Spotlight on GIS Innovations | TelecomDrive.com
With the integration of AI, machine learning, and digital twins, GIS is enabling smarter city management, from detecting encroachments and planning drainage and road systems to optimizing telecom networks ' and Esri India is leading the way in this direction. With Esri's ArcGIS, telecom operators can integrate data from network management systems, IoT sensors, and field operations onto dynamic geospatial dashboards.
Agendra Kumar, Managing Director, Esri India speaks with Zia Askari from TelecomDrive.com on how GIS technology is playing a critical role in driving urban planning in India and why it is important for telecom operators.
How is GIS technology evolving in India's urban and infrastructure landscape?
As per the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, India's total domestic Geospatial market is expected to reach INR 1 lakh crores by 2030. In this evolving landscape, GIS stands out as a foundational technology for urban planning, infrastructure growth, and effective governance. With the integration of AI, machine learning, and digital twins, GIS is enabling smarter city management, from detecting encroachments and planning drainage and road systems to optimizing telecom networks.
Initiatives like PM Gati Shakti, SVAMITVA, NAKSHA, and the National Water Mission are leveraging GIS for infrastructure coordination, land reforms, and service delivery. The National Geospatial Policy has further opened access to data, boosting private sector innovation. As cities expand and smart urban services become the norm, GIS is playing a critical role in building resilient, efficient, and inclusive urban ecosystems. ArcGIS is playing a pivotal role in this transformational story with its capabilities to capture, store, analyze, and visualize spatial data, facilitating informed decision-making, efficient resource allocation, and sustainable development.
What role do GIS and digital twins play in enabling and transforming urban infrastructure management?
Digital twins create a representation of both natural and built environments, allowing stakeholders to monitor current performance while also exploring and predicting future outcomes. They allow planners to test and simulate the impact of new buildings, roads, or public transport systems before actual construction. They enable real-time visualization and simulation of physical assets, helping city planners manage assets like roads, drainage, and buildings with high precision.
GIS plays a very important role in advancing the idea of creating digital twins for the infrastructure sector in the country. Any digital twin of a fixed asset or real-world system benefits directly from including GIS data about the asset or system and its geographic context. This integration enhances visualization and analytical capabilities, enabling users to gain valuable insights into various scenarios and their potential impacts. Improved access to data facilitates faster decision-making and boosts workflow efficiency.
ArcGIS facilitates connecting different types of data and systems to create a single view that can be accessed throughout the life cycle of an infrastructure project. It enhances data capture and integration, enables better real-time visualization, provides advanced analysis and automation of future predictions, and allows for information sharing and collaboration.
How are AI and machine learning being integrated into GIS applications for smarter city management?
AI and machine learning are increasingly enhancing the capabilities of GIS, transforming them into intelligent systems that support faster, data-driven urban decision-making. While GIS forms the spatial backbone, mapping and visualizing infrastructure, utilities, and environmental data, AI serves as the analytical layer that extracts patterns, predicts risks, and automates actions.
GeoAI is the new term coined for 'Geospatial Artificial Intelligence'. With the latest pre-trained AI models, GeoAI can analyze complex data, identify hidden patterns, make data-driven predictions, and streamline complex workflows. By extracting rich geospatial data, including imagery, video, point clouds, and text, using advanced spatial algorithms, GeoAI helps create more accurate models, identify patterns, measure changes, and predict future outcomes. AI models trained on Indian data can be used for encroachment detection, traffic infrastructure planning, and remote monitoring of solar and power grids using satellite and drone imagery. This eliminates the need for extensive manual inspections while improving accuracy and scalability.
In real-world scenarios like urban flooding, AI and GIS work together by mapping drainage systems, monitoring sensor data, and predicting blockages or overflows, allowing cities like Bengaluru to respond proactively. Together, GIS and AI are enabling Indian cities to move from reactive planning to predictive, intelligent urban management.
How is GIS contributing to the real-time monitoring and management of the telecom infrastructure in cities, powering the next-gen urban ecosystem?
GIS is transforming the real-time monitoring and management of telecom infrastructure by providing a unified, location-based view of the entire network. With Esri's ArcGIS, telecom operators can integrate data from network management systems, IoT sensors, and field operations onto dynamic geospatial dashboards. This real-time spatial insight enables operators to monitor network performance, detect outages, assess service disruptions, and prioritize maintenance activities with precision.
GIS helps in visualizing critical infrastructure such as fiber routes, towers, base stations, and customer service areas, allowing for faster troubleshooting and response. During emergencies or network failures, GIS-powered situational awareness supports rapid decision-making, efficient resource allocation, and improved customer communication. Additionally, as 5G and fiber expansion accelerate, Esri's GIS tools assist in planning, optimizing, and managing complex network rollouts with greater accuracy and reduced costs, ensuring consistent service quality and operational efficiency. Esri's GIS technology is already used by top telecom providers like Jio and Airtel for real-time network optimization, fault detection, and customer service planning.
What is the future outlook for GIS in powering smart grids?
GIS plays a pivotal role in enabling smart grids by integrating geospatial intelligence with real-time operational data, helping utilities optimize grid performance, reliability, and resilience. With Esri's ArcGIS, utilities can visualize the entire grid infrastructure'power generation stations, transmission lines, substations, feeders, transformers, and customer locations on a dynamic map, allowing for precise situational awareness.
GIS supports advanced outage management, predictive maintenance, and asset tracking by layering data from sensors, IoT devices, SCADA systems, and weather feeds. This spatial context helps in rapid decision-making during outages, efficient crew dispatch, and proactive grid maintenance. Moreover, as renewable energy sources and distributed generation become integral to modern grids, GIS helps in planning optimal locations for solar, wind, and storage assets while modeling their impact on the grid. GIS empowers utilities to build smarter, more adaptive grids that meet growing demand while enhancing sustainability and customer service.
This interview is published in the July 2025 issue of Disruptive Telecoms
