In what can be seen as yet another step towards ‘Atma Nirbhar Bharat’, ISRO along with MapmyIndia, announced the launching of a local mapping portal ‘Bhuvan’ that will compete with ‘Google Maps.
What is Bhuvan?
Rohan Verma, MapmyIndia CEO and ED said that Bhuvan will leverage their indigenous technology of digital mapping with ISRO’s satellite imagery capabilities and earth observatory data.
How Bhuvan will benefit India?
Bhuvan will be a revolutionary step towards making India ‘Aatma Nirbhar Bharat’. With Bhuvan, India will be self-reliant and will not have to rely on foreign firms for geospatial services, navigation, or maps. Most importantly, it will reflect India’s true sovereignty and will show India’s borders as per the Indian Government.
Google Maps v/s Bhuvan
Though Google Maps claim to be a free service, in reality, it uses users’ data to target advertisements. Also, it collects and monitors the user’s movement. As against this, Bhuvan is expected to offer in-depth and extensive data, which will ensure the privacy of the users. MapmyIndia does not have a business model based on advertising, and this will act as the biggest plus point for the users.
ISRO and CE Info Systems Join Hands for Bhuvan
Bhuvan services will be a collaboration between the Department of Science & Technology and CE Info Systems P Ltd, the owner of MapmyIndia. An official MOU has already been signed by both parties for the same.
Bhuvan, MOSDAC and VEDAS
The two companies will work together to identify and develop a holistic geospatial platform using APIs and NavIC web services that are datasets on earth’s observation. The geospatial portals will be named Bhuvan, MOSDAC, and VEDAS.
While NavIC is a local navigation system designed by ISRO, Bhuvan is India’s geoportal services that include geospatial data, services, and analytical tools.
Visualization of Earth observation Data and Archival System (VEDAS) is yet another online platform for geo-processing developed especially for academics, research, and developing solutions. The platform uses hyper-spectral EO, thermal, microwave, and optical data.
The Meteorological and Oceanographic Satellite Data Archival Centre or MOSDAC will serve as a database for meteorological studies of ISRO. It stores information on weather, tropical water cycles, oceanography, and more. The success of our own Bhuvan will be seen in the days to come. But for now, we are totally for ‘Aatma Nirbhar Bharat’.
