MapMyIndia launches the 'Aadhaar of addresses'

'Flat 24A, 6th floor Vrindavan apartments, 2064 Patel Lane, Off MG Road, next to Dena Bank building' Since most of us are not ministers or politicians, whose name is enough, guiding people to our homes is often a challenge. The Indian PIN code is not of much help -- it covers too wide an area, unlike in smaller countries like Singapore, where the zip code alone can bring a taxi to your doorstep. But wait, we are getting there!

Indian digital cartography leader, MapmyIndia, last week launched eLoc, India’s first nation-wide Digital Address, which is something like an Aadhaar number for your address. MapmyIndia eLoc of any place, is a short, 6 character code identifying building, flat, office, business, city, village, locality, road or a combination of these. eLoc will help Indian travellers and commuters search, share and navigate to destinations’ exact doorstep far more easily and quickly. It will also reduce time, money and fuel wastage and expenses for businesses in the ecommerce, transportation, logistics and field operations domains

How can you create your own unique eLoc address? Visit the site http://www.mapmyindia.com/eloc/ and enter your office or residence address. You will be guided to pinpoint your location on a map and add address and landmark details. Your input is allocating a provisional eLoc code and after confirmation by MapMyIndia, a permanent eLoc code is given. I tried it — and now the apartment where I live is on MapsMyIndia with its unique code. You can use it on any MapMyIndia product to let people find you easily.

Rohan Verma, CTO, MapmyIndia says the company has invested Rs 200 crores in this venture and helped create 2 crore eLoc codes for free, as a public service. FlipKart, Avis, Airtel, OLX among others have embedded eLoc into their logistics. As it becomes more ubiquitous, and crowd sourced, as more map services embed eLoc, we can, each us, stake a spot on the map of India and reduce our address to six characters!

—IndiaTechOnline