New Delhi, August 11, 2021.

Esri India, country’s leading Geographic Information System (GIS) Software & Solutions provider announced its drive to skill over 2 lakh students in GIS technologies in India over the next 3 years.

As per the Government of India’s estimates, the Geospatial Data economy is expected to grow from 30,000 Cr. to about 1 lakh Cr. by the year 2030. Government is encouraging higher usage of GIS technology in many segments like Smart Cities, AMRUT, Water Resources, Agriculture, Insurance, Land management & SVAMITVA, and Utilities. With the new guidelines released by government earlier this year on de-regulating Geospatial data, the use of GIS in private sector is also likely to increase significantly. The increased usage of GIS is likely to create 10 lakh jobs by 2025.

As GIS is being used in almost all sectors of economy, it is important that every student in universities and higher education institutes gets an opportunity to learn GIS.  To achieve this, Esri India today announced a comprehensive campus-wide program to help universities and institutes setup and scale their GIS learning infrastructure by establishing Center of Competence (CoC). CoC will provide an opportunity to the students in various streams to acquire the most advanced GIS technology skills. GIS skills when clubbed with other new emerging technologies like AI/ML, Big Data, 3D, AR/VR, Reality Capture, Data Science, Cloud Computing, etc. can create a strong differentiation and increase employability. This initiative will provide students with knowledge, expertise, best practices, and software infrastructure that can be accessed anytime, anywhere and from any device.

Agendra Kumar, Managing Director, Esri India, said, “With the growing importance of GIS in economic growth, there is a need to increase geospatial literacy in the country. Government intervention through new policies like National Education Policy 2020, Geospatial Data Guidelines, and Drone Policy also provides opportunities for employment and higher value creation. We must act swiftly to scale up GIS learning infrastructure in Higher Education Institutes to build the much-required skill-base in the country.”

The National Education Policy 2020 (NEP) envisions all universities and colleges to become multidisciplinary. The NEP also states that the curricula of all the HEIs shall focus on projects in the areas of community engagement and service, environmental education, and value-based education for students.

“Through this initiative we aim to provide GIS technology to students of all disciplines. This will empower the students to practice and apply spatial thinking while they pursue their studies. For example, a student of supply chain management can learn GIS skills while on campus and later use them in his professional life for monitoring real time status, disruptions, etc. in the entire supply chain process” added Agendra.

Students, researchers, and professors will have access to e-learning content available at MyEsri Learning portal and guided lessons through Esri’s Learn Hub. As part of this program, Esri India will also offer faculty training and student engagement programs.

Esri India has been working with academia for more than two decades. Over 800 colleges and universities have established GIS labs for Core GIS Courses and Research Projects. The company also fosters GIS know how through other programs including GIS Academia Council of India and Esri India Young Scholar Program.