Careers at Indian GIS Industry A Disarrayed Saga
Saurabh Mishra
saurabh.mishra@GISdevelopment.net
Name Rajesh
Nair; qualifications
- Bachelor of Science
(Geology), Master of Science (Geoinformatics);
first job - GIS Engineer (with a
not well-known GIS firm); worked for a
year and then switches over..he is now
insurance adviser with ICICI Prudential.
Bhanu, a B.Sc. graduate (no specialisation),
is working as Business Development
executive with one of the India's
leading GIS companies. His qualification
in Geoinformatics discipline - a six
months Diploma course from a privately
run institute. His salary - Better than
most with GIS qualifications.
The cases are umpteen, of the stark
variations in trends the way Indian
"Geospatial industry" offers jobs and
engages workforce in itself. So much
diverse is the industry in terms of operations,
jobs, verticals, skills required,
hierarchical growth within the organisation,
salary structure, education, etc.
that its fails to give smooth and chronicled
outlook. 'What constitutes the Indian
Geospatial Industry' is itself a challenging
question to answer. A look at
country's one of the top job sites, on
putting 'GIS' as keyword, lists down
multiple jobs with multiple qualifications
(Table 1). Other job titles that were
posted were - Opens Source GIS Web
Application Developer, Sales and Marketing
Manager - GIS, Software Developer
- GIS/CAD, Business Manager -
CAD Solutions & GIS, Mid-level Design
Engineers. It is interesting to note that
none of the job-postings were from any
of the leading companies that constitute
'Indian Geospatial industry'. (A
survey conducted by GIS Development,
suggests ESRI, Rolta, Infotech, RMSI as
few of the leading concerns of the sector.
Please refer the survey results published
in this issue). Despite positive
speculations about the growth of the
industry, (that generally accompany
the figures on application areas
growth), and despite GIS coming as one
of the avenues of career for graduates
of multiple streams (in a nation with
unemployment as a persistent suffering),
there are junctures at which stakeholders
of the discipline stop and think
where the industry is moving to, and at
more personal level, what is in stock as
far as career is concerned.
INDUSTRY'S GROWTH
The Indian Geospatial industry saw its
inception around two decades ago. A
broad chronology of the movement of
Geospatial sciences in India may be
visualised in four phases. At all phases
the movement remained linked to
developments in academia as well as
industry - anyone following the other.
The first is, introduction and application
of GIS in few researches in multiple
academic disciplines/professional
courses as Forestry (green cover estimation),
Geology (mineral maps), Agriculture
(crop disease estimation), Civil
Engineering, etc. It became more and
more the part of analysis processes.
This later on led to addition of GIS modules/
courses to these. It also became a
part of curriculum of traditional Geography
courses.
The second stage is the utilisation of
GIS techniques in various projects on
disaster management, urban planning,
etc. of which digital spatial database
development was a part. It was at this
stage that GIS came to be recognized as 'decision support system (DSS)'. This
phase led to the development of courses
in Geoinformatics, and even in vertical
of Remote Sensing, by traditional
universities. Introduction of M.Sc. and
PG Diploma in Geoinformatics in Indian
Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS) in
late 1990s may be the example of this
development.
The third stage, roughly six years old,
is the one when Indian ITES/BPO industry
came up on strong footing. This was
together with the growth of country's
IT industry. The data conversion jobs
were outsourced leading to the budding
of various GIS companies. The
implication was - mushrooming of
training institutes running short-term
courses on GIS/RS software. "Having
been in the IT training business for a
decade it was natural to include GIS
also as an offering" says D.Ragavan of
Chennai-based Indian Geoinformatics
Centre, a privately run institute, when
asked about the driving force behind
the inception of course on GIS. The
fourth phase, the contemporary phase,
as we may call it, is the one when companies
entered in the business of customisation
and development. Companies
that fall into IT/ITES domain
sensed opportunities in the sector.
Mainstream IT companies opened GIS
divisions and took up jobs of customisation
and application/solutions development.
The implication on the education
part is seen in the development of
courses specifically designed for these
contemporary areas of function, i.e.
courses that include training in programming
skills.
It is all the phases that one finds
together when one tries to have an
overview of the GIS scenario in India.
"Start of GIS in India was a kind of
emergency response; lot of jobs came
in, companies took up jobs of data conversion,
anybody with few IT skills
entered into the job; those who were
truly targeting to be into this field were
very few; so no systematic development
of education in the discipline took
place. It was all a haphazard traffic -
nobody knew where to go and how to
go." says Dr. Shahnawaz of Salzburg
University, Austria. The same reason
may be cited for the various terms that
float to name the discipline itself -
Geoinformatics, GeoInformation Technology
(GIT), Geomatics, Spatial Science,
Digital Cartography, etc.
Call it wise or unwise, one tends to
compare the growth of Geospatial
industry with other similar sectors -
mainstream IT being the prime. (Similarity
in terms of their initiation at the
same time). Whereas IT has grown with
a compounded growth of more than
50% between 1992 and 2001 (Fig 1),
there are no concrete figures available
for GIS industry.
Biotechnology in India has grown
manifolds in the last decade - touched a
US$ 2 billion in 2007 from insignificance
and growing at 37% per annum.
Biotechnology sector is projected to
grow further - targeted to touch a US$ 5
billion by year 2010. (http://www.moneycontrol.com/india/news/pressnews/cii-biotech-mission-takes-off-tous-to-explore-business/279828). It is
also interesting to note the case of telecom
industry. Telecom network in India
has grown to be the fifth largest network
in the world and the industry is
estimated to contribute nearly 1% to
India's GDP. Major industry-boosting
development was the National Telecom
Policy of 1994, which is one of the
most enlightened regulations framed
for the sector in the region, and
arguably in the world. As opposite, the
GIS industry's growth looks mired.
Ambitions have met failures. There
have been cases where firms were
forced to closed down their operations
or have diversified. Companies have
not been able to move up the valuechain;
market does not offer much jobs.
New companies open but close down
after a period. Restrictions, unfriendly
policies with regard to map data generation
and dissemination have been
hurdles to innovations.
| Sl.No. |
Job title |
Job description |
Desired qualification |
Advertiser's Profile |
| 1. |
GIS Executive |
a. Map conversion using GIS software, like AutoMap, ArcGIS,
MapInfo, etc.
b. Quality check
c. Training new users on Map conversion technologies
d. Team Management
|
a. Graduate / PG with 1+yrs prior exp in Map
conversion using software like ArcGIS, AutoMap,
MapInfo
b. Candidates with education background in
GIS/Geography related subjects |
A "global IT firm" offering
services as GIS technology
solutions along with
advanced plant technology
and media solutions |
| 2. |
GIS Analysts,
Programmers |
|
a. Master's degree in GeoInformatics/Remote
Sensing/Spatial Information Science/ Geography/
Hydrology/Geology
b. Bachelor's degree in GeoInformatics / Civil /
Electrical / Electronics Engineering |
Specializes in custom
application projects |
| 3. |
Assistant
Manager/Manager-
GIS |
a. Process Management-Developing and documenting GIS
processes for GIS operations;
b. Customer-Generation and circulation of standard reports for
different departments
c. Financial-Preparation and vetting of revenue based reports
d. People & Org Development-Training on GIS to Business,
technical and finance team at circle. |
UG - Any Graduate - Any Specialization
PG - M.Tech - Any Specialization |
Private telecom services
provider |
| 4. |
GIS Technician |
GIS based Parcel and Flood mapping using ESRI
ArcGIS9.1/9.2 and AutoCAD Map 2008. 2. Must be experienced
on parcel mapping using either ArcGIS or AutoCAD. 3.
Raster and Vector data concepts 4.Georeferencing, Digitization
(Manual and Semiautomatic), topology creation, Image mosaic
and edge matching using ESRI ArcGIS Environment. Tech-
Skills: GIS SoftSkills: GIS |
a. 1.5 - 4 yrs of Exp. GIS based Parcel and Flood
mapping using ESRI ArcGIS9.1/9.2 and Auto-
CAD Map 2008.
b. Must be experienced on parcel
mapping using either ArcGIS or AutoCAD
c. Must be aware and good understanding on all
projection system
d. Raster and Vector data concepts
e. Georeferencing, Digitization (Manual and Semiautomatic),
topology creation, Image mosaic and
edge matching using ESRI ArcGIS Environment.
TechSkills: GIS SoftSkills |
Offshore transaction services,
technology services
and analytics |
| 5. |
Project Lead -
GIS |
a. Responsible for maintenance of existing clients; monitor project
progress; prepare presentations and technical papers.
b. Must have experience in creation of proposals and technical
presentations.
c. Must have experience project estimation and planning.
d. Candidate must be from GIS industry. |
Diploma or BE in any discipline with 6 to 12
years of relevant experience in GIS industry.. |
GIS Software Solutions
Company |
| 6. |
IT Coordinator |
|
Minimum 55% marks MCA/ BE Computer/ IT.
Minimum 3 Years Experience in data management,
net working, web maintenance and GIS. |
State government agency
for rural development |
| 7. |
Photogrammetry
Engineer |
a. Creation and maintenance of the geographical database by
digitising the source material as mentioned in the respective
project requirement documents.
b. Quality Checks on data produced on digitization.
c. Rework for the deviations found during the Quality check.
d. Keep MIS updated for efforts as well as outputs. |
a. B.Tech/ M.Tech/M.Sc in Civil, Geology, Remote
Sensing
b. 3-6 years. Hands on experience on Planimetry
and DTM capturing
c. The candidate should be Quality Oriented,
Flexible, Willing to work in shifts |
An IT company |
| Table 1 Mutiple jobs, mutiple qualifications
|