National Geospatial Awards 2025

The jury/ organizing committee of the National Geospatial Awards 2025 (Edition 02) has voted to honour “Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad”, with the ‘Best University (National) Award’, during the ‘Open Source GIS Day’ celebrations at IIT Bombay on 17 July 2025. This award is being bestowed for VTU and its affiliated colleges’ active contributions to Geospatial Sciences and Technology, and participation in FOSSEE GIS’s Open Source GIS activities. The jury has also voted to honour Dr. Vijaya Lakshmi Thatiparthi (University College of Engineering, Science and Technology with the National Geospatial Faculty Fellow (Jury) Award during the event for his exemplary contributions to the first of geospatial sciences and technology.

Esri India Launches GeoAI Competency Centre

Esri India Technologies announced the opening of a new GIS and AI competency centre in Noida on July 1. The company will invest over `150 crore in this initiative over the next five years. The centre aims to accelerate the use of AI in GIS applications across various sectors in India.The new facility will expand Esri India’s workforce with AI specialists, data scientists, GIS experts, and domain professionals.

GIS mapping may clear doubts over number of functional public taps in Kochi, India

The number of functional public taps in Kochi, a bone of contention between the Kochi Corporation and the Kerala Water Authority (KWA), is likely to be finalised soon, thanks to an app driven GIS mapping of public taps across the State held earlier this year. The KWA and the Local Self-Government department (LSGD) conducted the week long GIS mapping in March after many local bodies complained about disparity in the number of functional public taps.

According to the KWA, the initial mapping found no disparity in the total number of public taps within the Kochi Corporation limits from the figure reached during a Kochi city-specific GIS mapping held in 2021. “Nearly 5,200 public taps were found in that mapping conducted jointly with the Corporation, which had contested the number of taps and the functional ones among them. The latest mapping also threw up the same number, though the separation of functional and dysfunctional ones among them would be known only in the final report,” said KWA sources.

MapmyIndia gains on `233 crore mapping data deal from overseas client

MapmyIndia has secured a map data licensing contract worth approximately `233 crore from a private sector international client.

The company did not disclose the name of the client, stating that it is “competitive sensitivitive data.”

The project, classified as a domestic use map licensing deal, will be executed over a period of seven years, the company said in a regulatory f iling. www.cnbctv18.com

GIS survey may get Rs 20 crore incentive from Centre

After completing the aerial survey to get the 3D map of 240 square km of Hubballi-Dharwad, Karnataka’s f irst full-fledged pan-city 3D GIS survey project has entered the mobile LiDAR mapping stage of collecting 3D data of the urban area. Soon, this project will enter the most important phase of door-to-door survey which may last for six months.

The Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Corporation (HDMC) is spending Rs 23.1 crore from its own resource for this survey of a 15-month duration. The civic body expects the GIS survey to help bring all properties into the tax net with accurate assessment, resulting in a drastic increase in its revenue.

According to HDMC Commissioner, “As we will get all details of roads, properties, open spaces and even trees on a single platform, this will also be useful for urban planning. For example, we should not have to go for another detailed physical survey of a road for its development plan, as road length, width and even encroachments will be available at f ingertips in the 3D model database,”

The contracts to conduct GIS survey in 12 zones of the HDMC are awarded to Genesys International Corporation Limited and RSI Softech India Private Limited. The project includes 3D mapping, ground truthing, database creation, property tax management software development, and updating it for next three years. www.deccanherald.com

Remote GeoSystems secures patent

Remote GeoSystems, Inc. announces the award of US Patent Number 12,244,844 for using software-based methods for taking video and GPS log files and combining them to create a single video file with continuously-embedded GPS location data throughout the video. These software-based methods differ from existing methods that require complex and expensive gyro-stabilized gimbal cameras and specialized video recording hardware – usually mounted on manned aircraft platforms – during the video recording mission.

This patent, and its functional availability in the company’s LineVision software, solves a long-standing challenge for many users trying to incorporate video from small drones, action cameras, cell phones and other consumer-oriented video cameras into professional GIS and defense oriented mapping software