MapmyIndia’s Rakesh Verma declared ‘World’s GPS Businessman of Year 2007’

MapmyIndia’s Rakesh Verma declared ‘World’s GPS Businessman of Year 2007’

• MapmyIndia was the only Indian company nominated among world leaders like Nokia, TomTom, SiRF, Tele Atlas
• “Digital maps are scarce assets and Mr. Verma has developed one of these assets for a country that has the second biggest population in the world.” – GPSBusinessNews.com

New Delhi, December 21, 2007: Rakesh Verma, MD, MapmyIndia has been declared as ‘World’s GPS Businessman of Year 2007’ by GPSBusinessNews.com, the leading online media providing world-wide business news on the fast-moving consumer GPS industry. MapmyIndia was the only Indian company in the list of nominees that included industry leaders like Nokia, TomTom, Tele Atlas, SiRF and Nav N Go. Rakesh has been chosen by the world community for driving the navigation industry in India by introducing innovative navigation products on the internet, mobile phone and in-car space.

“This award is recognition of India’s importance in the global GPS market. With favourable economic conditions and growth in purchasing power, Indian consumers are a force to reckon with. The next couple of years will only see increase in adoption of GPS-based navigation devices and services. MapmyIndia has taken the lead in this market and will continue providing comprehensive and high quality maps to drive this industry,” says Rakesh Verma, MD, MapmyIndia.

Under Rakesh’s guidance, MapmyIndia has built the most comprehensive and accurate digital maps of India, to bring GPS navigation and location based services to the mass consumer market. MapmyIndia is partnering with leading players– automobile companies, handset and PND manufacturers, software providers, mobile operators, internet portals and retail and distribution networks of cars, car accessories and consumer electronic products.  MapmyIndia’s pioneering efforts in this space will see India become one of the largest world-wide consumer markets for navigation in the next two years.

List of Illustrious Nominees

• Michael Halbherr, Head of location-based experience, Nokia
• Harold Goddijn, CEO, TomTom
• Alain De Taeye, CEO, Tele Atlas
• Kanwar Chadha, founder and VP of marketing, SiRF
• Nelson Chan, CEO, Magellan
• Walt Doyle, CEO, uLocate
• Bryan Mistele, CEO, INRIX
• Leon van de Pas, CEO, Nav N Go
• Thomas Seiler, CEO, u-blox

Profile of Rakesh Verma

Rakesh obtained a Bachelors of Engineering (Mechanical) from BITS Pilani, India in 1972, and an MBA from Eastern Washington University, USA in 1979.

Rakesh has over 30 years of wide operations and management experience in industry, 12 of which have been with leading companies in the United States, such as General Motors. At GM, Rakesh worked on the pioneering Saturn car project, where billions of dollars were infused to build a modern car company from scratch.

In 1990, Rakesh relinquished his settled career and lifestyle in the US to pursue his dream of bringing innovative solutions to India and started his entrepreneurial venture, CE Info Systems. Back in the year 1995, when the world had just started understanding the value of digital maps, Rakesh had a vision and desire to create such maps for All India.

Armed with this foresight and desire to participate in India’s development, Rakesh led CE Info’s pioneering effort in creating a complete digital map of India, all from scratch. It was his perseverance and passion that resulted in the creation of MapmyIndia maps, the most accurate and comprehensive maps for the country. CE Info is now the leading navigable map and GIS solutions provider for India, having empowered over 500 leading enterprise and government customers with GIS-based business intelligence, as well as making available to millions of consumers the power of maps on the internet, mobile and in-car space.

Rakesh’s unparalleled contribution to the industry brought MapmyIndia into the limelight when it was shortlisted by NASSCOM for IT Innovation India in 2004. And now, he is internationally acclaimed in the industry as the ‘GPS Businessman of the year 2007’