ISRO Bhuvan: To be Google Earth’s competitor

sattelite Recently, news paper articles were flooded with the term "ISRO Bhuvan" and it was quite annoying for me to see the same term everywhere in my feed reader as well. Finally I too wanted to know, what exactly ISRO’s Bhuvan is? The answer to this question was quite interesting.. I came to know that Bhuvan is a competitor for Google Earth and would provide services similar to Google Earth and Wikimapia but it will be confined only within India.

But there is something special in Bhuvan that keeps Google Earth and Wikimapia aside. Bhuvan will have a greater zooming efficiency that will help you recognize details upto a 3 storey building and all its data will be updated every year, unlike Google and Wikimapia which updates in every 4 years.

As per an article in TOI:

Bhuvan allows you to zoom far closer than the aerial view from a chopper. If Google Earth shows details upto 200 meters distance and Wikimapia upto 50 meters, Bhuvan will show images upto 10 meters, which means you can easily see details upto a  three floor high building and also add information.

It has also came to light that, unlike others, Bhuvan will support multi layer viewing with a option to view on past dates. Finally I would feel proud to say that Bhuvan is going to use Indian satellites. ๐Ÿ™‚

Also, at the Indian National Cartographic Association (INCA) International Congress it was said that:

The prototype of Bhuvan will be ready by the end of November and ISRO is hoping to officially launch the service by March next.

So, we will have to wait for another couple of months to see it live. ๐Ÿ™‚

73 Comments

Pavan Kumar November 12, 2008

10 meters… I can get my top view… No one took such a snap of me and they will, I guess ๐Ÿ˜‰

Deepak Jain November 13, 2008

@Pavan Kumar
And if this becomes truth.. then Google and Wikimapia will be found nowhere on the Indian Skies.. ๐Ÿ™‚

Pakshya November 23, 2008

gr8…………………a competitor for google earth………….i’m proud to hear that the competitor is an indian…………….bye bye google earth…..

Deepak Jain November 24, 2008

@Pakshya
Haven’t you seen the ‘Bharti’ add..
India is a leader too ๐Ÿ˜›

amith December 1, 2008

more than happy n very proud to read this… but where did all the “security concerns” (were raised when GE was launched) go…??

Rahul Bansal December 1, 2008

@amith
I guess as Bhuvan is by ISRO which is government organization, they will be mask all sensitive places from normal public viewing.

gugreen December 5, 2008

India Shining…. All the best….

Deepak Jain December 6, 2008

@gugreen
Yep.
No doubt in that ๐Ÿ˜‰

DINESH PATEL December 17, 2008

i belive in bhuvan,in short time bhuvan is worlds best engine sure sure sure

Rahul Bansal December 20, 2008

@DINESH PATEL
Well I personally think they wont be able to handle high load like Google if service get popular…

pradeep January 3, 2009

hoew can i get thi bhuvan to see

Rahul Bansal January 3, 2009

@Pradeep
I guess it is not released yet.

Abhijith February 11, 2009

Hi,
what i heard is that Bhuvan will have a resolution of 5 meters only; while Google Earth has 1 meter resolution. The advantage of Bhuvan is that it s going to be real time.. I don’t know if they will update only in case of any natural calamities or so.. that too for payed and selected customers.. Lets wait and watch.

tej March 13, 2009

Ok lets see the finished product first!
‘India shining’ can come later. Most likely our paranoid netas wont allow this product to see the light of day.

stanley van b March 13, 2009

when is this google earth killer coming?
i want to try this

dr.shivkumar joshi March 14, 2009

i am waiting for release of isro bhuvan. please let me know the date.

Arindam March 16, 2009

Hey Thanks for the info.

Can you be more specific pls.

What do you mean by ‘confined to India’, is the Service confined to India or the Maps? I mean is it going to carry maps of other countries or only within Indian borders??

Can international users access this service? Pakistan!!?

Bapun March 16, 2009

Technology rules. Soon we will be able to capture live images of our city on net ๐Ÿ˜‰

DINESH PATEL March 19, 2009

which date finaly launch when that time i am very happy and proud of isro

balu360 March 25, 2009

Hey guys do u have any idea when Bhuvan is going hit the public. When it will be available to us?

amit April 1, 2009

which date finaly launch when that time i am very happy and proud of isro

vipin April 5, 2009

kahan hai bhuvan?

Where is it??

Milind April 12, 2009

Its Great Achivement ….!!! Every Indian Should be Proud of it.
It will also provoke to further improvements in GOOGLE-EARTH & WIKIMAPIA…..

All the thanks to Latest GIGAPAN High Pixcel Technology.

Lets wait for the launch of this great site.

Milind April 12, 2009

Can anyone tell me exact date of launch of this site ?

Milind April 12, 2009

Its really strange to see some coments showing fear that terrorists will take advantage of this site.
One thing is clear that any developement also has some negative impacts which are used by criminal minded humans but otherwise its only for the benefit of common man and ultimately the world.
I would like to ask ” Was Terrorism Not there before Google-Earth or Wikimapia ? ” the ans. is obiviously ” Yes ” … then its simple that we should not worry for that angle, for the simple reason that even if these sites are banned terrorism is not going to stop then why should rest of the world should stop its developement .

Milind April 19, 2009

I am browsing web almost everyday for BHUVAN …
But unfortunately could not see it launched yet ????

Rahul Bansal May 8, 2009

@Milind
You can subscribe to Devils Workshop. ๐Ÿ˜‰
We will surely post about BHUVAN’s launch once it is out.

b.ram siyag April 21, 2009

feel gooooood……….. INDIA shining

sans May 2, 2009

Technology like ISRO BHUVAN must be used strategically to nab terrorist and this show high positiveness of any thing to undermine the negatives of society,situation,location and last but not the least is UNIVERSE

STANLEY VAN B July 14, 2009

I THINK IT WONT COME

kashinath s July 21, 2009

pls let me know that when the isro s bhuvan will launch

Bhuvan July 25, 2009

That’s gr8!
We proud of indian and our technology…

Simply!…. UNIVERSE in our hands!…

Siddu August 12, 2009

Greate ………………. Congrats to All Scientiests involved in that

dhiraj August 12, 2009

gr8 ,now i can see my home easily.after giving competitions to google in GE now its time to create search engine bigger than google.

Abhishek Dilliwal August 12, 2009

i will count no. of cracks on roads ๐Ÿ˜€

sreekanth August 12, 2009

proud 4 india…but carefull…

still we are waiting for “kalki”…

Arien August 12, 2009

Guys, check out the official statement on BHUVAN by the government – http://pibmumbai.gov.in/scripts/detail.asp?releaseId=E2009PR840

The irony is, most of us are using Google to find out about Bhuvan!

girish August 12, 2009

why this news now, if it is not launch.

Bharat C. Shetty August 12, 2009

It is great news for every Indian to be proud of, At least we dared to take this bold step of live satellite imaging.
I wish ISRO the very best on this new endeavour, I hope the competetion between ISRO and Google will be healthy and really hope the end user get benefitted.

Girish August 12, 2009

proud to c a competatior for g-earth which is an indegenoius …..anybody know when will it be released to public????

Venu August 13, 2009

Its true and feel so good. When most of the Europeans were roaming around in sheep skin and leaves…we were calculating the distance between Planets and Starts.

UJJWAL KUMAR JHA August 13, 2009

it is realy great achievement for all of us.

skmiglani August 13, 2009

Congratulations. we r proud to be the part of latest technology. Hope it will emerge remarkable achievments.

Bijender August 13, 2009

Bhuvan is grate becouse, With Bhuvan we will be able to produce very local information which can be used to address very local problems like floods, famines, infrastructure development, education and much more. Bhuvan, developed at ISROโ€™s Space Application Center, Ahmedabad uses images taken by ISRO’s seven remote sensing satellites

Indian August 13, 2009

I tried logging on to this page http://bhuvan.nrsc.gov.in/…..
its not working……..its just pathetic…..

kishore August 13, 2009

It is good to hear about Bhuvan but friends letz hope that it will not be a government controlled political stuff.Hope it will be real time and efficient too.Lets pray that it don’t hang.Scientists are wonderful kudos to them but I fear political will lacking in general.

kishore August 13, 2009

Google earth can never match ISRO ,google earth can never get live data from so many sattalites .I’m waiting for Bhuvan to see the light

rohan August 13, 2009

bhuvan has been launched on aug 13 2009 go to the site http://www.bhuvan.nrsc.gov.in

venkat August 13, 2009

today bhuvan is released.But have to wait a day or 2.The servers are unable to drive the traffic……..[:)]

Tathagat Banerjee August 13, 2009

Bhuvan is indeed a great achievement for ISRO. Making it commercially successful is a bigger ball game. If there was a possibility to incorporate a search engine along with a map and a GPS driving system. The implications will lead to:
1) Better understanding of the geography to build roadways (connectivity),
2) Insurance companies and banks can keep a real time track on their customers,
3) We will be able to find the shortest and the easiest way around the city,
4) since all the business will be registered in a search engine format. If we were to search a medical store in an unknown location it would be so easy.

Implications are limit less. The real question is how far does Bhuvan plan to go???

Shashank Kashyap August 14, 2009

Hi,
Was thrilled to see the launch of Bhuvan. Its bee almost an year having read about it for the first time. Hats off to ISRO guys!..and the timing couldnt be any better(Aug 15th). I just downloaded the plugin and can’t wait to see it working. Right now am a bit skeptical about the capabilities of ISRO servers to handle such a huge traffic. I only hope am proved wrong!.. Good luck ISRO!

Anupam August 14, 2009

We are the best in technology in the world. No one can beat us. Go ahead Bhuvan. We are with you.

neel August 16, 2009

bhuvan is not an indian software but is a name of an satellite imagery system which is integrated and viewed in a platform with the help of a usa made software called terraexplorer.

u can read more about the next version of bhuvan, โ€˜Bhuvan ChandraBhumiโ€™ here :

http://bhuvanmap.blogspot.com/2009/08/next-bhuvan-version.html

Deepak August 17, 2009

This is Really cool, But it may be harmful for India, as spacial some terrorist Activity.

Amol August 17, 2009

We have always given the best technology, now we will give the next level of experience of so far what people had by using google earth and wikimapia.

India Rocks

–Amol

Prakash A S August 18, 2009

Very poor resolution , very slow, sometime crashed server . cant compare with Google at the moment. lets hope it will get better soon.

Rushme August 18, 2009

India is rocking with Its Bhuvan.

Anand August 19, 2009

Being an Indian, I can’t trust such news as I know that India has many plans but they just remains plans in many cases. Do you remember cheap India made laptops? So I believe in not to take pride until I use it!

jayant August 19, 2009

india rocks and will stand tall in all feilds this just begining

shymakumar August 21, 2009

how many days to watch histroical moment in our india please as soon as possible to make big moment in satalliate

Kalivanan August 22, 2009

ISRO is still fooling the public. Let me lauch satallite to SUN in the night. Let the SARDAJI jokes come true! Now public realiozed that MOON mission was a technological failure, though it was partially admitted by ISRO late. We know that INDIAN FLAG not landed on the MOON as claimed by ISRO. ISRO Chief MUST be prosecuted in this regard

rahul darmwal August 28, 2009

its really fascinating to know that ISRO has launched this appreciable product.

Mahendra Patel September 4, 2009

its india do al last to be proude to be indian
thanks

Mahendra Patel September 4, 2009

its really amazing

JOBY KURIAN September 5, 2009

ISRO could not locate YSR REDDY’S helicopter even after 23 hrs. It indicates that ALL CLAIMS MADE BY ISRO on their technological advancement are totally FALSE. REMEMBER public are not fools. ISRO NOW PROVED THAT THEY ARE FOOLS NOW….BIG SHAME TO OUR NATION….GOV MAY PLEASE CLOSE ISRO AND DIVERT SPACE RESEARCH FUND FOR FOOD AND WATER. MR.NAIR’S DIRTY GAME AT ISRO UNMASKED NOW.

Aditya Kane September 5, 2009

I think to call ISRO’s achievement as false is unfair… There are many plane wrecks which havent been found the world over by many space and other agencies…

Ashwin September 6, 2009

I have actually used this piece of software, but it is very poor in terms of clarity, speed, and locations.. I couldnt see South Mumbai clearly not even the outlines of the buildings’ of the terraces..
I just hope it is a prototype. If u want it go to ISRO’s site and download the client..(i hope it is a prototype as you said coz otherwise it would be a shame.) btw the fly option in it is really beautiful..

Manu October 26, 2009

I’ve written a fairly detailed review of ISRO Bhuvan’s website.

http://indiabhuvan.blogspot.com/2009/09/isro-bhuvan-website-review.html

Bhuvan is an awesome concept to develop and is still in its Beta phase, but the website has not been critiqued and my post is dedicated to that.

Do take a look at it and please leave comments

Shaurya February 28, 2010

The problem is that im able to find more detailed pics of any place on wikimapia than on bhuvan, even in india. i guess it will take time for bhuvan to really surpass google, and generally nobody does dat to google

MAHESH GURUNG June 16, 2010

BHUWAN IS NO WAY NEAR GOOGLE EARTH/WIKIMAPIA,THIS IS A BIGGEST REDICULE OF ISRO. OR THEIR CLAIMER CLAIMING 10-METER RESOLUTION ,IT IS COMPARISION LIKE 5Th STANDARD KID TO 12Th STANDARD STUDENT. OFCOURSE THEY HAD PUT BIG DATA ON FLOOD/DROUGHT/POPULATION BUT NO USE.

Anu February 11, 2011

Sir, I have regitered online application 0n ISRO site, but I did not take a print out of it. I have Res. No. and otehr details with me. plse tell me how to take print now.

preeti October 7, 2011

is it safe???