mapmyindia shows the way

MapmyIndia is India’s leading Tracking, GPS navigation/GIS/tracking solutions and digital maps company (www.mapmyindia.com). 

MapmyIndia has been a key driver in ushering the GPS navigation revolution into the country. Rakesh Verma (Managing Director) has also been a member of the Planning Commission’s GIS committee, a rare recognition to a private enterprise in digital mapping and GIS verticals.

MapmyIndia offers cutting-edge technology and highly dependable people-tracking and vehicle tracking solutions. These are helping companies secure their staff and assets. And even individuals are using the MapmyIndia solutions for the safety of their loved ones and vehicles. Many travel and cab services have deployed MapmyIndia tracking which is not just helping them secure passengers but also contributing significantly towards enhancing their service levels and operational efficiencies. Leading cab operators like Ola Cabs, Taxiforsure, LPTI etc. are using MapmyIndia’ tracking. 

MapmyIndia is also playing a key role in developing smart cities and Swacch Bharat initiatives, as the company recently implemented India’s first GPS Guided Biometric System for the staff and Safaai Karmchaaris of Ambala Municipal Corporation. MapmyIndia GPS Guided Biometric System (MGGBS) will ensure that all 1000 safaai karmchaaris and office staff – 150 strong – report for work on time and reach their designated areas/geographical locations. The system comprises state of the art technologies like fingerprint identification of all the employees, Biometrics, Digital Mapping, Tracking/ Navigation fully integrated into the MGGBS components viz Handheld GPS Enabled Biometric Machines, Fixed Biometric Machines, Attendance Software and MapmyIndia Maps.

MapmyIndia’s other important initiatives include Safemate, a smart personal safety device helpful for women, children, nightshift employees and elderly family members, etc. The tiny, matchstick-size portable GPS based device helps keep loved ones safe and informs you where your loved ones are all the time by continuously and securely transmitting their live location from the safemate to your mobile phone and computer. You can even see their location on extremely detailed house level maps from MapmyIndia. It is much more battery-efficient than a mobile phone and can be carried into venues where phones are not allowed. In case of an emergency, the person with the safemate can instantly press the large and easily accessible SOS button, which will send email and SMS alerts to you and other designated people so that they can help or organise help from emergency services. Available exclusively for sale on Flipkart, it marks entry of MapmyIndia into the GPS IoT space.

The company is also working with leading school-bus manufacturers like VECV (A JV between Eicher Motors Ltd. and Volvo Group) and Force Motors to secure school going children right from the time they are picked up by the school-bus in the morning to the time they disembark the school bus after school and everything in-between. The solution incorporates Vehicle tracker, RFID tags for children, on board cameras (in front of and the back of the bus) and DVR along with GPRS connectivity for live two way communications. These will track and report child’s movements during school hours. Parents will be sent important alerts of various activities of the child during the day as they happen. In case of emergencies immediate alerts will be sounded for swift response. With the aid of on board AV systems that facilitate live feed, the actions of adults like driver, helper and even the teacher on the bus can be constantly monitored in real time. The driver authorisation feature ensures that only the designated driver can start the bus. To address unforeseen emergencies in transit, the buses have an emergency button, which when pressed, will set off alerts for immediate action. Further adding to the safety cover, the system also provides for remote disabling of the bus, speeding alerts prevent rash and negligent driving. The ‘Reports scheduling on email’ feature helps ensure that parents are kept informed about the pick-up and drop timings and the changes thereof to avoid any confusion and inconvenience. 

MapmyIndia is an innovation driven company, challenging new frontiers, a case in the point is the navigation solution for Tata Motors’ new car – The Bolt. MapmyIndia navigation has been very innovatively built into these cars. Instead of providing an in-dash embedded navigation suite, the company uses a technology that allows the MapmyIndia navigation application layer in the user’s smart phone to sync with the car head unit. Tata Motors’ customers will get a MapmyIndia Navigation app that has been specially coded for integration between the phone and in-dash screen. With a customized in-car kit, users will now have access to India’s best and most comprehensive maps enabling them to search and navigate to millions of points of interest/destinations across India, anytime anywhere.

Here is a brief account on the various milestones in the corporate journey and the making of India’s best known Digital Mapping, GPS Navigation and Tracking brand MapmyIndia:

Rakesh Verma co-founded CE Infosystems with his wife Rashmi Verma, in 1994. The company – popularly known as MapmyIndia – possesses the largest repository of digital map data available for India today, and has built out the most comprehensive navigable map of India, which is powering industry’s leading navigation applications, such as Airtel GPS navigation, Yahoo! India maps portal, and MapmyIndia.com.

Rakesh had studied Mechanical Engineering at BITS Pilani and left for the US after marriage for Eastern Washington University where Rakesh completed his MBA. He worked in the US for 12 years on the cutting edge technology. Rakesh was involved in the much publicized Saturn project of GM, where billions of dollars were invested to create a truly automated car manufacturing company. By 1990, he had a settled life and career in the US. This was the same time when the Indian ‘brain drain’ was at its peak, with most Indians leaving home to seek great opportunities in the US. Rakesh, however, had different ideas. He wanted to go back home, fueled by the desire to create something innovative for India. He got enough advice telling him not to go back, but he stuck to the decision and moved to New Delhi.

After settling back in the home country, Rakesh started his plans of setting up an entrepreneurial venture in India. Rashmi’s skill set on the IBM mainframe platform was unique and advanced for India, came in handy. A casual letter to Rusi Modi of TISCO from Rakesh, ended up in them getting to implement a large project for TISCO on the IBM mainframe. That project led to others, including one with IBM, USA itself, and in 1993 their company, CE Info Systems, was ranked the 3rd fastest growing software company in India by NASSCOM.

Becoming the pioneers of GIS and digital maps in India was an accident. While in the US implementing the project for IBM, Rakesh was attending a conference, where he came across a digital map making and GIS software. He was simply enamored by the beautiful digital maps rendered by the software, and at an impulse decided this is what he wanted his life work to be – mapping out all of India. The very next day he flew down to the software company’s headquarters, and struck a deal with them to distribute their software in India and build maps using it. This was the time when no digital maps were available for India. But Rakesh took on the challenge of bringing the digital map and GIS revolution to India, and began to train an army of 200 surveyors that have crisscrossed the entire country, mapping out every detail. These early efforts were applauded and vindicated in India. In 1994, MapmyIndia (then CE Infosystems) presented their very first digital maps at an exhibition, and huge crowds gathered, amazed at this breakthrough for India. In 1995, when Coca Cola wanted to re-enter India, MapmyIndia helped them with their logistics and distribution across India, helping them plan transport of their bottles from the bottling plant to every town and village.

Today, MapmyIndia stands as the leading navigable map and GIS solutions provider for India. Over the last 14 years, the company has empowered over 500 leading enterprises and government customers with GIS-based business intelligence. In 2004, MapmyIndia took its next step in bringing location based services revolution to India. It launched India’s first interactive maps portal, MapmyIndia.com, which has gone on to provide detailed maps, directions and local search services across India and is helping improve the quality of everyday life for all net-connected Indians. That showed that online maps could be a reality for India, and since then MapmyIndia has map-enabled a myriad of popular websites, from Makemytrip to MagicBricks. The Company released its nation-wide navigable map in March 2007.

Rohan Verma, the son of the Vermas, joined MapmyIndia in 2004 and has been responsible for introducing innovative products and services in the Indian market. These include MapmyIndia.com, India’s most accurate and exhaustive online maps portal, and the MapmyIndia GPS Navigator. Rohan conceptualised and designed MapmyIndia.com in the summer of 2004, while still a student at Stanford University, US. 

Rohan Verma’s responsibilities at MapmyIndia include corporate strategy and fund raising; new product development, product management and new technology innovation; strategic partnerships, alliances and business development and marketing. 

Today MapmyIndia is India’s most comprehensive GPS navigation & Tracking solutions provider engaging the user on multiple platforms: In-car navigation – MapmyIndia’s solutions are being offered by leading car manufacturers to their consumers. Top-selling car models have introduced MapmyIndia navigation as part of their offering – such as the new Honda City sedan, the new Tata Manza entry-level sedan, the top-selling Mahindra XUV 500 SUV and the premium Mahindra Ssangyong Rexton SUV, the Ford Endeavour SUV, the BMW 7, 5 and 3 series luxury sedans, The Jaguar-Land Rover Freelander 2, Range Rover Evoque, the Fiat Linea sedan, the Renault Scala sedan, among others. MapmyIndia has already collaborated with all leading car manufacturers across India to offer MapmyIndia navigation to their consumers, including BMW, Jaguar-Land Rover, Mercedes, Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Volkswagen, Renault, Mitsubishi, GM, Tata Motors (Zest & Bolt), Ford, Mahindra and Maruti. MapmyIndia Navigators, the hand held GPS navigation devices and in-car navitainment systems are very popular with their customers. One example is the integrated GPS Navi-Tainment Device, Smart Mirror, built into a car’s rear view mirror, which features a touch screen GPS Navigation device and a reverse camera.

Mobile phones & epads – MapmyIndia’s Mobile apps are empowering the IOS, Android, Windows and Blackberry platform based phones and tablets. The company is aggressively launching new products for mobile phones like the MapmyIndia Locate, MapmyIndia Maps, MapmyIndia ReachMe, MapmyIndia Explore etc. These are already very popular amongst users in India. Known for their accuracy and reliability, MapmyIndia apps have been used by leading handset manufacturers as USP like the Andi Uddan iBall phone, India’s first women safety phone’s USP feature is powered by MapmyIndia Locate app. The recently launched NaviMaps app is India’s first mobile app that offers House address data, International Maps (Sri Lanka, Nepal & Bangladesh) and voice guidance in 10 Indian languages, is another unique offering from the company. 

The internet – MapmyIndia.com navigable mapping solution is available free on the internet www.mapmyindia.com. It is now even more powerful and useful as house addresses for major cities have been put on the website It is also on Yahoo maps which uses MapmyIndia maps for their India section.

The company now offers India’s first House level maps, this completes the last mile of GPS Navigation in the country. The MapmyIndia Navigation will now take you to the doorstep offer your final destination. MapmyIndia Navigators, NaviMaps app and tracking are the only ones in the country to offer house-level data. NaviMaps – India’s most powerful and advanced FEREMIUM, Offline 3-D navigation app with house number data and live traffic information. The app is available for download on both iOS and Android platforms.

MapmyIndia is also empowering businesses and governments with state of the art real time vehicle tracking systems. This will make the business logistics efficient and pilferage free. Many organizations including Oil Companies (for Oil Pipeline security), Logistics companies (Tracking their assets), Governments (for area surveys), Public transport companies etc. are using MapmyIndia solutions for better operations and profitability. Flipkart has acquired a strategic minority stake in MapMyIndia. It will reinforce Flipkart’s capabilities and efficiencies in supply chain and ecommerce by leveraging MapmyIndia’s map data and location technologies. 

The latest MapmyIndia maps offer India’s most localized maps with voice guidance. MapmyIndia maps (the digital maps on which all the products and solutions are based on) are India’s most comprehensive, exhaustive, detailed maps that offer unmatched coverage with – 10.54 million unique destinations (Points of Interests), expanded coverage of over 2 million kilometers of road network, 7068 cities at street level with house address level data for 80 cities, 600000 villages and 3D & 2D landmarks in 86 cities.

MapmyIndia is also a leading e-retailer, offering users a range of GPS navigation, tracking and entertainment systems onwww.mapmyindia.com/store with Cash on Delivery options. Continuous innovation in product development has led to MapmyIndia receiving many awards and recognition from media and industry, including a recent citation in the Harvard business Review for its customer funded business model. MapmyIndia Maps are approved and cleared by the Government of India, and follow the Government of India’s norms and regulations. MapmyIndia is backed by leading high-tech and private equity firms, such as Qualcomm Ventures, Lightbox Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners and Zenrin Co. Ltd.

Now add location intelligence to apps with MapmyIndia Map APIs.

MapmyIndia has announced the public launch of its Map API platform for software developers and enterprises. MapmyIndia’s API (Application Programming Interface) platform consists of individual APIs for interactive mapping and visualization of location-based data, geocoding (location search), reverse geocoding (address look-up), routing (driving directions), and other location-based analytics such as distance matrix (distance from multiple locations). With these APIs, users can now easily add valuable location intelligence capabilities and MapmyIndia map data to their consumer (B2C) apps, business (B2B) apps and enterprise IT systems. The APIs are REST (HTTP/JSON) and JavaScript based, thus supporting apps built for various web, mobile and cloud platforms and can be accessed athttp://www.mapmyindia.com/api. MapmyIndia’s map database has been continuously built and updated over the last 20 years by employing state-of-the-art mapping and video car survey technologies and the continuous efforts of 400+ field surveyors and 150+ map specialist engineers. 

Even after the entry of multinational competitors, MapmyIndia remains the preferred source of digital map data for over 1500 enterprises including leading automotive companies, businesses across all verticals and governments at all levels and over 1 million consumers, given its superiority in terms of comprehensiveness, level of detail, accuracy, quality and freshness. MapmyIndia’s map database currently includes street-level data for 8000+ towns, house-level data for 93 cities, 10.8 million points of interest, and pan India data for 645,000 villages, 22,000 pin codes, and 2.2 million kilometers of road network.