GPS firms gear up for market windfall

From time stamping, vital to large bank and stock exchange transactions, to a wristwatch that pinpoints the location of a stranded trekker somewhere in the Western Ghats, applications of global positioning system (GPS) technologies are growing.

And companies that can supply these technologies in India most cost effectively could be in for a windfall as the market begins to grow beyond the defence sector.

In 2003 India lifted a ban on the import of these receivers leading to a spurt in the growth of the GPS market in the country. While the armed forces continue to buy the bulk of the GPS receivers brought into the country or even those made indigenously, the civilian sector is fast catching up.

Over 30 million commercial vehicles are out there which if tracked using GPS will save time and money for the owners, says an official from Aerospace Systems Private Limited (ASL), a Tata Group company based in Bangalore.

ASL makes sensors that can receive signals from a constellation of 24 US satellites that is at the heart of GPS. At any given moment, they can take signals from some of the satellites and triangulate their own position. So if it is fitted to an aircraft, such a sensor would give the position of that aircraft in terms of longitude, latitude and altitude from sea level.

Last year (2003-04), ASL earned Rs 25 crore (20 per cent over the previous year) architecting the receivers, which go on everything from fighter aircraft such as the Light Combat Aircraft to jeeps and Jongas in the deserts of Rajasthan, and related services used by the armed forces.

The company expects to end 2004-05 with better results and next year, "we may get some civilian contracts too," the official said, as "field trials and demonstrations are already on".

ASL's growth may not necessarily represent that of the industry. But the firm is not alone in its growth.

J Padmanabhan, a senior vice president at Bangalore-based Advanced Micronic Devices Limited (AMDL), says, "We specialise in trading in the entire range of GPS products, representing in India companies based in the US, Singapore and Europe." Last year, AMDL "facilitated sales of over Rs 25 crore". Of that the defence sector accounted for Rs 8-10 crore, he says.

Civillian applications include surveying water and land, monitoring networks of power lines, optic fibre networks and oil pipelines, time stamping, vehicle tracking and oil exploration. The market is changing, with more businesses demanding the use of GPS, Padmanabhan says.

"For instance, Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL) has given us two contracts amounting to Rs 4 crore to do grid powerline surveys." This will help monitor grid collapses and locate the origin (spot where a circuit first tripped) of a cascade of overloads that causes such collapses."

In infrastructure projects, all new tenders for large projects are usually required to include GPS based surveys. The retail market alone for surveys could be some Rs 5 crore annually, he says.

Large companies, such as ONGC, or organisations such as the Survey of India can place orders for 50 or more of the differential GPS receivers required for their surveys. A pair of such receivers cost Rs 20 lakh!

The business process outsourcing (BPO) industry has thrown up its own requirements. With call centre agents ferried back and forth in thousands of taxis in several cities in the country, tracking those vehicles has become a priority for BPO firms. Fleet management firms that offer GPS based tracking services to the BPO industry will perhaps edge out competition that doesn't.

Large financial deals that could be across soverign boundaries are required to carry time stamping - the exact time at which the transaction took place. International banks, buying and selling currency to make just those few billion of dollars or pounds or euros more would come to a standstill without their clocks synchronised.

They rely on accurate atomic clocks onboard each of the 24 GPS satellites. Further, stock exchange watchdogs, such as the Securities Exchange Board of India, now require deals done over the Internet to have time stamping.

"No one has a clear estimate of the size of the GPS market," Padmanabhan says. But, consider the large telecom networks criss crossing the country.

With the Indian telecom market poised for explosive growth, led by cellular phone services, the day may not be far when a customer will want his service provider to give directions to the nearest theatre or Chinese restuarant, or help him book profits ahead of a market crash.