Indian space research organization and location and navigation technology solutions provider MapmyIndia have announced a partnership initiative to deliver India’s best fully indigenous mapping portal and geospatial services.

It combines the power of digital maps and technologies from MapmyIndia with ISRO’s catalog of satellite imagery and Earth observation data, according to Rohan Verma, CEO and executive director of MapmyIndia.

He called it a revolutionary milestone in India’s journey to ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’, where Indian users would not be dependent on foreign organizations for maps, navigation and geospatial services, and instead take advantage of the solutions. made in India.

“You don’t need to Goo * the Maps / Earth anymore,” Verma said in the headline of a LinkedIn post.

According to ISRO, the Department of Space (DoS) – ISRO is one of them – has partnered with MapmyIndia to combine their geospatial expertise and create holistic solutions by leveraging their geoportals.

DoS reached a memorandum of understanding on Thursday with geospatial technology company CE Info Systems Pvt Ltd, owner of MapmyIndia.

Under the partnership, the combined geospatial expertise of DoS and CE information systems would be leveraged through their respective geoportals, according to ISRO, headquartered in Bengaluru.

The collaboration will allow them to jointly identify and build holistic geospatial solutions using the Earth Observation, “NavIC” datasets, web services and APIs (application programming interface) available in MapmyIndia, the “Bhuvan”, “VEDAS” and “MOSDAC” geoportals, the space agency said in a statement.

The Indian Regional Satellite Navigation System (IRNSS) called NavIC (Navigation with Indian Constellation, is India’s own navigation system developed by ISRO.

Bhuvan is the national geoportal developed and hosted by ISRO comprising geospatial data, services and analysis tools.

VEDAS (VisualizationofEarthobservationDataandArchivalSystem) is an online geoprocessing platform using optical, microwave, thermal and hyperspectral EO data covering applications especially for academia, research and problem solving, according to ISRO.

MOSDAC (Meteorological and Oceanographic Satellite Data Archival Center) is a data repository for all ISRO meteorological missions and processes information related to weather, oceanography and tropical water cycles.

Verma said there are many reasons 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, outlining India’s borders according to the Indian government, and hosts its maps in India,” he said.

Thanks to the combined partnership with ISRO, maps, applications and services for end-users of MapmyIndia will now integrate with ISRO’s huge catalog of satellite images and Earth observation data, according to a report. MapmyIndia press release.

It would be a much better, more detailed and comprehensive mapping solution, as well as privacy-centric, hyper local and indigenous for Indians, compared to foreign mapping applications and solutions, he said.

Verma said there are many hidden costs associated with foreign mapping solutions.

For example, search engines and foreign companies claim to offer “free” cards, but in reality they make money by targeting the same users with advertisements based on invasion of user privacy and privacy. auctioning of the private location and movement data of these users, ”he said.

“This should be very alarming for all citizens.”

“On the other hand, MapmyIndia has an ethical stand against the advertising business models of these companies and, therefore, does not have an advertising business model. By using MapmyIndia maps and applications instead of foreign map applications, users can better protect their privacy, ”he said.

The “sustainable, direct and clean business model” ensures that MapmyIndias maps and applications can be kept free and ad-free to users, he said.

“MapmyIndias maps cover all 7.5 lakh villages, more than 7,500 cities at street and building level, connected by the 63 kilometers of road network across India and in cities, providing in total maps for over 3 million unprecedented locations across India, ”the company statement said.