The Hindu Business Line : ‘Navigation tech critical for India’

Bangalore, May 14 With poor directions and navigation facilities on Indian roads, a high-quality navigation technology is critical for the country, said Mr Rakesh Verma, Managing Director, MapmyIndia, provider of digital map data on mobile phones, cars and the Internet.

What with road names and directions missing in several areas, India is lagging a lot on the infrastructure front; this can be overcome with adequate navigation and search facilities, said Mr Verma at the Canalys Navigation Forum held in the city.

Dispelling myths that the Indian market is not ready for navigation services, he said the country is ready for such technology, given the growing mobile phone user base, car usage and Internet penetration.

Mr Rajiv Gupta, National Manager – New Business Development, General Motors India, said navigation service is critical for India.

Getting taxi operators to fix such a service in their cabs will ensure that passengers, especially foreign tourists with a language problem, travel with confidence and assurance that they are on the right track and direction, said Mr Gupta.

Update process

But what happens when there are changes to a city or town’s topography, given the reality that in a country like India roads appear and disappear frequently? This is a challenge content providers have to contend with often in India. While MapmyIndia’s update process is 24x7, it releases it only every four months.

Going ahead, the target should be to release updates to users every 24 hours. “That’s where we need to get to,” said Mr Thomas Leliveld, Director, Go-To-Market Software and Services - Maps & Search, Nokia.

Map sharing

He also said mapping data alone is not sufficient. The future lies in enabling users to share maps and updates.

“Adding user generated content is what makes maps interesting,” he added.

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