Nokia's HERE to start first community mapping project in India

Nokia's mapping services division HERE launched its first community mapping pilot programme in India, where it partners with local experts to improve its navigation services in the country.

As a part of the initiative, the regional team of HERE (which has more than 1,000 people) will work with students (studying subjects such as GIS and geography) from universities, including Mount Carmel College in Bangalore and the SAL Institute of Technology in Ahmedabad, allowing them to add missing streets, bridges, points of interests (POIs) and other information to the map.

"India is a very important market for us. In a fast-growing country like India, a community mapping approach along with inputs from our own experts will help HERE keep pace with the ever-evolving landscape," HERE EVP Michael Halbherr told PTI.

Screengrab of Nokia's Here Maps.[/caption]

Last month, software giant Microsoft bought Nokia's handset business for $7.2 billion. Nokia has retained its telecom networking business NSN, location services HERE and advanced technologies.

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HERE maps are used by many companies, including automakers, personal navigation device manufactures, mobile device makers and web and enterprise clients, to develop their traffic navigation system.

It also comes embedded in many Nokia devices in the Asha and Lumia series. To maintain accuracy, HERE has put in place a community map moderation system that verifies edits before integrating them into the base map.

PTI