MapmyIndia join forces with ISRO to build mapping and other location-based services, can be an alternative to Google Maps

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has joined forces with MapmyIndia to come up with mapping and other location-based services in India. It can be an alternative to Google maps and similar apps, as suggested by MapmyIndia.

“There are many reasons why Indians are better off with an indigenous solution for maps and geospatial services. MapmyIndia, being a responsible, local Indian company, ensures that its maps reflect the true sovereignty of the country, depicting India’s borders as per the government of India, and hosts its maps in India,” company’s CEO Rohan Verma wrote in a LinkedIn post.

Verma termed it as “pathbreaking milestone” towards the objective of Atmanirbhar Bharat and said MapmyIndia’s end-user maps, apps and services would “integrate with ISRO’s huge catalogue of satellite imagery, and earth observation data, and would be a much better, more detailed and comprehensive, as well as privacy-centric, hyper-local and indigenous mapping solutions for Indians, compared to foreign map apps and solutions”.

“Users will be able to see in MaymyIndia’s maps and services, all of India from a bird’s eye point of view, and also benefit hugely from the various map-based analytis and insights about weather, pollution, agricultural output, land-use changes, flood and landslide disasters etc,” he said.

The timeline for rolling out the services was not mentioned.

For ISRO, the agreement with MapmyIndia is the latest in a series of partnerships it has entered into in recent weeks as part of the efforts to encourage the participation of private companies in the space sector. The government had last year set up a new organisation, called Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (INSPACe), with the specific objective of helping private players to grow in the space industry.