Growth opportunities for Lidar in E governance

Rapid urbanization is generating a growing demand for geospatial data. Estimates suggest that about 600 million Indians will be living in cities by 2030, up from 290 million in the 2001 census. Cities accommodate nearly 31% of India's current population and contribute 63% of GDP. On the other hand, with US$3 billion and more allocated for Smart Cities, Digital India, Start-Up India, Make in India, Aayushman Bharat Yojana and other major policy initiatives, the central government will be a major driver of the geographic information system (GIS) market. Within GIS - the light detection and ranging sensor (LIDAR) stands out. It is a remote sensing system that uses global positioning systems to get accurate geographical information that can be used to create 3-D models and maps of objects and the environment. Its application can lead to better government policies, managing resources, urban planning and public safety. More importantly, it can lead to better governance across central and state departments.

Governments will be hard pressed in the future to enhance the quality of urban living as they will have to map all the urban facilities on a single geospatial format. Any mistake in gathering the data will prove fatal. Geographical Information System (GIS) map data is a depiction of reality in point, line, polygon, polyline format. Lack of trained manpower with administrations, insufficient urban resources, an absence of an advance mechanism to check the data sanctity pose a major challenge in the survey data validation. Innowave IT’s LIDAR-based mapping of cities creates a visual point in time data that can be integrated with GIS data. This data gives accurate validation of visual urban features, is transparent, online, and supports in-depth individual analysis. It also enhances revenue. Mumbai Municipal Corporation (MCGM) uses Innowave IT’s technology for property tax assessment and to find the deviations to enhance property tax revenue. This is the quickest process to define and map the unassessed, under assessed, and change in use properties without any city survey required. The process has minimal citizen interaction during mapping & survey execution and collects the most data required to find the deviations and modifications. The city visual data thus collected has immense potential for other urban and government departments such as road construction, water supply, traffic management, and solid waste management.

Geospatial and LIDAR technology has the power to make one easily understand and read the visual images after integrating multiple sources of information. Such data collection and integration will prove helpful for e-governance.

Natural Disaster Monitoring Centres around the world depend on GIS. In India, the National Dairy Development Board, Cairn India, Department of Environment in Jammu and Kashmir - all have deployed GIS.

The size of the GIS market in India is expected to be $10 billion in the next decade. Annual revenue of the global GIS market is expected to grow from an estimated $4 billion to $150 billion in the same period. Our hope is that with our unique LIDAR expertise, we will be at the forefront of capturing the arising huge demand and also contribute in our own way to smart or better governance in India.

Anant Raghute
MD, Innowave IT Infrastructures Ltd.