From social welfare schemes to energy, defence and conservation, Esri India has established itself as a leading brand in geographic information system (GIS) software over three decades. In an interaction with Infrastructure Today’s Manish Pant, Agendra Kumar, Managing Director, notes that recent policy reforms have fast‑tracked GIS adoption by private sector entities. Looking ahead, he foresees AI‑GIS integration accelerating to deliver bespoke solutions at scale across hundreds of applications. A master’s in mathematics from BITS‑Pilani and an avid technologist, Kumar has also established a trust at his alma mater with a personal
Rs.25 million grant to promote doctoral research in GIS, climate and sustainability, healthcare and biotechnology, cybersecurity for critical infrastructure, and precision agriculture. Edited excerpts.
How do you trace Esri India’s evolution from being a provider of GIS services to becoming a strategic partner for India’s infrastructure and digital economy since 1996?
Esri India began operations when digital mapping and GIS were still at a nascent stage. Organisations were only beginning to explore how technology could support mapping activities. In those early years, we worked closely with survey and mapping agencies to create and share spatial data. The technological environment was limited; network speeds were slow, computing power modest, and hardware costly. As affordability improved and infrastructure matured, the adoption of GIS grew steadily. The Digital India programme provided further momentum, and today, geospatial technologies are recognised as drivers of economic growth across
multiple sectors.
A notable example is the National Informatics Centre (NIC)’s direct benefit transfer application, built on our ArcGIS platform many years ago, which ensured subsidies reached intended beneficiaries without duplication or delay. Several states have since adopted similar GIS‑based systems, including family identity card programmes for welfare delivery. Over time, we have also built platforms such as the Indo ArcGIS Living Atlas, curating hundreds of authoritative datasets from government sources. These include administrative boundaries, railway and road networks, water and forest layers, and health and soil data. More recently, we introduced high‑resolution raster and vector base maps, available online and on‑premise, enabling departments to work securely in disconnected environments. With resolutions of 30 centimetres for metro cities and 60 centimetres elsewhere, these base maps address sovereignty and data security concerns, and adoption continues to grow.
In over three decades, you have advised projects spanning land records mapping, transportation, urban development, energy, and river rejuvenation. What have been your three most challenging yet fulfilling projects, and why?
Most assignments we undertake are challenging, but also rewarding. We often collaborate with partners, yet some projects require us to step beyond our core role as a technology provider. One such example was the utility projects for BEST in Mumbai and BESCOM in Karnataka. In BESCOM, we managed surveys and data integration at a time when service providers were scarce. Though not our core competency, our team stepped up, working as a subcontractor to Infosys under the R-APDRP (Restructured Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme). Migrating BEST Mumbai’s systems from a competing technology to ArcGIS was another milestone, also involving SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) integration nearly eight years ago, when such solutions were still evolving.
We have also supported the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corp. for many years, handling projects that continue to provide valuable learning. Defence projects are another area where expectations are futuristic and complex. Working alongside defence officers, our team has delivered innovative solutions, often developing methods for challenges that had no precedent.
You currently support around 1.5 million users across India. Which segments dominate your key clientele, and which are the new and emerging growth areas?
We serve approximately 6,500 organisations in India, with an estimated 1.5 million individual users accessing applications within those organisations. Government remains our largest segment, including the Survey of India, Geological Survey of India, National Thematic Mapping Organisation, NIC, and the Registrar General of India. Utilities—electricity, gas, telecommunications, and water—form another major segment. At the state level, we support land records, forest management, water resources, urban planning, and registration departments. Private sector adoption has accelerated since policy reforms between 2021 and 2023 clarified access to geospatial data. Retail, quick commerce, manufacturing, and insurance companies are now using GIS enthusiastically. Though smaller than the government in scale, this market is growing rapidly. The architecture, construction and engineering sector is another emerging area, with digital twins and construction optimisation gaining importance. We worked on over 40 Smart City projects, though GIS was not given due prominence in initial DPRs (detailed project reports). Had GIS been integrated from the outset, outcomes would have been far stronger, as planned cities could have anticipated traffic, energy, water, and waste requirements more precisely, avoiding mismatches that cause congestion and inefficiency.
New initiatives such as the Naksha project, involving drone‑based urban mapping in 100 cities, and the Swamitva programme for rural property records, are expanding GIS applications. High‑resolution LiDAR (light detection and ranging) data is enabling digital twins of cities, integrating sensor feeds for traffic, underground infrastructure, and fire safety planning. Sharing such datasets across organisations avoids duplication and maximises utility. Projects like PM Gati Shakti and DIGIPIN further highlight GIS’s transformative role. Gati Shakti integrates infrastructure datasets for coordinated planning, while DIGIPIN assigns unique identifiers to every location, enabling precise last‑mile delivery even in villages. Our collaboration with the postal department on DIGIPIN demonstrates how GIS supports both economic growth and social inclusion.
How do you see the decision to allow the private sector access to over 230 non‑sensitive datasets on the PM Gati Shakti geospatial platform helping in infrastructure creation?
Private sector access to Gati Shakti data is a significant step. Logistics, transportation, electricity, and energy companies can benefit greatly from datasets that were previously unavailable. While access is currently limited to trials, even partial availability reduces duplication of effort and accelerates project execution. Creating such data independently would require immense time and resources, so opening selected layers to private users is a welcome move.
You also mentioned that the Smart Cities programme initially didn’t give GIS its due. Has that gap now been addressed?
In some cities, awareness has improved, but more progress is needed. GIS is not merely a system of record; it is a system of engagement, planning, and sustainable development. If used from the outset, GIS can prevent ecological damage, guide water availability assessments, and avoid construction in flood‑prone areas. Satellite mapping provides insights into terrain and hydrology that should inform planning. Unfortunately, many DPRs overlooked these capabilities, leading to infrastructure in unsuitable locations. A greater realisation of GIS’s role is essential to make cities sustainable and resilient.
While India is committed to bringing logistics costs to 8 per cent of GDP, how can location intelligence help in route optimisation, warehouse placement, and last‑mile delivery efficiency?
GIS plays a crucial role in logistics efficiency. Improved highway infrastructure
has already reduced travel time. For example, Delhi to Mumbai journeys now take about 14 hours instead of 20. Faster speeds save fuel, directly contributing to GDP targets. GIS supports route optimisation by offering alternatives based on distance and time. Quick commerce companies use GIS to plan dark store locations, ensuring deliveries within ten minutes. By analysing socio‑economic and population data, they identify demand patterns, stock merchandise accordingly, and adjust for peak traffic hours. Historical buying behaviour further refines inventory decisions. Such applications demonstrate how GIS enables precise planning, reducing costs and improving customer satisfaction.
Your GeoAI Competency Centre in Noida was completed a year ago in July 2025. How is it shaping up, and where do you see it in the next five years once the first investment cycle of Rs.1.5 billion is completed?
The GeoAI Competency Centre is central to our strategy. We are training all technical staff in AI, integrating AI modules into customer training, and scaling adoption across the organisation. AI agents are a major focus.
We develop custom agents to analyse diverse datasets, while external agents from platforms such as Gemini or ChatGPT can access ArcGIS functions like geocoding and routing. Interoperability is enabled by MCP (model context protocol), bridging AI systems and GIS.
Foundational models are being pre‑trained for client requirements, with embedding techniques allowing faster analysis of satellite imagery to classify vegetation, built‑up areas, and water bodies. Though predicting five years is difficult in such a fast‑moving field, investments will continue. The emphasis is on evolving technology rather than fixed commercial models. We expect AI‑GIS collaboration to deepen, with agents becoming more sophisticated, interoperability protocols maturing, and embedded models delivering tailored solutions for hundreds of use cases.
How is Esri India leveraging the country’s fast‑growing drones and spacetech sector to build new competencies?
Both sectors are closely aligned with our work. We have partnered with Indian satellite companies to build interfaces between their content and our ArcGIS system. This ensures that when users request satellite imagery—say, of a part of Mumbai at 8 am tomorrow—the data can be tasked, processed, and ingested seamlessly into ArcGIS.
On the drone side, surveying is the most relevant application. Drones are now used for land mapping, urban planning, utilities, transmission lines, and river monitoring projects such as the Yamuna and Ganga. We offer two solutions: Drone2Map, an on‑premise system that processes drone data into orthomosaics and point clouds for ingestion into ArcGIS and Site Scan, a cloud‑hosted platform that manages drone surveys end‑to‑end. Both enable organisations to integrate drone outputs directly into their GIS workflows, creating accurate, high‑resolution datasets for planning and management.
How is GIS supporting India’s pursuit of energy sovereignty and helping to secure a reliable supply of rare earths and other critical minerals?
GIS plays a vital role in these areas. We count many oil companies among our clients, supporting them in pipelines, distribution, exploration, and production activities. We also work with mining companies and organisations such as the Geological Survey of India. In petroleum exploration, GIS has long been used as a data platform. It helps finalise survey locations, integrate geophysical data with accurate coordinate systems, and guide subsequent interpretation by geophysicists. Once drilling begins, mud samples are analysed to assess soil properties at different depths and estimate the likelihood of reserves. GIS supports this process by providing spatial context, helping determine reserve size and optimal extraction sites.
On the mining side, GIS is applied to coal, iron ore, and increasingly to rare earths. Government projects are now involving global organisations to analyse diverse datasets and improve the predictability of rare earth availability. Satellite imagery provides initial indicators, supplemented by soil analysis and other methods. We have collaborated with the Geological Survey of India and conducted internal projects using imagery to achieve a certain level of accuracy, though this remains a highly technical and specialised field. Ultimately, GIS provides a structured record and system of engagement, but geological expertise is indispensable. It will continue to be a key enabler, supporting exploration, planning, and sustainable resource management.
– Manish Pant