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Interview: Sajid Malik, Chairman & Managing Director, Genesys International

“Precise geo-data forms the foundation of digital infrastructure for urban and infrastructure development.” – Sajid Malik.

This interview was originally published in AGI’s Sep-Oct 2022 Newsletter Edition on the theme of Location-based Services. To download the full newsletter, click here.

Genesys is pioneering a paradigm shift from traditional to next-generation mapping by expanding to the 3D virtual geographic environment and artificial intelligence. What benefits do you think such advancements could bring to the Indian economy?

India will be witnessing two major trends: the largest urbanization wave in the world moving ahead coupled with billions of dollars in infrastructure development.

Precise geo data forms the foundation of digital infrastructure for urban and infrastructure development. With advancements in technology – 3D and digital twins represent the most efficient way to plan, design and maintain infrastructure to help citizens and harness the best technology offers.

We have pioneered the usage of 3d in the country with our investments in LIDAR and multiple sensors which we believe will come into increasing play post the new policy environment. Genesys’ focus on 3D is not new but has been a specialization for many years now. We have also undertaken international projects for the same. Genesys has also filed for two patents in the fields of geocoding in 3D and AI/ML development.

You have recently partnered with Google for the launch of Google’s Street View in India. Tell us more about this partnership and the anticipated impact of this offering in the country.

This partnership is a direct outcome of two things. Firstly, we have been the pioneers in street imaging in this country, having launched the same on our WoNoBo platform collaboration almost 10 years ago. Secondly, the new Guidelines and conducive policy environment have brought about an overall boost for the Geospatial landscape.

We believe that the Google Maps platform along with its massive relevance and user base will leverage the Street View offering for the benefit of thousands of small businesses. More and more MSMEs will now get to take advantage of a digital presence. Moreover, millions of Indians will benefit from improvements in last-mile connectivity due to Street View’s comprehensive use cases.

Last year, Genesys International filed a patent involving the automatic extraction of street furniture from panoramic imagery and LiDAR data acquired from terrestrial mobile mapping systems. Considering the high vertical accuracy of LiDAR, what avenues could this technology open up in the future?

I strongly believe that anything you cannot measure, you cannot manage. LiDAR is one technology that allows measuring features very accurately.

At Genesys, we are a pioneer in mobile mapping systems, though earlier, we used to do a lot of manual processing for identifying features and geo-tagging. Now we have switched to advanced ML algorithms. Genesys believes in developing innovation as a practice, and we are steadily moving toward introducing machine automation in Geospatial content generation and analytics.

Genesys has also recently launched a pan-India 3D Maps programme aimed at producing highly accurate 3D digital twins for 100 cities in the country. What are some of the use cases you are looking at from this development? What role can it play in revolutionizing location-based services in the country?

Honestly, there can be a plethora of use cases from our pan-India 3D maps program. The primary aim of content creation like this is to enable partner networks to develop applications for vertical domains. We have a rich partner ecosystem leveraging our content for various developments.

For instance, Bentley Systems is using engineering-grade LIDAR computation for infra, road, etc. On the other hand, ESRI is using the data for the planning of different components, while Hexagon is integrating our content with data acquisition and processing to develop solutions.

In terms of location-based services, I can particularly cite one example. We are involved in the creation of 24 Airports in Saudi Arabia where location-based services are playing a huge role in airport navigation and management. This can be replicated in India too with tremendous success.

Lastly, what do you think the future holds for the new wave of analytics that Location-based Services and Business Intelligence are bringing?

Whilst many new insights will emerge through analytics, we need to remember that none of this is possible if there is no good foundational data in the first place. This is what our company is building for our country. At Genesys, we are creating the biggest democracy of data in the biggest democracy of the world.