Agendra Kumar, Managing Director, Esri India

1. As we welcome 2022, a wave of concern due to the new strain of COVID-19 yet again reiterates – the importance of being “geo-aware” to contextualize environmental, social, and economic systems for a safer and healthier society, and emphasizes the significance of “Preparing Strategically, Responding Rapidly and Recovering Methodically”.  In spite of numerous challenges, 2021 has been a landmark year for the geospatial industry. While on one side the “geo-awareness” and “spatial thinking” surged to all time high, we also witnessed major strides by the government through new policies like Geospatial Data Guidelines, Drone Policy, Draft National Geospatial Policy 2021, among others. These make 2022 look very promising and as the geospatial technologies get subsumed into the enterprise IT architectures, GIS takes centre stage in new converged environments to help organizations unearth better economic, social, and environmental value and higher return on their investments.
2. Technological advances have pushed geospatial applications to newer heights, especially in the year 2021. While the technology supercharged normal business intelligence with a geographic component that allowed a holistic situational awareness, providing real-time insights into operations and systems, it also enabled us to fight COVID-19, from an interdisciplinary perspective, with proactive planning, international solidarity and a global perspective. Now, as the geospatial technologies are getting subsumed into the enterprise IT architectures, GISl is taking centre stage in new converged environments to help organizations unearth better economic, social, and environmental value and higher returns on their investments. The rapid rate of GIS adoption in the past year has indeed laid a strong foundation for the dawn of a new “Geo-Enabled Era” that will foster inclusivity, sustainability, and resilience in the future.