Interview with Roshan Kumar
Roshan Kumar
GIS Consultant
New Delhi, Delhi, India
Q1. Please share your educational and professional journey with us?
I’m master’s in computer application, and Fellow member of Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) London, UK.
I got an opportunity for my MCA 6th Sem Project in Soil and Land Use Survey of India, where I was impressed with the maps and Geospatial Data, after completing my master’s in 2013, I was fortunate enough to get involved in the Government of India’s, BharatNet project (to map National Optical Fiber Network in all State Capitals, Districts, and HQs and up to the Block Level. That was the turning point in my GIS career, and I continue as a GIS professional. Then I worked in MapmyIndia in the RealView (360 panoramic) survey team. After that I joined Arcadis, and I had an opportunity to work on UK’s infrastructure project, to provide a GIS-based solution for collaboration between BIM and GIS. Currently, I’m working in WSP for Environmental Digital Transformation UK clients.
Q2. You are responsible for managing Environmental Digital Transformation projects. What kind of projects do you deal in your domain??
My main responsibilities are to innovate and digitize the traditional way of working with the latest tools and technology available, most of my deliverables are based on utilizing ESRI suites, Enterprise GIS, Database Management, Cloud technologies, and customization. This allows clients to accelerate and scale environmental sustainability by applying a different set of data, and digital technologies altogether.
Q3. The domain of geospatial technology is visualizing a massive change. Where do you see the geospatial industry to go in the long term?
I truly believe in “GIS for Everyone”, as we are in the fourth industrial revolution, everything is changing everything is evolving. So geospatial technology is also evolving in the last few years. Today most apps are having location components, and most industries are working with GIS data.
Very pleased to see Govt. of India’s new policy “The National Geospatial Policy, 2021”. That helps business to expand their horizon and offerings.
According to [Internet report] “The global geospatial analytics market size was valued at $60.94 billion in 2020, and is projected to reach $209.47 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 13.0% from 2021 to 2030.”
Q4. Automation is growing rapidly in Geospatial domain comparing to old manual method. How do you use automation in your projects?
Automation is necessary and sufficient for the industries today’s requirements. We are living in BIG DATA era, so automation helps to achieve the desired task more efficiently. I would say automation allows new ways of working, not demising existing jobs.
In our project, we truly embrace the automation of our day-to-day work and client deliverables. Most geoprocessing tasks are automated, documents are in digital format, and data are hosted in a Common Data Environment (CDE) to ensure a single source of truth. Also minimizing the manual input and maximizing the task and deliverables to automate.
Q5. How do you see the new technologies like Web GIS and Geospatial Data Science? Is it necessary to learn for surviving in the new competition?
WebGIS is a very powerful way to tell your geospatial stories on an internet-based platform. This allows providing a solution in a 360 environment, WebGIS can be accessed anywhere, at any time, and on any platform.
Geospatial mainly deals with 3V’s i.e Volume, Velocity, and Variety, and Geospatial Data Science is the combination of Geospatial and Data science put together. Geospatial Data Science helps to do the analysis that focuses on the special characteristics of data, using modeling and programming to know where, why, and when, things happen. Additionally, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and the Internet of Things (IoT) are the most commonly integrated technologies used in industry.
So this is very much necessary, to learn the latest WebGIS, Geospatial Data Science, additionally Enterprise GIS, cloud-based database management, python, and JavaScript.
Q6. Which are the best courses to get specialization in Esri Products?
ESRI offers a great learning platform for individuals and organizations to learn and explore the latest development and tools set that are available for business use.
I would suggest all the Geospatial Evangelists, must have an ESRI learning account.
ESRI [Start a free trial] – ArcGIS Online portal can be registered with personal email/ or business email, for many more learning and development resources are available for non-commercial use.
URL to register ESRI ArcGIS Online: https://www.esri.com/en-us/arcgis/products/create-account
Q7. How do you update yourself with the latest technology?
I’m continuously following the ESRI and other Geospatial products and service industry on various platforms (Webinars, Technical Sessions, Conferences, Videos, and Online Learning) to get updated with the latest technological development. Also trying to involve myself into innovating the client’s solution whenever possible. I would say every day is a new day to learn something.
Q8. What did attract you towards GIS/Remote Sensing Domain?
I like the science of where; GIS and Remote sensing allow me to interact with Where, and without having my physical presence I can analyze that Where. Also, GIS and Remote Sensing allow you to see what’s around you, how it looks, what would be future looks like, etc.
Q9. What other skills will you recommend in order for people to grow their career in development?
I would suggest GIS Data Management, Cloud technologies, WebGIS, Customizing WebGIS (using Javascript), Python for Geoprocessing, Opensource GIS, Enterprise GIS, Mobile, and GIS Administration, these are the most demanding skills in the current market.
Read more about Roshan Kumar:
Email id: roshan.mtu@gmail.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roshanmca/
