Can Bhuvan replace Google Maps in India?

India’s Geo platform, powered by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is named BHUVAN (means Earth in Sanskrit). BHUVAN, also called the Indian version of Google Maps, is a multi-purpose end-user satellite application platform.

BHUVAN was introduced with an aim to series of satellites. It allows users to download specific satellite data and products, and also lets scientists, academicians, policymakers and the general public learn more about geospatial data through an easy-to-use multi-lingual interface without any additional resources.

Bhuvan 2D is a slick, exciting online mapping application. It is a multi-purpose end-user satellite application platform. This software application allows the users to explore a 2D/3D representation of the surface of the Earth. The browser is specifically tailored to view India, offering the highest resolution in the region.

It offers detailed imagery of Indian locations compared to other Virtual Globe Software, with spatial resolutions ranging up to 1 metre. Due to security concerns, the images available do not include any military installations in India. The content is provided in four local languages.

It provides a variety of geospatial services, including mapping, navigation, and disaster management. It is a potential alternative to Google Maps in India.

BHUVAN acts as a clearing house for satellite data. It is a humongous software integrating and processing ground inputs with the help of satellite data for various different needs. All the state governments are benefitted by this software application. It experiences about 60 million user hits per month and offers nearly 3.6 lakh products, 800 GB transactions and 10 million data points. The Bhuvan portal is designed to run on slow Internet connections.

Bhuvan has several advantages over Google Maps. First, it is developed and maintained by ISRO, which is a government agency. This means that Bhuvan is not subject to the same privacy concerns as Google Maps. Second, Bhuvan has access to a vast amount of geospatial data from ISRO satellites, which gives it a more accurate and detailed picture of India than Google Maps. Third, Bhuvan offers a number of unique features, such as the ability to view maps in different languages and scripts.

However, Bhuvan also has some disadvantages compared to Google Maps. First, Bhuvan's user interface is not as user-friendly as Google Maps. Second, Bhuvan does not have the same level of global coverage as Google Maps. Third, Bhuvan does not offer some of the features that are available on Google Maps, such as street view and real-time traffic updates.

Overall, Bhuvan is a promising alternative to Google Maps in India. It has a number of advantages, such as its accuracy, reliability, and security. However, it still needs to improve in some areas, such as its user interface and global coverage.

Going forward, if the Indian government and ISRO invest in improving Bhuvan, it has the potential to replace Google Maps in India. However, this will likely take some time, as Google Maps has a significant first-mover advantage.

Dr. Deepak Kumar Sahu, President & CEO, VARINDIA