for the past 30 years,” says Ramesh Ananth Krishnan, CEO, DSM Soft.
“India has been conducive to outsourcing due to its technical expertise. The future holds great potential as well.”
From Services to Solutions
The road ahead for geospatial looks equally promising amidst market shifts, technology evolution, and on-demand solutions.
Across verticals, there is a growing demand for customized solutions to specific problems, leading to a paradigm shift in the realm of geospatial. However, there’s a need for qualitative upskilling as well as navigating newer opportunities.
“Integration of spatial analytics and AI offers new opportunities. Though there is a need to gather feedback from customers, as well as work towards newer revenue models such as licensing, SaaS,” says PV Rai, MD, Pixel Softek.
Pitfalls and Opportunities
Krishnan believes that while globalization has lost some of its sheen, there is still a lot of scope. Local language is also a hindrance in many markets.
“Domain expertise and data acquisition capabilities are two things that India lacks,” he adds.
“There is a lot of growth potential in geospatial across different sectors. While there are lots of apps, GIS is playing a key role in route optimization. A lot of other future-ready technologies will be coming up,” says Vattem Narendra Babu, CEO, iSpatial Techno Solutions.
There’s a need to define priority areas and set goals.
Government Support
To venture into uncharted territories and expand trade outreach, there is a need to network, deliberate, and expand outreach. The Indian government is quite proactive in this regard.
“There are commercial officers in all Indian missions abroad to help Indian industries find market opportunities abroad,” states Dr. Mahaveer Singhvi, Joint Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India.