June 15, 2010 – NAVTEQ, the leading global provider of maps, traffic and location data enabling navigation, location-based services and mobile advertising around the world has announced that it has completed an Enterprise Reseller Agreement with NIIT GIS Ltd. (Esri India), the leading provider of GIS and location intelligence solutions with more than 33 years of experience.  With this Enterprise Reseller Agreement in place, Esri India  can now offer the complete suite of NAVTEQ-enhanced data solutions to its range of enterprise customers.

Known for their quality, NAVTEQ maps are built to a single data specification allowing customers to easily and cost-effectively optimise processes, manage assets and increase productivity.  As an authorised NAVTEQ distributor, Esri India will have the ability to sell NAVTEQ’s robust map data and bundle it with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software to deliver comprehensive location intelligence solutions.  NAVTEQ had previously signed a similar contract with the Esri Australia group in October last year.

“We are committed to providing our customers with high-quality solutions to meet their increasing location intelligence needs.”, , EsriIndia.
“We are committed to providing our customers with high-quality solutions to meet their increasing location intelligence needs,” stated S. Sridhar, President & COO NIIT GIS Ltd. (Esri India) . “NAVTEQ is known for its unrivaled map data and location content used to enable enterprise solutions.  We believe the addition of the NAVTEQ map to our product portfolio will not only provide us with a competitive edge as a location intelligence solutions provider but will deliver to our customers unique advantages as well.”

“This agreement represents a significant leap forward for NAVTEQ and NIIT GIS Ltd. (Esri India) in the industry segment. Together we are helping businesses become more profitable and public service agencies become more efficient through a better understanding and analysis of location-based information.” says Ogi Redzic, vice president, sales & business development, Asia Pacific, NAVTEQ. “The combined capabilities of NAVTEQ and NIIT GIS Ltd. (Esri India)  are certain to deliver huge benefits for the broad range of enterprise spatial customers in this region.” he added. 

Clients of Esri in India will benefit through access to the full suite of NAVTEQ Enterprise digital map-based products and services. This includes high quality digital mapping data for enhanced mobile asset management, internet applications, GIS applications, geomarketing applications, call centre applications and telematics services.

New Delhi Dec 2, 2010: Geographic Information System (GIS) is today no longer a niche technology used by some. GIS or Geospatial Technology has become a mainstream IT application area and the adoption of GIS to improve the acquisition, management and analysis of geospatial data is mandatory in most National Projects today. Various national programs as well as corporate business houses today leverage geospatial technology for better governance and decision making. Esri is the technology leader worldwide in the field of GIS and Geospatial solutions. Its ArcGIS suite of software solutions provides GIS solutions from the desktop to the server to the handheld devices to the cloud.

The importance of Imagery and Image Analysis has been core to GIS. Studying and analyzing Images from satellites, aircraft, etc., are essential in creating the basic framework for GIS Applications. ITT Visual Information Solutions has been one of the leaders in providing Image Analysis solutions through their ENVI & IDL suite of products. They have a close integration with Esri’s suite of software giving ArcGIS users the ability to access ENVI tools for analyzing geospatial imagery directly from within the ArcGIS desktop and server environments. NIIT GIS Limited is the sole distributors for the entire Esri and ENVI Product suite and Services in India, Nepal & Bhutan.

To bring forth the value of new technology trends, NIIT GIS Limited, known by its brand name Esri India, is currently organizing 1-day seminars, Esri India’s GeoVision Seminar Series, across the 13 cities for an invited audience of senior officers and thought leaders. This is to evangelize the use of GIS tools and acquaint users of the benefits they get by using this technology in their applications. They are also showcasing the latest advancements in Esri’s ArcGIS ver 10 and its seamless interconnectivity ITT VIS’s ENVI. The highlights of the Seminar are the talks given by eminent users and practioners of GIS during the event. The seminar is covering not only the larger Metros but also smaller towns like Nagpur, Dehradun, Chandigarh and Guwahati, as today GIS has reached these areas too. The response to the ongoing Seminar series has been tremendous and Esri India feels that it has met the goal with which they are being organized. The Seminar Series started on October 28th at Hyderabad and end on December 22nd at Guwahati.
Explaining the rationale behind these Seminars, Mr. Rajesh C Mathur, Vice Chairman, NIIT GIS Limited said “Today 80 percent of our decisions have geographic dimensions. GIS is playing a crucial role in every aspect of our life. Development is putting a lot of pressure on infrastructure. GIS provides us a comprehensive approach in planning and decision making. Our attempt through the seminar is also to demonstrate the power of the new ver 10 of Esri’s ArcGIS and its close integration with our Image Processing product from ITT VIS called ENVI.”

The Theme of the Seminar is ‘GIS - opening the World to Every One’. Speaking on the same, Mr. S.Sridhar, President & COO, NIIT GIS Limited, said “Over the past couple of years, we have seen tremendous strides made in the communication and the devices technology along with the rapid evolution of web and cloud computing. Esri’s GIS technology has kept pace with these developments and have enabled Geospatial information to be integrated seamlessly into the enterprise Information System, thus making it easier for the decision makers to take more informed decisions. In India too, we have seen tremendous interest in adapting to this new paradigm and I am sure over the next couple of years, we will have many more geospatially enabled Information Systems implemented in different organizations”

August 18, 2010 New Delhi, India: GIS Development, the organizers of the upcoming Geospatial World Forum, the mega biannual global confluence of geospatial professionals, is pleased to announce  ESRI India as Corporate Partner for the conference.

On this occasion, Rajesh C. Mathur, Vice Chairman, Esri India said, “Geospatial World Forum (formerly known as Map World Forum) has always been an apt platform for the Industry, Government and Academia working in the field of Geospatial technologies to be the part of this global geospatial congregation. This world forum not only provides an opportunity to network with the large user segment under one roof but also give an insight to the world of new updated technologies in geospatial domain ” He further said, “We Esri India will definitely add value to the objective of the forum.”

Expressing his pleasure at the collaboration, Sanjay Kumar, CEO, GIS Development, the organisers of the forum said, “We are indeed pleased to welcome Esri India on board as a Corporate Partner of Geospatial World Forum. With the extensive technical experience and expertise that Esri India brings with it, we are confident it will add immense value to the conference. It has always been our endeavor to provide the best networking and collaboration opportunities to our partners and delegates, and Esri India’s participation will surely help in achieving this aim.”

July 1st 2010, Thursday, New Delhi: NIIT GIS Limited (ESRI India) today announced the appointment of Mr. S Sridhar as the President and COO to operate from the Corporate Office at New Delhi. Mr. Sridhar will be an imperative part of the top management team and will be responsible for driving the business of NIIT GIS Ltd., both from technology and solutions perspective. 

Welcoming the new member to the management team, Mr. Rajesh C. Mathur, Vice Chairman, NIIT GIS Ltd., said, “We are delighted to have Sridhar on board. His broad background with varied industries and his extensive experience with global operations will definitely add a significant value to our service offerings. His understanding of the marketplace and passion for GIS technology are a perfect combination to lead our vision - GIS for everyone and everywhere.”

Sridhar is a Mechanical Engineer from University of Madras and has done his Post Graduate in Business Management from IIM Ahmedabad. He brings on the table, rich experience in building businesses across multiple verticals and geographies associated with high-end technologies and solutions, with over 30 years of experience in managing IT, CAD and GIS organizations. He shall supplement the business development by leveraging his extensive experience in handling global business development and delivery operations.

Sridhar most recently was a part of the executive team of Larsen & Toubro Ltd., heading the Integrated Engineering Services Business for their Chennai and Bangalore centres as well as the global operations of major vertical practices. Prior to this he has worked with major IT companies like HCL, Silicon Graphics, Autodesk & Magnasoft.

For ESRI India queries please contact:
Prakash N. Menon
GM - Marketing
+91(11) 45700700
prakash.menon@niit-tech.com 

New Delhi, January 28, 2010, Thursday: NIIT GIS Ltd has entered into a strategic relationship with ITT Visual Information Solutions (ITT VIS) of Boulder, Colorado, a subsidiary of ITT Corporation, the developers of ENVI image processing and analysis software. As part of this partnership, NIIT GIS Ltd. will become the exclusive distributors of the ENVI suite of image processing software products for India, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka Sri Lanka beginning January 1, 2010. This suite of ITT VIS products includes ENVI, ENVI EX and IDL products.

This distributor arrangement was recently formalized between NIIT GIS Ltd. and ITT VIS at New Delhi, and a smooth transition process from the former ITT distributor, Sierra Atlantic, to NIIT GIS Ltd. was also initiated. NIIT GIS Ltd. and Sierra Atlanta will work to smoothly transition any existing user requirements,support, etc.in the coming months.

NIIT GIS Ltd. is also the sole authorized distributor for ESRI’s ArcGIS family of GIS software and solutions in India, Bhutan and Nepal, along with many ESRI Partner solutions. Expanding its suite of products to include the new ENVI distributorship, NIIT GIS Ltd. will offer the widest range of state-of-art and innovative ESRI-GIS and ENVI Image Processing technology to the geo-spatial community in this part of the world.

This strategic relationship between ITT and NIIT GIS Ltd. is an extension of the ITT and ESRI partnership to integrate each company’s respective software technologies, which will deliver advanced, high performance image processing and analysis capabilities to the ArcGIS platform and expand the distribution of these technologies globally. The partnership helps a growing number of professionals get information from geospatial imagery and integrate it with GIS applications in a variety of industries, including environmental monitoring, urban planning, defense and intelligence, oil and gas, and agriculture.

Under this agreement NIIT GIS Ltd. will also begin distributing the newly introduced ITT product, ENVI EX, an image processing and analysis product that is tightly integrated with ArcGIS and designed specifically for GIS applications. Based on ENVI, ITT's image processing and analysis product, ENVI EX now provides ArcGIS users with ENVI's image analysis methods and algorithms. The product's interface guides users step by step through analyzing satellite and airborne imagery and data across a wide range of imaging modalities. The integration between ENVI EX and ArcGIS allows GIS users to exchange data and files from ArcGIS to ENVI EX with drag and drop methods that preserve the style, symbology, vectors, and layer information from one product to another.

“ESRI and ITT VIS have aligned their products and thus it is logical that we offer a combined suite of ESRI and ITT VIS products to our users. We believe that image processing and GIS technology is closely aligned to provide seamless capability at image and map processing and allowing for image-information ingest to GIS directly. This will be a tremendous capability to users to work on images and ingest to a GIS geodatabase and vice-versa use GIS geodatabase to process and serve images. ENVI has tremendous features – especially in change analysis in images and advanced modules in image processing. We are happy to be working with ITT VIS and enable a good synergy on these innovative technologies to users”, said Dr. Mukund Rao, President & COO, NIIT GIS Ltd.

“We are very pleased to enter into this strategic partnership with NIIT GIS Ltd. as the next important step in our growing partnership with ESRI and its global family of distributors.  Together we will  deliver leading edge and comprehensive image processing solutions that combine ease of use with scientific rigor all seamlessly integrated with ArcGIS”, said Richard Cooke, president of ITT Visual Information Solutions.  “We will work closely with NIIT GIS Ltd. and Sierra Atlantic over the coming weeks to ensure a smooth transition for our valued customers and we look forward to the opportunity this will give us tohelp GIS professionals in the region recognize the benefits of adding imagery to their GIS workflows.“

New Delhi, December 2009: Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM), the primary agency for urban governance in Mumbai, India, has selected ESRI ArcGIS Server technology as its citywide geographic information system (GIS) enterprise management solution. ArcGIS Server will integrate images, detailed maps, and property-level maps and link them to a wide range of enterprise data used for various city functions.

NIIT GIS Limited is working with MCGM to develop a large-volume GIS geodatabase and 12 custom ArcGIS applications, which will assist the city in its property taxation, utility management, vehicle tracking system, and land-use development.

MCGM is one of the largest local governments in the Asian continent. The organization caters to a service area of approximately 437.71 square kilometers, including seven islands and four island suburbs. The MCGM jurisdiction area houses about 11.9 million people, with a population density of about 27,209 people per square kilometer. Like most city organizations its size, MCGM requires fast and easy access to digital maps and data.

ArcGIS Server will provide a common platform for authorized and secured access to data to harmonize the workflow of respective departments and disseminate information for the public’s benefit.

"MCGM considers GIS as a solution that brings in greater efficiency by promoting information sharing across multiple departments, speedy decision making, and transparency in the functioning of corporations," says Shantaram Shinde, joint municipal commissioner, MCGM. "GIS is part of creating an information infrastructure needed for providing effective government services in the twenty-first century as a stable governance-oriented decision support system."

"NIIT GIS will work closely with MCGM to establish and support its very critical endeavor," says Mukund Rao, president and chief operating officer, NIIT GIS Ltd. "It is a mission to make the city benefit from the use of GIS technology. With the ESRI platform as its core, we will work with all stakeholders in the city and bring the best value to the city of Mumbai."

In the past, MCGM has used GIS as a desktop solution but not as an enterprise solution to support governance. With the ability of ArcGIS Server to handle large-scale maps and networks and integrate with management information system solutions, MCGM believes it can use ArcGIS to better serve the people of Mumbai.

New Delhi, September 18, 2009: NIIT GIS Limited has been in the forefront of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in India. The company offers a wide range of GIS Solutions based on ESRI Technology worldwide to help governments and public undertakings leverage GIS in order to make more informed management decisions and provide enhanced service to its constituents.

 Dr Mukund Rao, President and Chief Operating Officer, NIIT GIS Ltd. has been honored with National Geo-Spatial Excellence Award by Indian Society of Remote Sensing (ISRS). The award was presented by Dr. Shailesh Nayak, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences and President, ISRS, at a felicitation ceremony held at Nagpur, India.  Dr. Rao has made extensive contributions to the Indian community in Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS).

  “GIS is an effective tool for governance and decision-making for large government programs. Dr. Mukund Rao’s innovative work in deploying GIS technology has contributed to numerous value-added applications. He has made a difference by integrating remote sensing with GIS.” said Mr. Arvind Thakur, CEO, NIIT Technologies Ltd.  

NIIT GIS Ltd. brings horizontal and vertical integration of satellite/aerial imagery, Remote sensing, Photogrammetry, GPS Applications, GIS web services & Portals, and enterprise solutions.  The company has vast experience in seamless integration of spatial technology and conventional IT solutions and has emerged as leaders in the geospatial technology arena with the largest share in the Indian market.

New Delhi, August 3, 2009: Karnataka, an important state of India, has been a pioneering state in setting up a disaster monitoring (established way back in 1988) through its Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC), an autonomous body under the Department of Science and Technology, Government of Karnataka. The KSNDMC has the major responsibility to monitor and pro-actively provide advanced information on natural disasters in the state of Karnataka. The Centre integrates the data collected by in-situ measurements, imaging and secondary data from various state and central Government agencies - Meteorology, Agriculture, Horticulture, Surface and Ground Water Resources, Dry Land Farming, Water-shed Development, Soil Survey, Surface Water Resources, Command Area Development and many others. The Centre has been in operation from 1988 and has large volumes of historical records and data, which when integrated with current data, serves as a major dataset for developing empirical and mathematical models for prognostic and diagnostic characterization of natural hazards. KSNDMC provides Decision Support information on disasters to various government agencies and community agencies in the form of graphs, maps and tabulated data.

The KSNDMC decided to establish a Disaster Portal – by taking up a major initiative of converting all their data holdings into a real-time geodatabase and analysis systems. With their powerful empirical models, KSNDMC envisages the Portal to be a GIS service that will provide real-time estimates of drought, rainfall, crop status, earthquake monitors and many other parameters. The Portal is a sophisticated project that embeds the geodatabase on a powerful map and imaging server software to be able to model and estimate the disaster and provide alerts thru web, SMS and also in conventional maps/reports.

The KSNDMC decided to adopt the ArcGISServer technology to power their GIS portal for Disaster Monitoring. As the real-time collection, modeling and dissemination of disaster related information is of utmost importance, KSNDMC decided to establish a Web-GIS based Disaster Monitoring portal. The architecture being server–based, will lay the foundation for hosting and serving images and data information. ESRI’s globally utilized and accepted ARcGIS Technology was chosen to be at the core of this GIS portal. The ArcGISServer will be used to establish a customized geodatabase ingest method using historical nd real-time networks of automatic weather station data, earthquake seismograph stations data and a host of other base data of disaster. Customised ArcGIS modeling tools will integrate and “crunch” all the data to be able make empirical estimates using the already available KSNDMC models for drought and floods etc. The entire portal is being designed, developed and implemented with help of NIIT GIS Ltd. (ESRI India).

“Disaster Monitoring requires real-time spatial data and integrated non-spatial attributes and powerful tools of spatialisation for modeling. KSNDMC has established simple and empirical models but this needs the power of a good database to be able to be predictive and cut down time of manually analyzing and dissemination of paper maps. Further, the technology has to be able to incorporate real-time measurements from a variety of instruments and observations” says Dr. V.Prakash, Director of the KSNDMC.

 “To us this is a challenging project as for the first time GIS is being used to ingest, model and disseminate disaster related data. ArcGISServer technology is most suited for this as it is able to “mash-up” real-time data, images and integrate the models as an “application service” and serve the application (with data) on demand to a variety of platforms – web, hand-helds and also in paper maps. We are committed to make this project a unique bench-mark” said Dr. Mukund Rao, President & COO, ESRI India. 

This unique and first-of-its kind GIS Application project using ESRI software technology gives a new hope to GIS users in the world that GIS has a major role to play in Disaster Monitoring and dissemination. ESRI

India envisages that this Karnataka project would serve as major reference within all the government agencies especially those who deal with dissemination and use imagery and related data information in the field of disaster management.

Dr K Kasturirangan, Member (Science), Planning Commission was honoured for “Making a Difference” by the global GIS community for his significant contribution in the field of Remote Sensing and GIS at the recently concluded 2009 ESRI International User Conference, held during July 13-17 at the San Diego Convention Center in California, USA.

 Dr. K.Kasturirangan has far-reaching contributions to the global community of Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS). Dr Kasturirangan has been the key person to have taken IRS images to the world and also in making the use of images in India to large applications on natural resources management, disaster management support and for national development. In his drive for the use of spatial technology, Dr Kasturirangan has championed the extensive usage of satellite imagery and GIS to bring great value and benefit to society and individuals. Dr Kasturirangan has spearheaded the National Natural Resources Management System (NNRMS) under which the largest GIS project of Natural Resources Information System (NRIS) has been organized in almost all states of the country. He was also the key visionary to conceptualise and steer the establishment of Indian’s National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI). Apart from this, he is also credited for taking the use of IRS images and GIS for many other applications in crops/agriculture; Disaster Management; Bio-diversity characterization and Forests; Water Resources and ground water targeting; Wasteland Mapping and many others. For these achievements, Dr Kasturirangan received the “Making a Difference” award from Jack Dangermond, President, ESRI Inc., USA in front of more than 12,000 GIS delegates at the 2009 ESRI International User Conference.

 Dr.Kasturirangan served for more than nine years as Secreatary, Department of Space and Chairman of Space Commission and is the key stalwart who has brought many successes for India’s Space Programme. During his tenure many IRS and GIS applications were crafted and the use of GIS technology grew manifold in the country. In 2003, Dr Kasturirangan was nominated to the Rajya Sabha, where he lent his expertise in many of the Consultative Committees like Energy, Ministry of Human Resource Development and Parliamentary Forum on Water. Recently in July, 2009 he was nominated as a Member (Science) of the national Planning Commission by the Prime Minister of India.

During his distinguished career Dr.Kasturirangan has been conferred with many national and international awards. His services to the nation were recognized with the conferring of the Padma Shri (1982), Padma Bhushan (1992) and the Padma Vibhushan (2000).

 “Dr Kasturirangan’s pioneering work in deploying GIS technology in different spheres should add rigour to all areas of work of the Planning Commission” said Mr R S Pawar, Chairman of NIIT-GIS Limited (ESRI India).

  “He makes an enormous difference because of the integration of remote sensing into GIS and also the tremendous focus he has created on applications. Dr. Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan is going to be a master of bringing geography to virtually everywhere in India and will be an example for all of us” Jack Dangermond, President, ESRI Inc., said in presenting the award.

 In an interview to ESRI after the award ceremony, Dr Kasturirangan said that he accepted the “Making a Difference” award on behalf of the dedicated team at IRSO, various government and private sector agencies in India that are sharing a common GIS goal and the large number of GIS and remote sensing technology professionals throughout the world. “GIS is an important tool for bringing transparency and scientific method in governance and decision-making. GIS is all pervasive and touches almost all aspects of society – be it citizens, private enterprise or government. India has been a major leader in GIS and has played an important role in the international community in shaping Imaging and GIS thoughts and concepts. I am happy to be a part of this GIS community” Dr Kasturirangan said. 

NIIT GIS Ltd. (ESRI India) joins the global community of GIS professionals and lauds the great contributions of Dr Kasturirangan and congratulates him for this distinctive award.

The Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) received a Special Achievement in GIS (SAG) Award at the 2009 ESRI International User Conference (ESRI UC) in San Diego, California. The organization received this honor for its vision, leadership, and innovative use of ESRI's geographic information system (GIS) technology. INCOIS was selected from more than 300,000 organizations worldwide and recognized during SAG awards ceremony at ESRI International User Conference for making extraordinary contributions to our global society. The Award was recieved by B. V. Satyanarayana, Head, Computational Facilities and Web based Services Group, INCOIS. 

 INCOIS provides a number of oceanographic services to the Indian Ocean region. The organization directly impacts the lives of millions who are dependent on the coastal areas and are also directly vulnerable to the effects of natural disasters. For example, the organization’s Tsunami Warning Centre notifies local residents that a tsunami may be approaching. GIS tools are also used to generate and analyze spatial data. The INCOIS Potential Fishing Zone Advisories identify areas where fish activity is high. These advisories have proven to be helpful in reducing fisherman search time by 60 to 70 percent, thereby reducing fuel consumption and valuable human effort. Prior to implementing a GIS in 2001, most of the organization’s spatial information was disseminated in a textual form.  Now, the organization is able to provide services through maps accessible from a GIS-enabled Web site. Users can perform analysis and customize personal maps. Furthermore, location-based services are provided by sending alerts on mobile phones.

 "Our world is being challenged by rapid change," says Jack Dangermond, ESRI president. "GIS technology is increasingly being deployed as a way to understand the issues facing our society. At ESRI, we are always extremely impressed with the work of our users and want to recognize their efforts with our Special Achievement in GIS Award. Their work is a great example of using GIS to improve our world."

 On this occasion Dr. Shailesh Nayak, Secretary of Earth Sciences cited that “The award is recognition of great team effort in Utilising Geospatial Technology for the societal benefit”

Congratulating INCOIS on receiving the SAG award, Dr. Mukund Rao President and Chief Operating Officer, ESRI India said, "It is an honor for GIS users in India that INCOIS has been chosen for this coveted award. We are proud to be associated with this state-of-art information system built using ESRI technology to provide early warnings for tsunami and coastal hazard mitigation” 

Other Organizations honored in the past for Special Achievement Award in GIS include - National Atlas and Thematic Mapping Organization, Space Applications Centre, Geological Survey of India, National Informatics Centre, Survey of India, TWAD Board, Reliance Infocomm and Bangalore Water and Sewerage Services Board

After twelve successful years at ESRI India; building and establishing ESRI as the leading technology in India; Mr. Rajesh C Mathur has passed on his operational responsibilities to Dr. Mukund Rao. While continuing to guide ESRI India as its Vice Chairman,  Mr. Mathur has also been given additional role in NIIT Technologies Ltd. as Head – Government Practice. In his new role in NTL he would focus on NTL business activities in the Government Sector and create synergies between NTL’s technology solutions and GIS business. ESRI India has also restructured the leadership team that will continue to build on this foundation and drive the next phase of growth.

Dr. Mukund Rao has been appointed the President and Chief Operating Officer, ESRI India. Dr. Rao with his impeccable credentials and over 28 years of vast experience mainly in Remote Sensing and GIS technology would provide ESRI India with fresh insights to take the organization to greater heights. Mr. Vatsal G Dave, who was earlier the Zonal Head for West, would be driving the domestic sales business as National Sales Head and Mr. Prakash N Menon, earlier Zonal Head for South will lead the Corporate Marketing Team as General Manager- Marketing. Mr. A. Ravi Kumar, has joined the ESRI India team to lead the Technical Services Group as Head - TSG. Widening and adding depth to ESRI India’s portfolio and to focus on specific segments, Power and Defence have been added as strategic verticals.  

Reflecting on his tenure and future, Mr. Mathur said “The industry has grown substantially over these years. There has been a major technology transformation that we have witnessed moving from desktop applications to enterprise applications. Not just has the awareness of GIS grown over the years but also the usage of GIS within India in these years has gone up considerably.

With the increased emphasis on infrastructure and the capacity building initiatives by the Government and Industry the usage of GIS will continue to grow. I am confident that under the new leadership team, organized into Sales and Marketing Group; Technical Services Group and specific Practices, ESRI India is well prepared to be a catalyst in this evolution.” 

Commenting on the road ahead Dr. Rao said “ We have adopted a motto for ourselves – to provide much more for much less, which essentially means to position ArcGIS products and solutions to our customers as a most cost effective solution for their requirements. This is possible by bringing in extreme efficiency in the process of delivery, thinking ahead, acting ethically and delivering what the customer wants in a schedule that is expected. We believe, this will make the customer very satisfied and make him come back to ESRI India again and again and again. That is the principle we are going to work on and we shall be successful.

Application to provide Authoritative map data with Integrated Geospatial information to citizens through collaboration of various Government agencies Singapore Land Authority recently awarded the contract to develop its Intelligent Map System to NIIT GIS.The system is envisaged to be the next generation mapping portal for various government and private agencies including citizens of Singapore enabling them to share spatial content using internet services, accessible on desktop and mobile platforms. It will be designed to serve a common base map of Singapore for displaying location information along with intelligent search and navigation tools, thus facilitating multiple agencies to mash up spatial content and provide a variety of useful information in an integrated environment.  NIIT GIS will develop the system using industry leading ESRI ArcGIS Server technology - the first in the industry to provide mash up capability and implement it on a turnkey basis including state of the art hardware, software and helpdesk support.

NIIT GIS has a large and competent team of professionals and rich experience in developing Server GIS based Content Dissemination Portals and it plans to leverage the full potential offered by ArcGIS technology and develop a scalable and responsive GIS application for the Singapore Land Authority. It will be a first of its kind implementation in Singapore for facilitating spatial data users across the country to deploy map data and GIS processing tasks in lightweight, customized Web mapping applications, thus providing simpler ways to integrate spatial content. Speaking on the award of the project, NIIT-GIS Chief Operating Officer Dr Mukund Rao said "NIIT-GIS is proud to be associated with this unique intelligent map system of SLA. We will closely work with ESRI Singapore and will bring its ESRI India strengths to this project. NIIT-GIS is committed to the success of this project and would deliver a world-class solution by crafting and designing the best of the GIS solution for it”. Mr Kailash Agarwal, Asia Pacific Head of GIS Business, NIIT Technologies, Singapore, added that “This award is reflection of the single-minded effort and commitment of NIIT to expand our unique GIS solutions offerings within the region by working with local ESRI Distributors”.

1 September 2008,New Delhi

ESRI India welcomes its new Chief Operating Officer - Dr. Mukund Rao – who joined ESRI India in end-August, 2008. He will be based at ESRI India Corporate Office, New Delhi and will strengthen the top management team to drive the business of ESRI India – both from technology and solutions perspective.

Mukund graduated in Geology and after his Masters in Geology completed his Masters in Philosophy in Remote Sensing and GIS. He has also been awarded Doctorate in Remote Sensing and GIS from Andhra University. Mukund has over 27 years of experience – mainly in Remote Sensing and GIS technology and business. Prior to joining ESRI India, for 3 years he led Navayuga Spatial Technologies as its CEO and focused on building and developing the GIS business for the Navayuga Group. Prior to that, he has worked with ISRO for 24 years in the area of IRS satellite systems, RS and GIS Applications systems, NNRMS, NSDI and NUIS and also in developing various national and international GIS programs.

 Some of his major achievements have been in developing and positioning the IRS Utilisation and NNRMS programme – especially the Natural Resources Information System (NRIS), National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI), National Urban Information System (NUIS) and other major image and GIS-based strategy initiatives. Mukund has also served as the First President of GSDI Association and has been Vice President of Indian Astronautical Federation and also elected to International Academy of Astronautics (IAA). Mukund is recipient of Hari Om Ashram Vikram Sarabhai Young Scientist Award for work done in the field of GIS and Remote Sensing.

Welcoming the new member to the management team, Mr. Rajesh C. Mathur, President ESRI India, said, “We are delighted to have Mukund on board. He has been a part of the Indian GIS community for more than two decades. His understanding of the marketplace and passion for GIS technology are a perfect combination to lead our vision - GIS for everyone and everywhere.”

1 September 2008,New Delhi

Reliance Energy, Ltd., in Maharashtra, India, has demonstrated vision and leadership, using ESRI's geographic information system (GIS) technology to better serve the world. To recognize this passionate approach to applying GIS solutions, ESRI presented the organization with the Special Achievement in GIS (SAG) Award on August 6, 2008, at the 28th Annual ESRI International User Conference (ESRI UC) in San Diego, California. 

Reliance Energy is India’s largest integrated private sector power utility company that manages the generation, transmission, distribution, and trade of power. To improve efficiency for its four million customers, the utility chose to implement Miner & Miner’s ArcFM solution, based on ESRI’s ArcGIS software, for their Mumbai and Delhi Electric Distribution System. Today, more than 1,500 Reliance users access utility network data through ArcIMS technology from any place at any time.

The hallmark of Reliance Energy’s enterprise-wide GIS implementation is the integrated approach. Reliance’s IT department has successfully made their GIS a workspace for all field processes, from operations and maintenance to planning. The interface of GIS with other key systems helps utility managers and executives find new ways to optimize operations, increase work efficiency, and improve business processes. 

“At ESRI, we are always deeply impressed by the innovation of our users," said Jack Dangermond, ESRI president. "We want to recognize the efforts of these individuals with our Special Achievement in GIS Award. This recognition is well deserved for how they've applied geospatial technology to address the needs of their industries and communities. They are defining GIS best practices."

Geospatial Today concluded its Annual Special Event of Indian Geospatial Awards, Survey 2008 release and round table discussion on 25th April, 2008 held at Hotel Le Meridian, New Delhi. Mr. Rajender Singh Pawar, Chairman, NIIT, was conferred with “The Geospatial Entrepreneur of the Year Award” in this event. This Award is presented to an entrepreneur of Indian Geospatial company in recognition of his/her achievements, excellence and innovation. This Award is based on the success and efforts of the individual towards increasing employment, developing innovative business methods and economic growth