With 53,6% of the 3813 votes, Rakesh Verma, managing director and founder of CE Infosystem/MapmyIndia has been chosen by GPS Business News readers as the personality of the year among the 10 personalities nominated by the editors of GPS Business News. Nearest competitors to Mr. Verma are Kanwar Chadha, founder and vice president of marketing at SiRF (464 votes, 12.1%) and Leon van de Pas, CEO at Nav N Go (425 votes, 11.1%).

This vote demonstrates two trends, the first one is the value of digital maps, the second one is the future role of India as a consumer GPS market. The first trend has been highlighted this year by the announced acquisitions of Tele Atlas and Navteq. 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.

Putting India on the map
The second trend is India itself. The penetration and growth of cars and mobile phones are, if any, strong indicators of the potential of a consumer GPS market. Over the past year, India has emerged as the world's fastest growing mobile phone market, adding around 8 million new wireless subscribers every month for a total of 217.14 million at the end of October 2007. Within the next 6 months we can expect India to have more wireless subscribers than the United States.

India is also today the eleventh passenger car market in the world. Sales of automobiles totalled nearly 1.4 million units in 2006-07. The car market is set to triple to three million units a year by 2015, according to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers.

A few weeks ago, when Nokia announced its intent to buy Navteq, Judson Green, CEO at Navteq, said: “India is a critically important geographic region for both companies”. This quote tells probably more than any figure we might have highlighted here.