Devanshee Deepak: "Cross collaboration between Spain and India can take both countries to the next level"

Devanshee Deepak is the Global Product Director at DronaMaps, a leading advanced technology company in geospatial analysis, drone-based 3D reconstruction, and AI-powered feature detection.

How do you think DronaMaps is different from other drone-based mapping and analysis platforms?
I think what we have tried to accomplish is scaling the geospatial plus AI technologies because currently what we are doing is we are working with National Highways Authority of India which has the world's second largest highway network and we have been successfully able to map all the National Highways using 2000 plus drones and the analytics for it for different feature set has been churned out within 7 to 10 days.

So I think the rapid scaling coupled with innovative architecture also coupled with AI models which are also geospatial compliant while I think that's a wonderful feat that we have been able to achieve and given that the models are built in such a way that they are repeatable, scalable and applicable to any of the road networks across the world makes us truly interoperable and it shows that we are built for the world and not just for India.

What key technologies underpin the DronaMaps platform?
First is computer vision AI models coupled with geospatial models on how to extract geospatial information. The, what we have been able to do is by all the other GIS platforms which work independently on desktop software, we have been able to build a SaaS platform where all of the functionalities which were limited to desktop so far has been transferred to web. It's done using open-source technologies and it is easy to use, it's intuitive and the best part is it drives collaboration between different stakeholders who are using these software.

If you look at the traditional industry software today they are all desktop based, they are not built for scale because they are separate workstations but because we are hosted on cloud it's a SaaS based platform so it can be rapidly, we are able to implement this across multiple clients where we have seen a lot of collaboration, a lot of decision making insights coming through the platform. We also have analytics dashboards which are very tuned to sector specific requirements. Additionally, we are also bringing in LLM models so that people can actually ask questions, for example how many highways have so many defects and so forth.

So, I think it's a true combination of advanced AIML models which are geospatially compliant plus analytics on top of it and a vis-a-vis integration of LLMs in the near future. This is our complete tech stack, and I think that's what sets us apart from other geospatial companies who are majorly into hardware and mapping but nobody has really scaled up to the software side of things.

How do you think that Drone and Maps contribute to sustainable development?
I think John F. Kennedy once said America doesn't have great roads because it's rich, it's rich because it has great roads. So, living that fundamental philosophy, what we are trying to do is how to make roads better and easy to use and at the same time being safe for the larger public.

Because roads, utilities, they form the core backbone of any country and if you are able to scale it well, build it well in a sustainable way, that's how you are going to drive progress and not just top tier cities but it's also in the rural areas. So, our aim is to ensure that all the roads which are being built in India that they are monitored, governed in such a way that the quality of instruction improves over time. It is more convenient for public use and also in terms of managing the public policies around infrastructure governance becomes a lot easier.

What is your overall impression of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Spain?
I think during this program what I have realized is Spain is actually one of the leaders in the entire European region in terms of smart infrastructure, technology and innovation. 
And having interacted and usually all of these cross-cultural collaboration programs they turn out to be very theoretical. But I think in this program what we realized after talking and having real conversations with the top leaders right from public sector to private sector we realized that the entire Spain and the way they work they are very open to entrepreneurship, they are open to new ideas they are anyway at the forefront of using EIML in a lot of different use cases and this is what we think that given Spain and India in terms of how they are culturally driven, how they are so business orientated with the right set of ethics and discipline.

I think Spain is a great bed to start anybody's entrepreneurship journey within Europe because we already see the impact of tech companies that are working here. Given the right support and ecosystem here other startups can also thrive embed into the ways of working of Spanish companies along with culture and I think people are very open and friendly and receptive to that.

You know sometimes when you meet other people or when you meet large companies you see a lot of resistance because they are used to their traditional ways of working. But having interacted with the top leaders we always saw their arms welcoming us for innovation and thinking of additional use cases that can help both our economies in a much more better way.

Do you think that there are opportunities for cooperation between Spain and India in the Drona Maps area, like in your field of study?
Absolutely, because we have been travelling across Spain and I think roads fundamentally work the same everywhere. The board signs may be in different languages, but the road safety features, the way it's built by focusing on the quality of the roads, how they are maintained over time, so I think those fundamentals of governing the roads and the quality of roads over time essentially stays the same, both in India and both in Spain.

So I think our use case currently what we are working in India is very much replicable and scalable to Spain and this is why we think and also having visited the top companies here looking at infrastructure, we already know that Spain is investing so much into smart infrastructure which is also sustainable, friendly, easy to use in terms of design it's also way forward.

I think this is where I see Drona Maps as a great fit for a company who can, because we are in geospatial we sit at the intersection of geospatial intelligence and AI, we can actually contribute a lot to the infrastructure governance urban planning, climate resilience, and that's about it.

What aspects of the Spanish ecosystem surprised you most during your visit? You already said several, but maybe there are more.
I think what surprised me the most… If I were to draw similarities, because you always think when you are coming to a foreign country the ways of working, the way people perceive your ideas… Sometimes you think there can be some resistance but I think when you look here the ethics around working response and adoption to technology and innovation focusing again on civil infrastructure for public use and it's not just very capitalist driven while every other economy is mostly capitalist but the intent towards driving innovation is so much more rooted into socialist roots and I think this is what surprised me the most.

And having interacted with all the leaders this is what it reflected upon me that they are all looking to use technology for greater good for the people of Spain and I think they are equally looking forward to expanding their technology not just in Europe but also in other continents especially in countries like India where we are still called developing nations so there is a lot of scope and I see a lot of things that we can pick from Spain and take back to India and I think that cross collaboration between Spain and India can take both the countries to the next level.

VIII edition activity summary