Owing to the easy availability of mid-resolution multispectral data on a daily basis, sectors like banking and insurance are today benefiting from satellite-based Remote Sensing, says Dheeraj Mehra, CEO, Micronet Solutions.
Can you tell us a little about your company’s vision, its key areas of focus, and future plans?
As a company, our top focus is to provide content to every user in the industry at affordable cost. The procurement of satellite imagery has been traditionally dominated by defense customers. However, with our vast experience in the industry, we are trying to change that. We have a vision to cater to all users in the industry by providing them high-resolution data, both in optical and radar imagery space. We are aggressively working on finding solutions to enable ease of buying satellite images for small and consumer-centric buyers without them getting worried on the technical issues related to purchasing satellite images.
The recent delivery of images at 30cm native resolution from the Pléiades Neo 3&4 satellites hasn’t gone unnoticed in the industry. Are we at a point from where the need for better accuracy and clarity will lead to greater demand for high resolution imagery?
The need for better accuracy and clarity will certainly lead to more demand for high-resolution imagery. Very high-resolution imagery is still under restriction, but we are hoping that soon private customers in the industry will also be allowed to procure such imagery. This will enable a vast range of new applications, and different business models will emerge in the industry. Currently, all such ideas are strangulated by regulations. There is huge demand for high-resolution data even today. This can be seen by the exponential growth in drone imagery. As is well known, drone imagery has its limitations, but the demand has been created, and the 30cm very high resolution is poised to succeed in fulfilling customer expectations.
How have Remote Sensing services evolved in the last few years?
In my opinion, there is still a lot to be done in terms of building applications. We have been focused on the need to create content. Now, with so many players like Airbus, Maxar, Planet, MDA, etc. in the industry, user friendly applications need to be built to ingest the huge amount of data being delivered by the original equipment manufacturers
(OEMs). That’s where our Indian startup ecosystem can play a major role in bridging the gap between technology and its use.
“Very high-resolution imagery is still under restriction, but we are hoping that soon private customers will also be allowed to procure such imagery”
Can you share with us some of the new and emerging application areas for satellite-based Remote Sensing?
Over the years, several new application areas have emerged. For example, satellite-based Remote Sensing is today being used for carbon credits, banking, insurance, plantations, etc. Owing to the easy availability of mid-resolution multispectral data on a daily basis, these sectors are benefiting from Remote Sensing and scripting success stories.
How have technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) helped the geospatial industry?
If the industry has to consume large amounts of data that is being made available, we have to heavily depend on AI and ML. I personally think that so far we have not succeeded in building algorithms for agriculture specific to the Indian context. Owing to small farm holdings and multiple cropping patterns in India, it becomes almost impossible to separate the weeds from actual crops in a small parcel of an agricultural field. However, I am hopeful that AI and ML techniques will improve in coming years. The current deployment of AI and ML tools has been restricted on account of high costs, which need to come down for large scale deployment. Most of the AI and ML providers are working on the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model. The industry is not able to fund such a service and is looking for readymade tools to do this in-house.
How have the revised geospatial guidelines announced by the Government of India impacted the industry?
The important thing is the mindset of the government, which is to liberalize the geospatial industry. The revised guidelines will have a huge impact on the startup ecosystem within the country and enable job creation. The industry is pleased with the National Remote Sensing Centre’s (NRSC) decision to liberalize the satellite data procurement process, wherein data can be directly procured by any entity/individual from registered vendors. This has pushed the demand for data in a huge manner, and we are thankful to NRSC for breaking the shackles of the data procurement process. I feel that we are going to see an unprecedented demand for satellite imagery in future.
