Announcing a sweeping change in India’s mapping policy, the Centre on Monday liberalised regulations on geospatial data and map-making, making it freely available in the country for private players. Till now the process had been a government preserve, handled by the Survey of India.
In a series of tweets, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that liberalising the acquisition and production of geospatial data was a massive step in “our vision for an Aatmanirbhar Bharat”. The Union Science and Technology Ministry also stated that the policy change is aligned to the vision of “Atmanirbhar Bharat” to achieve a $5 trillion economy.
The move is expected to drive innovation and help IT companies and startups. According to an official statement, the government realised that the existing regime imposed significant restrictions on the mapping industry, from creation to dissemination of maps, requiring Indian companies to seek licences and follow a cumbersome system of pre-approvals and permissions. Compliance with these regulatory restrictions has subjected startups in India to red tape, hindering Indian innovation in map technologies for decades, it said.
Union Minister for Science and Technology Dr Harsh Vardhan, while addressing the media in New Delhi, said, “PM Swamitva Yojana is a shining example of the use of geospatial data to empower our rural population. Increased participation of the private sector will augment the growth of new technologies, platforms and application of geospatial data contributing to the country’s progress.” The union minister also said that it will help drive efficiencies in agriculture and enhance India’s emergency-response capabilities, while facilitating the rise of new-age industries.
The move can potentially lead to private players seeking maps and data that suit their specific purposes. For instance, local delivery of products and services requires highly specific details of a locality within a town. This, in turn, could lay the groundwork for future smart city projects.
The Secretary to the Department of Science and Technology, Professor Ashutosh Sharma, said that an increased participation of the private sector will augment the growth of new technologies, platforms and application of geospatial data contributing to the country›s progress.
«Geospatial data is foundational and vital to all manner of planning, governance, services, infrastructure, and applications,» he said, adding that the ease of collecting data, using it and sharing it was a key concern of the government as it took the decision to free the process. He also said that deregulation or not requiring prior approval for surveying was another criterion.
However, the government has put in place a few new rules to function. Sharma said that there is a restriction on revealing the attributes or features of sensitive areas even though there would be none on surveying the area itself. «The data is not for access, but only for surveying,» he noted.
Similarly, terrestrial mapping and surveying will be allowed only by Indian entities. The data generated from such processes can be owned only by Indians. Foreign players can license the information but not own it.