Stanford student puts India on the map

Sufia Tippu
Monday, 23 October 2006 14:21

IT Industry - Market

The summer of 2004 was special for Rohan Verma. It was the year that he conceptualized MapmyIndia, the only online map portal for India.

The 21-year-old electrical engineering student from Stanford University, California, recently unveiled the futuristic version of his creation in Delhi.

“Having seen the way Mapquest and Yahoo Maps have transformed the way people and businesses in the US operated, we decided that India should have a full fledged online map portal. The new version provides a seamless experience, infusing fun into the online map usage activity,” Verma says.

“With the latest version we intend bringing online mapping closer to the consumer expectations – especially when map usage is abysmally low in India.”

MapmyIndia v-2007 uses the Web 2.0 platform to introduce a number of features, not yet offered in India.

For the first time, maps with drag-able features provide routes and detailed information at different zoom levels on the Net. This also allows users to drag the maps (at all zoom levels) to explore adjoining areas not currently on the screen. The users now need to simply slide the zoom bar up or down to zoom in or out, respectively.

“When we first tested the new version internally, we found it a delightful experience. The sheer ease of traveling anywhere in India on the web, without needing to click the mouse even once, made it an awesome experience,” says Verma.

The e-Location service, which was at a conceptual stage earlier, is a full-blown service now. MapmyIndia v-2007 allows the user to draw a personal route on the map from the closest landmark.

“This visual depiction completely eliminates the hassles of going round in circles, seeking directions in the last-mile lap of the journey. It makes reaching the destination that much easier,” he added.

Against a background of a rapidly rising mobile penetration, the company is also rolling out a slew of location-based services on mobile devices through GPRS. MapmyIndia is in its final stages of developing strategic alliances with telecom operators in India to reach out to the mass market.

At Stanford, Verma was awarded the Best Work Study Student of the Year for his work with the Stanford Registrar’s office. He is also being awarded the President’s Award for Academic Excellence by Stanford University.

The parent company of MapmyIndia, CE Info Systems, founded by Rohan Verma’s father, Rakesh Verma, owns the acknowledged, single-largest repository of digital spatial data of India.