Indigenous Map Making: Treading through carefully!

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Introduction:

Earlier in the month of July 2024, Ola announced the launch (1) of home-grown Ola Maps and dramatic chain of events followed it. From Ola urging people to switch (1) to Ola Maps from Google Maps; to Google reducing (2) their API pricing for developers in India, to Ola terming it as a 'Belated' (2) step....it has been a ride. Add to it, another company, ‘MapMyIndia’ gave a legal notice to Ola Maps for copying (3) their proprietary data.

Is everything unveiled? It has been over 2 months since the last update was out there in the public domain.

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The evolutionary journey of the cartography has had quite some milestones. Rise of location-based services and further digitalization of Location Intelligence in the last 10-15 years, is one of the key outcomes of this journey. Location Intelligence has become an essential part of our lives today. Terms like first-middle-last mile delivery, have been fully understood in principle by certain sizable urban dwellers in India…credit to the rise & expansion of e-Commerce businesses like Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, Zomato, Swiggy etc. amongst others. Use of location-based services, & analytics for conducting site suitability analysis or for service delivery or for the consumer management and analysis etc. is no longer novel now. Once can surely say that, there is a scope for improvement.

Launch of Ola Maps is certainly a welcoming step as there will be one more option to choose from. The oligopolistic map solutions market now has one more player who is locking horns with the obvious hegemon. Is the development of indigenous mapping solution so straightforward given the complexities and challenges involved? Obviously, the answer is no. (Note - recently published Digital Postal Index Number (DIGIPIN) addressing grid of Department of Posts; appears to be a promising long-term answer for the requisite standardized, geocoded addresses and it may likely declutter associated irregularities in the map making process. However, scalability and further universal adaptability of the DIGIPIN needs to be assessed.)

For Ola Maps, the story is no different too. It is built on top of the OpenStreetMap (OSM) data and it is not an OSM wrapper as some people have been claiming. Ola has contributed 5 million+ edits (1) to the OSM data as we know today. Based on this data, Ola has further developed the capabilities and functionalities of their map solution and services. With 1 year of free usage (2) offered to users, Ola will refine their product, and further services at an incredibly low (or zero?) data acquisition costs since the end users will be contributing to the enhancements in the Ola Map data continually. Significantly lower rates than Google Maps is a plus too. It is highly possible that the rate card offered by Ola Maps; made Google cut down (2) their prices. While these comparisons were being made; another Indian map solutions providing company 'MapMyIndia' sent a legal notice (3) to Ola Maps for allegedly using their proprietary data. (Note - MapMyIndia has been known to the Indian mapping community as a map solutions provider for quite some time now. But why their mapping solutions were not advertised at a similar scale like that of Ola?) Later, the MapMyIndia CEO called Ola Maps, a 'Gimmick' (4).

All offered APIs, SDKs, and other services are nothing but revenue sources for Ola and the rate card will keep on evolving (rates will likely increase in the future - as it happens with every other business). While the open data and use of open data for better society remains a much-coveted topic to blabber on national - international forums for entrepreneurs, when it comes to earning even a dime; it is made sure that it is earned with profits maximized to its fullest potential. Its baffling to see how community initiatives like OSM are utilized and products are developed that in a way support the capitalist manoeuvring of the collective. It is well understood that nobody will do this job of grooming and developing an indigenous mapping solution, for free. On the flip side, creation of extensive OSM database would have not come this far with such an approach in reality..isn't it? Evidently enough, OSM data & services are widely used (5) by the giants like Amazon, Apple, Uber, ESRI, Facebook, Snapchat, Garmin, Air France, Mapbox, BBC etc. It speaks volumes about the importance of community actions. May be in the near future, there will be web applications and other solutions developed by communities which will not only exist but also prevail and be accepted by all entities (government, private, academic, and public) alike too.

Bare minimum map solution with required analytical features (with room for functionalities to be upgraded continuously) developed by a government entity is a task, better demonstrated through web applications like OneMap and Land Information, New Zealand (LINZ) amongst others. One may successfully argue that, given the small geographical areas of Singapore and New Zealand compared to India; such comprehensive interventions (ground data collection, ground truthing, database creation, indexing, standardization, & maintenance, software development etc.) are possible for their governments to implement. Given the history of rich and complex Land surveys across India, it does not seem impossible for Indian authorities. It requires unhindered will power and action from the government. Bharat Maps developed by NIC has not been publicized by the Govt. of India as a one-stop mapping solution providing uninterrupted data and APIs/SDKs. Same is the case with Bhuvan & Bhoonidhi portals. The thematic layers available to consume as WMS/WMTS services in Bhuvan portal, can use updates and need scaling up. Such obvious observations are made, since we live in the era of 'a connected world' which consistently showcases advancements being catered in the other parts of the world.

Simultaneously, The National Geospatial Policy (NGP), 2022 either restricts itself at creation of high-accuracy geoid for the entire country or targets for advanced outcomes like creation of National Digital Twin of major cities and towns, as a long-term goal (6) (Note - The critique of NGP, is a different topic of discussion altogether). These are great work areas to focus on but how do tackle non-uniformity of data standards (capture, storage, and retrieval) across authorities? The policy does not mention planned creation of a nation-wide uniform base map (data) with continuously updating layers, and other mapping features & functions. Rightly so, may be its a direct-indirect acknowledgement of the complexities involved in the process of developing a uniform map platform ('One Nation - One Map' - does this logic not apply in this case?). Ideation around implementation of Interim Data Sharing Framework (IDSF) by Department of Science and Technology (DST) a couple of years ago, seemed to be a humble approach towards identifying technological gaps in data sharing operations. However, it obviously did not talk about creation of uniform database itself and the struggles with data interoperability continues.

Selling products through sensationalism or by inciting the Nationalism has been a capitalist ‘jugaad’ in India lately. Ola Maps appears to be striding on the same path. People in awe offering tags like ‘Make in India’- ‘Digital India’- ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ etc. make all such products look more organic and promising (Note - Ola Maps website / press statements from Ola CEO/other officials have not been found to boast about this, till now). Launch of the Ola Maps is being perceived as an achievement of sorts since it is being advertised/claimed (by Ola itself) as an engineering excellence that has saved Ola, an approx. one hundred (1) crore per annum. That is a great optimization of the business capital if it is so, but does the advertised product/service provide the uninterrupted location accuracy (with all aspects Presence, Proximity, Positioning at the best level)?

On the other hand, in reality....creation of a map solution is a truly humongous task too. Random news with an irked (7) user is not a good sample size to comment on or judge the potential of Ola Maps. Concrete results can only be discussed, only after the extensive use of Ola Maps by the wider user base. One-to-one comparisons between features, navigational accuracies, ease in API integrations, overall UX etc. will contribute to the tangible fact sheet everyone would refer to in the future (if it comes out! :D).

For now, Ola Maps remains to be a pridefully advertised venture.

References:

1.???? The Economic Times Tech (July 2024). Use Ola Maps: Bhavish Aggarwal urges developers to exit Google maps. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/technology/exit-google-maps-bhavish-aggarwal-urges-developers-to-shift-to-ola-maps/articleshow/111584626.cms (accessed 6th Nov 2024)

2.???? The Economic Times Tech (July 2024). Google cuts Maps prices by 70% after Bhavish Aggarwal's free Ola Maps offering. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-bytes/google-cuts-maps-prices-by-70-after-bhavish-aggarwals-free-ola-maps-offering/articleshow/111852407.cms?from=mdr (accessed 6th Nov 2024)

3.???? The Economic Times Tech (July 2024). MapMyIndia sues Ola Electric for ‘copying’ data. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/startups/mapmyindia-sues-ola-maps-for-copying-data/articleshow/112109537.cms?from=mdr (accessed 6th Nov 2024)

4.???? Business Standard (August 2024). MapMyIndia CEO calls Ola Maps a gimmick, warns people to be cautious. https://www.business-standard.com/companies/news/mapmyindia-ceo-calls-ola-maps-a-gimmick-warns-people-to-be-cautious-124081100434_1.html (accessed 6th Nov 2024)

5.???? OpenStreetMap.Org – Who Uses OpenStreetMap? https://welcome.openstreetmap.org/about-osm-community/consumers/ (accessed 6th Nov 2024)

6.???? National Geospatial Policy (2022). CG-DL-E-28122022-241463. Published by Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India.

7.???? The Times of India (August 2024). User Criticizes Ola Maps in viral post, says ‘it is absolutely trash’ https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/technology/tech-news/user-criticizes-ola-maps-in-viral-post-says-it-is-absolutely-trash/articleshow/112883874.cms (accessed 6th Nov 2024)

? Parag Khopkar

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