The Indian Department of Posts (DoP), falling under the Ministry of Communications has embarked upon a project to digitise Indian geography. Following the digitisation of personal identities through Aadhar, the government is now moving to replicate it to addresses - with just six characters to represent any of your addresses from here on.

With smartphones and internet becoming more and more common by the day, a digital signature for an address holds a lot of value. A digital identity makes it possible to link any information - property title, ownership, utility bills and any other data that corresponds with the geographical entity.

The project, which is underway with MapMyIndia’s collaboration, will reduce the physical address to a six character combination of alphabets and numbers into an e-Location (eLoc). This eLoc can then be used to share the location of the property over any medium, which will make among others, navigating to the property very easy, hence cutting logistic costs.

The pilot for the project has been launched at two postal pin codes in Delhi and Noida, following which it will be gradually rolled out elsewhere.

To assuage fears of privacy violations linked with the data, the DoP has maintained that it will remain the sole owner of the data and reports during the period of the pilot, hence prohibiting commercial use by private companies.

MapMyIndia will further partner with ISRO, to integrate it’s soon to be operational satellite imagery system, Bhuvan, for better locational accuracy.

The project hopes to improve last mile performance and reduce costs in the country, where the overall logistics cost are still far higher than most developed economies for most e-commerce companies. Coupled with the recent GST reform, can prove to be a major boost for the economy.

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