Each topic below explains the evidence, the business problem it creates, how GLOBEIR solves it, the benefits to your organisation, and how your data stays private and secure.
1. GIS Mapping
What it is. A Geographic Information System (GIS) stores, analyses and displays data tied to a location. GIS mapping combines layers such as roads, boundaries, land parcels, satellite imagery and demographics on one coordinate framework, so that decisions can be based on spatial relationships. India's Department of Science & Technology defines geospatial data as positional data, with or without attributes, in image, vector, raster or web-service form [1].
How it works.
- Data capture: ground survey, drone and aerial photogrammetry, vehicle-mounted mobile mapping, LiDAR, satellite remote sensing and mobile-phone sensors [1].
- Geodetic control: SVAMITVA uses a network of Continuously Operating Reference Stations (CORS) to fix ground control points [2], achieving positional accuracy of up to 5 cm [3].
- Layer integration and analysis: for example, the PM GatiShakti platform holds GIS layers of infrastructure, geographic features and demography together with decision-support tools [4].
- Governance: the UN Integrated Geospatial Information Framework (UN-IGIF) guides countries through 7 principles, 8 goals and 9 strategic pathways [5].
Applications. Infrastructure route planning; rural land rights and property tax; gap analysis for schools, health centres and anganwadis; agriculture, water and forestry; disaster management; urban planning; and logistics [2][4][6][7].
Proven examples.
- SVAMITVA, India. Launched on 24 April 2020 and implemented by Survey of India. By April 2025, drone surveys had covered 3.20 lakh villages (about 68,000 sq km) and more than 2.42 crore property cards had been prepared for 1.61 lakh villages [2]. On 18 January 2025 about 65 lakh cards were distributed in a single day across 50,000+ villages, and the surveyed rural inhabited land was valued at about ₹132 lakh crore [8]. Parcel boundaries are verified on the ground with panchayat representatives, owners and revenue officials before cards are issued [3]. The cards help owners use their property for bank loans and help resolve disputes, and the maps are reused for Gram Panchayat Development Plans [2].
- PM GatiShakti National Master Plan. Launched on 13 October 2021; by August 2025, 57 central ministries/departments and 36 States/UTs were onboarded, about 1,700 data layers were integrated, and 293 infrastructure projects worth ₹13.59 lakh crore had been evaluated through the Network Planning Group [9].
Business problem
- A district administration, utility or bank often cannot answer simple questions such as "which villages lie far from a health centre?" or "which branches serve overlapping areas?", because roads, boundaries, assets and customer records sit in separate systems with no common map.
- Infrastructure departments that plan in isolation duplicate work. PM GatiShakti was created so that roads, railways, power and telecom could plan on shared GIS layers [4][9].
- Without accurate parcel-level maps, land and property records stay disputed and are hard to use as loan collateral. SVAMITVA addresses this gap for rural India [2].
Our solution
- A single GIS database for the organisation, with administrative boundaries, roads, assets, branches or offices, customers or beneficiaries, and satellite or drone imagery on one coordinate framework.
- National reference layers (Bhuvan, Bharat Maps, Survey of India base maps, PIN-code boundaries) added so that internal data can be analysed against the government's own geography [10][11][7][12].
- Spatial analysis for the questions that matter (service gaps, coverage, proximity, overlaps and risk zones), delivered through our WebGIS platform and, for village- and ward-level work, Digital Micro Mapping.
- For government departments, Administration Monitoring puts schemes, works and assets on one map for review.
Benefits
- Better targeting of investment: gap analysis for schools, health centres or branches shows exactly where coverage is missing.
- Coordinated infrastructure planning: in an industry example, PM GatiShakti uses about 1,700 layers from 57 central bodies and 36 States/UTs, and its Network Planning Group has evaluated 293 projects worth ₹13.59 lakh crore [9].
- Assets that can be financed: SVAMITVA property cards, based on drone maps, help owners use their property for bank loans and help resolve disputes [2].
- Precision where it matters: CORS-based survey control can deliver positional accuracy of up to 5 cm [3].
- One map, many uses: SVAMITVA maps are reused for Gram Panchayat Development Plans [2], which shows how one well-built GIS serves many departments.
Privacy & data security
- Parcel, property and customer layers often link a location to an identifiable person or household. This makes them personal data under the DPDP Act 2023 [13]. We keep owner and customer identifiers in separate, access-controlled tables and run most analysis on pseudonymised or aggregated data.
- Survey data finer than 1 m horizontal or 3 m vertical accuracy, such as drone orthophotos and CORS-controlled parcel maps, is stored and processed only in India and is never passed to the servers of a non-Indian entity, as the DST Guidelines and the November 2022 clarification require [1][14].
- Layers are encrypted in transit (TLS 1.2 or higher) and at rest (AES-256), with role-based access and audit logs of access and changes.
- DST may regulate a negative list of sensitive attributes, and the Guidelines give no right of access to restricted premises [1]. Our survey plans respect both.
2. Cartography
What it is. Cartography is the science and craft of designing maps: choosing scale, projection, generalisation, symbology and labels so that spatial information is accurate and readable. DST defines a map as a symbolic representation of real-world objects, regions or themes at a given scale, now increasingly delivered as a web map service [1].
How it works. A defined datum and reference frame (e.g. WGS 84 for GeoJSON) [15]; scale-dependent content, so that NIC's base maps are pre-composed from 1:20 million down to 1:20,000, with selected cities at 1:10,000 to 1:4,000 [10]; terrain depiction from Survey of India contours [10]; and national topographic series at 1:50,000 [16].
Applications. Topographic base maps, cadastral and property maps, administrative boundary maps, terrain and elevation maps, bathymetric charts, thematic atlases and map books for planning and reporting.
Proven examples.
- Survey of India and the Nakshe portal. Survey of India traces its origin to 1767 and describes itself as the oldest scientific department in India. In April 2017 it launched Nakshe for free download of 1:50,000 Open Series topographic maps [16].
- National Geospatial Policy 2022 targets. By 2030: topographic mapping at 5–10 cm accuracy for urban and rural areas, and a national elevation model at 25 cm accuracy for plains and 1–3 m for hilly areas. By 2035: bathymetry of inland and deep-sea waters, mapping of underground infrastructure in major cities, and a National Digital Twin of major urban centres. The Union Budget 2025-26 allocated ₹100 crore to the National Geospatial Mission [6].
- Ordnance Survey OpenData, UK. Eleven OS datasets were made free for any use, including commercial use, from April 2010. An independent government study projected a net increase of £13.0m–£28.5m in GDP by 2016, plus £4.4m–£8.3m in additional tax revenue [17]: clear evidence that well-made, accessible cartographic data has measurable economic value.
Business problem
- Leaders in ministries, banks and infrastructure companies often receive maps that are cluttered, use the wrong scale or lack a clear legend. The map is ignored and decisions go back to spreadsheets.
- Map books for board meetings, project reports, tender documents and statutory submissions are often assembled by hand each time, which is slow and inconsistent between regions.
- Maps that mix data at different scales can mislead. A 1:50,000 topographic sheet, for example, cannot support parcel-level decisions [16][10].
Our solution
- Publication-quality thematic maps, wall maps, atlases and PDF map books, each designed around the decision the reader has to make.
- One cartographic style (symbols, colours, labels, scale bars and data notes) applied across every district, circle or region, so that reports are comparable.
- Scale-appropriate content built on authoritative base data such as Survey of India topographic series and NIC base maps [16][10].
- Templates that regenerate map books when data is updated in the WebGIS platform. See our services for the full range of outputs.
Benefits
- Faster decisions: senior managers and officers can read and act on a well-designed map in minutes.
- Fair comparisons: every branch, circle or district report uses the same symbols and scales.
- Less manual effort: automated map books replace hand-made layouts for monthly and quarterly reviews.
- Proven value of good map data: in an industry example, Ordnance Survey OpenData was projected to add £13.0m–£28.5m to UK GDP by 2016 [17].
Privacy & data security
- Printed and shared maps travel beyond the system, so we design them to show only what the audience needs: aggregated counts, shaded areas or hot spots rather than names, phone numbers or exact household points.
- Internal maps that do show customer, borrower or beneficiary locations are distributed only to authorised roles, and export rights are controlled through role-based access.
- Any attributes on the DST negative list of sensitive attributes are left out of published maps [1].
- Source data behind the maps stays encrypted at rest and in transit, in India-hosted infrastructure or in the client's own environment.
3. WebGIS
What it is. WebGIS delivers maps, spatial data and analysis over the internet through browsers, mobile apps and APIs, using open standards. Many users can view, query and combine data held in different places without desktop GIS software.
How it works: the open standards.
| Standard |
What it does |
| WMS (OGC, ISO 19128) |
Returns geo-registered map images that can be overlaid with transparency [18] |
| WFS 2.0 (ISO 19142) |
Feature-level access to geographic data, with query, locking and transactions [19] |
| WMTS 1.0 |
Serves pre-rendered tiles, so one client works with any compliant server at scale [20] |
| OGC API – Features (ISO 19168-1) |
Modern REST/OpenAPI access returning GeoJSON [21] |
| Vector tiles (Mapbox Vector Tile spec) |
Tiled vector data encoded with Protocol Buffers for fast, styleable maps [22] |
| GeoJSON (RFC 7946) |
Lightweight JSON encoding of features in WGS 84 [15] |
Applications. Public geoportals; e-governance and scheme dashboards; infrastructure planning portals; disaster mapping; public-health surveillance; addressing and postal services; and environmental clearance [4][11][7][23].
Proven examples.
- Bharat Maps (NIC). A multi-layer GIS platform built on 1:50,000 reference data from Survey of India, ISRO, Forest Survey of India and the Census, with 23 foundation layers [11]. It uses about 1,000 vector layers and tile-cached base maps and has been upscaled from 1:50K to 1:10K using Cartosat-1 and Resourcesat-2 imagery [10]. It hosts applications such as the SVAMITVA, Postal, DBT and School GIS portals [11].
- Bhuvan (ISRO/NRSC). India's geoportal for 2D/3D visualisation, open satellite data and thematic applications in agriculture, water, forestry, urban planning and e-governance [7].
- Johns Hopkins COVID-19 dashboard. Launched on 22 January 2020; from 1 February 2020 updates moved from twice-daily manual entry to semi-automated refresh every 15 minutes, with data shared openly via GitHub [23]. It became one of the most-used public WebGIS dashboards in the world.
Business problem
- Desktop GIS keeps maps with a few specialists. Branch managers, field officers, engineers and district officials cannot see or update the map they depend on.
- Data is emailed as shapefiles and spreadsheets, so versions multiply and nobody knows which one is current.
- Utilities, municipal bodies and infrastructure agencies increasingly need to work with national platforms such as PM GatiShakti and the State master-plan portals [4][9], which calls for standards-based web services rather than loose files.
Our solution
- A browser-based WebGIS portal with dashboards, search, filters, measurement and reporting, plus map views in the My GLOBEIR mobile app for field teams.
- Open OGC standards (WMS, WFS, WMTS, OGC API – Features, vector tiles, GeoJSON), so that other systems can consume the data [18][19][20][21][15][22].
- Role-based access: field, supervisor, branch or region, and head office users each see and edit only what their role allows.
- Ready-made modules where they fit, such as heatmaps, live tracking, and sector maps for microfinance and NBFCs.
Benefits
- One current version of the map for everyone, from head office to the field.
- Wider use of data: anyone authorised can query and update maps in a browser, without desktop software.
- Interoperability: OGC services connect with government geoportals and enterprise systems [18][21].
- Near-real-time reporting: in an industry example, the Johns Hopkins COVID-19 dashboard moved from twice-daily manual updates to semi-automated refresh every 15 minutes [23].
- Many applications on one platform: Bharat Maps hosts applications such as the SVAMITVA, Postal, DBT and School GIS portals on 23 foundation layers [11].
Privacy & data security
- A web portal is reachable over the internet, so every session is encrypted (TLS 1.2 or higher), data is encrypted at rest (AES-256), and access is limited by role, with audit logs of access and changes.
- CERT-In Directions require service providers and body corporates to keep ICT logs for a rolling 180 days within India and to report listed cyber incidents within 6 hours [24]. Our hosting and logging are designed to support these obligations.
- Where a portal uses a third-party base map or API, we make sure that finer-than-threshold client data is not transmitted to the servers of a non-Indian entity [1][14].
- Government portals can be deployed on a MeitY-empanelled government cloud, where all data processing stays within India [25], or on the department's own servers.
4. Custom Mapping
What it is. Custom mapping means building maps and map products for a specific organisation, project or event, such as thematic layers, bespoke base maps, field-survey maps or crowd-sourced datasets, rather than relying on generic maps. Under India's 2021 Guidelines, Indian entities can collect and publish such data with self-certification. Data finer than 1 m horizontal and 3 m vertical accuracy is reserved for Indian entities [1].
How it works. Purpose definition, then capture (commissioned drone or LiDAR surveys, field surveys or crowd-sourced editing) [2][1][26], followed by purpose-built styling and delivery as tiles, APIs or print-ready maps [20][22].
Applications. Property and parcel maps; branch and service-area maps; humanitarian response maps; district development plans; tourism and heritage maps; utility and underground-asset maps; and delivery-zone maps.
Proven examples.
- Humanitarian OpenStreetMap. After the 2015 Nepal earthquake, more than 1 million buildings and about 70,000 road segments were added to OpenStreetMap through the HOT Tasking Manager. During Typhoon Haiyan (2013) and the 2014 West Africa health emergency, up to 1,000 volunteer mappers added nearly 250,000 buildings a month [26]. OpenStreetMap had about 10 million registered users in 2025 [27].
- SVAMITVA. Large-scale custom drone maps of village inhabited areas, validated on the ground before property cards are issued [2][3].
- District Master Plans under PM GatiShakti for 28 aspirational districts [9].
Business problem
- Generic online maps do not show what an organisation needs: a bank's branch catchments, a power distribution company's feeder network, a municipality's ward assets or a highway project's land parcels.
- One-off surveys commissioned from different vendors produce maps in incompatible formats that cannot be combined later.
- Field data is often collected on paper or in informal messaging groups, without coordinates or photos, so it cannot be verified.
Our solution
- Purpose-built thematic layers: branch and service areas, asset and utility networks, village, ward and parcel maps, project corridors and delivery zones.
- Data capture through drone or field surveys and the My GLOBEIR app, with geotagged photos, forms and offline capture that syncs when connectivity returns.
- Village- and ward-level base maps through Digital Micro Mapping, and training-terrain products such as the Digital Sand Model and Army GIS Map for defence training establishments.
- Delivery as web tiles, APIs or print-ready maps [20][22].
Benefits
- Maps that match how the organisation works, not how a consumer map provider sees the world.
- Verified ground truth: SVAMITVA shows the value of checking drone maps on the ground with owners and officials before records are issued [3].
- Speed at scale: in an industry example, humanitarian OpenStreetMap volunteers added more than 1 million buildings after the 2015 Nepal earthquake [26].
- Reusable assets: custom layers become part of the organisation's GIS and can be reused across departments and projects.
Privacy & data security
- Field forms, geotagged photos and parcel surveys can identify people and homes, so they are personal data under the DPDP Act 2023 [13]. We capture only the fields needed for the agreed purpose.
- In the My GLOBEIR app, background location tracking is optional and opt-in with a persistent notification, and location is captured for work purposes.
- Under the DST Guidelines, terrestrial mobile mapping and street-view surveys are reserved for Indian entities, finer-than-threshold data must be stored and processed in India, and there is no right of access to restricted premises [1]. Our surveys are planned accordingly.
- Defence and other high-security maps can be delivered on-premise or air-gapped, under NDA.
5. Data Mapping: Integration, ETL, Geocoding and Schema Mapping
What it is. Spatial data mapping turns data in many formats, scales, projections and attribute schemas into one harmonised, interoperable dataset. It also attaches coordinates to records that only have addresses (geocoding). This is the step that makes multi-agency and enterprise platforms possible.
How it works.
- ETL and format translation: libraries such as GDAL provide a single raster and vector data model for hundreds of formats [28].
- Reprojection and datum harmonisation into one reference frame [15].
- Schema mapping of source attributes onto a target data model. For example, Ordnance Survey's National Geographic Database organises data into 9 themes and 16 collections, updated daily and served through APIs [29].
- Geocoding and reverse geocoding between addresses, codes and coordinates [12][30].
Applications. Multi-ministry data integration; address standardisation and KYC; linking property cards to revenue records; PIN-code geofencing; last-mile logistics; and emergency response.
Proven examples.
- NIC multi-layer GIS. Source maps originally existed in different scales, projections, datums and formats, including paper, and could not be used by IT systems. NIC brought Survey of India topographic data, verified village boundaries and satellite imagery into one framework [10].
- DIGIPIN (India Post, IIT Hyderabad, NRSC-ISRO). An open-source national grid that divides India into cells of about 4 m × 4 m, each with a unique digital address [30]. The Know Your DIGIPIN portal converts coordinates to DIGIPIN and back, all-India PIN-code boundaries have been published as open GeoJSON, and DIGIPIN is expected to improve delivery accuracy, reduce emergency response time and give banks and insurers an extra address attribute for KYC [12][30].
- PM GatiShakti. About 1,700 layers from 57 central bodies and 36 States/UTs harmonised on one platform [9].
Business problem
- Banks, NBFCs, insurers and retailers hold large volumes of customer and asset addresses as free text, with spelling variations and missing PIN codes, so these records cannot be placed on a map or checked against risk zones.
- Government departments merging data from several schemes find that village names, codes and boundaries do not match. NIC had to solve the same problem before Bharat Maps could work [10].
- Utilities and infrastructure companies keep networks in CAD drawings and spreadsheets in different projections, which cannot be combined with GIS data or shared with platforms such as PM GatiShakti [9].
Our solution
- Data audit, cleaning and de-duplication, then geocoding of addresses to coordinates and enrichment with PIN-code boundaries and DIGIPIN [12][30].
- ETL pipelines that convert CAD, spreadsheet, shapefile and other formats into one spatial database in a common reference frame [15][28].
- Schema mapping onto a documented target data model with a data dictionary, so that new data can be added consistently.
- Scheduled refreshes and quality checks, with field corrections captured through My GLOBEIR and published through the WebGIS platform.
Benefits
- A single source of truth for every location, replacing duplicate and conflicting datasets.
- Analysis-ready records: geocoded customers and assets can be used straight away for catchment, coverage and risk analysis.
- Better address quality for KYC and delivery: DIGIPIN is expected to improve delivery accuracy, reduce emergency response time and give banks and insurers an extra address attribute [12][30].
- Interoperability with national platforms: in an industry example, PM GatiShakti harmonises about 1,700 layers on one platform [9].
- Less manual rework each time a report or a regulator's request needs a location view.
Privacy & data security
- Geocoding customer, borrower or beneficiary addresses creates precise location data about identifiable people, which is personal data under the DPDP Act 2023 [13]. When GLOBEIR processes it for a client, the client remains the Data Fiduciary and engages us under a valid contract, as s.8 of the Act requires [13].
- Geospatial data finer than 1 m horizontal or 3 m vertical accuracy is stored and processed only in India and is never transmitted to the servers of a non-Indian entity [1][14]. We do not send such data to foreign geocoding or mapping services.
- For bank and NBFC clients, our contracts support RBI outsourcing requirements, including data storage in India as per regulatory requirements, need-to-know access and prompt reporting of cyber incidents to the regulated entity [32].
- Identifiers are masked or pseudonymised wherever the analysis does not need them, and data is exported back and deleted at the end of the engagement or on request.