Google brings Street View on Google Maps to India, finally

Google is finally rolling out Street View on Google Maps in India. Google is launching Street View in the country in partnership with IT services firm Tech Mahindra and mapping firm Genesys International. Street View on Google Maps was available in a few countries, like the US, already, but wasn’t allowed in India due to some policy issues.

India’s new National Geospatial Policy, which was rolled out in 2021, has made it possible for Google to bring in Street View. Under older policies, foreign firms, like Google (and thus Google Maps), were not allowed to own imagery data in the country, which prevented features like Street View to be made available here. The new policy allows such products, but with a caveat.

Under the new National Geospatial Policy, products, even those owned by foreign firms, are allowed to access imagery data but not own it. This is why Google has partnered with Tech Mahindra and Genesys from whom it is going to license the imagery data for Street View. Google is not going to own this data itself. However, while the imagery data will be owned by Genesys and Tech Mahindra, the data Google collects from users of Street View and Maps will belong to Google.

Google’s Street View is going to be available in 10 cities to start with including Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Nashik, Ahmednagar, Vadodara, and Amritsar. These will be rolling out to Google Maps across devices over the next one week. 50 more cities are going to be added to the list by the end of this year. Additionally, Google is also rolling out the Street View API to local developers in the country.

Google has also announced its collaboration with the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to share air quality information on Google Maps. This is a feature Google rolled out in the US recently and is now bringing to India. Google Maps users can access this information by tapping on the ‘Layers’ button at the top right corner of the app and then pick the ‘Air Quality’ option.

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