A Community Comes Together: Launch of the QGIS India User Group ¶

Posted by: Ujaval Gandhi

India is one of the largest user bases of QGIS in the world. From students and researchers to government agencies, startups, NGOs, and independent consultants, QGIS is used on a daily basis across the country. As per the QGIS Analytics Dashboard, there were 15,00,000+ opens of QGIS in the last 30 days. Yet until now, the QGIS user community has not been well connected.

Over the years, many of us had aspired to start a local user group, but those discussions never materialized. Finally, an opportunity arose at the FOSS4G Asia 2026 conference at Nashik, India. This was one of the largest in-person gatherings of the open-source geospatial community in India, with a strong representation of QGIS users. During one of the Birds-of-a-Feature sessions, we invited interested participants to discuss the idea of forming a local user group in line with the QGIS.org guidelines. The response was overwhelmingly positive, with strong consensus and enthusiasm in the room. Encouraged by this support, we took the first steps toward to establish the QGIS India User Group. Surrounded by the energy, ideas, and enthusiasm that truly define the open-source spirit, there couldn’t have been a better place to begin this journey.

Formation of the QGIS India User Group at FOSS4G Asia 2026

With Support from the Global QGIS Community ¶

As we began taking steps to establish the user group, we have been fortunate to receive tremendous support and encouragement from the global QGIS community.

Lova Andriarimalala and Tim Sutton from Kartoza have been exceptionally responsive, helping us set up hosting on the qgis.org subdomain and guiding us through the process. We are proud to be the first user group to adopt the same infrastructure and design as the QGIS project, ensuring a consistent experience. We aim to contribute back and are committed to helping other user groups with their setup.

We are grateful to other user groups as well who have shared their experiences, which guided us. A special shout-out to Raymond Nijssen from the Dutch QGIS User Group, who has given several talks on his experiences and has had many conversations with me over the years.

Building Together ¶

We want this user group to be community-driven. Our goal is to:

• Create a shared space for QGIS users across India
• Encourage knowledge sharing, mentorship, and collaboration
• Organize local meetups, workshops, and learning initiatives
• Strengthen India’s contribution to the global QGIS project

We welcome everyone interested in QGIS, from complete beginners to experienced professionals, to help us grow the group and contribute to the mission.

Join Us ¶

We are just getting started and need your help! We invite you to Join the community to connect, learn, and grow together.