As per the recent budget announcement, land records will be digitised with GIS mapping, but what is the market size for this type of mapping and how will it change your life?
Rohan Verma: It is really a good initiative by the Government of India to delve deep into GIS for land records. This will contribute a lot to social harmony and economic gains in both rural and urban India. As it will lead to huge opportunities for farmers to get credit tax, property rights and agricultural services. In urban areas, it will help urban local authorities in managing their property records for property tax, which will lead to revenue. This is a huge opportunity for us as a company. We have strong capabilities. We have been providing services in the field of land records in both rural and urban areas through our drone based digital twin solutions, property tax software systems and Mappls Pin, which is ULPIN (Urban Land Unique Land Parcel Identification Number) as mentioned here. Mappls Pin is a unique digital address and ID for every place. So this is a huge opportunity for us. This initiative by the government needs to be done carefully. It is a complex issue. My request is that it should be done jointly by the government and competent organisations in this field.
What exactly is this GIS mapping?
Rohan Verma: Essentially, in land records, road infrastructure drives logistical efficiency, supply chains, transportation, etc. Land records are central to rural areas so that people can say, “This is my property,” geospatially demarcated, along with records of rights and property ownership.
It allows you to get collateral, and you can take loans against that digitized collateral. And if you know the land parcel, you can give the right advice to the farmer on that farm. Similarly, in urban areas, once the land records are digitized, the land use is mapped, and you know what type of property is on that land parcel in the city, you can determine the property tax accordingly, whether it is for commercial use or residential use, etc., and then you can apply that to generate revenue and proper planning for the city or town. And all this is done through software platforms such as MGIS (geospatial analytics platform) offered by MapMyIndia.
This will be done through digital twin surveys by ground vehicles, on foot and even by drones to create full 3D maps, high resolution images, which will then be digitized to create information about each place. Finally, it will be marked with a unique digital ID like Aadhaar for the place, against which all sorts of information about its land records and all sorts of services that need to be provided will be mapped. Just like we have UPI for payments and Aadhaar for person identification, this ULPIN, or MapMyIndia’s equivalent or linked ID, Mappls Pin, can provide those capabilities. So there is a huge opportunity to not only reduce court disputes over land ownership but also provide economic empowerment, financial inclusion for everyone, enable proper urban planning, reduce congestion, improve air pollution and all of these things.There has also been a lot of talk across the startup industry about reducing dependency on global map solution providers. How is the mapping industry taking these announcements? What is your take?
Rohan Verma: These are very interesting times and there has been a lot of discussion on this subject recently. I have tried to stay silent. We have tried to stay silent. But since you have asked, I think it is worth answering. On the one hand, you have the global map providers who dominate the market and charge unfair or uncertain prices. Sometimes they give it away for free, sometimes they charge unfairly, sometimes they cut prices. These are uncertain sources of information that Indian businesses and consumers have come to depend on.
On the other hand, there are local companies that have no history or track record in mapping and need long-term innovation like MapMyIndia has done for 30 years, so they do quirky things like develop products based on foreign open source whose maps are not accurate or offer them for free.
Of course, a terrible product is not worth putting a price on, but MapMyIndia has been serving the Indian market with the best product at the best price for 30 years. Seeing our success, many other companies want to enter this space and we are happy to have competition. However, we want consumers, app developers and businesses to be aware that such practices by both global companies and incompetent local players should not disrupt the industry. After all, accurate maps are needed to solve mission-critical problems and we should not have a situation where consumers get lost in the water or businesses providing e-commerce, emergency services etc. have to suffer with unreliable maps.
I think people need to be careful not to succumb to these tactics played by foreign and local players.
