This is one move towards privatisation that should not cause any heartburn. The Centre on Monday deregulated the map-making process, making it now possible for people to make and access maps of India without any legal hassles and permissions.
The move, much awaited and welcome, makes major changes in a policy promulgated during British rule, by which the government was the maker as well as custodian of geospatial data in India. So far, the Survey of India, which was formed in 1767, was the custodian of all such data.
Revealing the country's new Geospatial Policy, secretary, Science and Technology, Ashutosh Sharma, said that colonial laws needed to be done away with, and there was no point withholding data that is already freely available globally, sourced through satellite imagery. He said that the restrictions now will be more on attribution rather than the area of surveying, and that the government's role would be to ensure that sensitive material does not get attributed in the maps.
There are other riders, too. The deregulation is complete only for Indian entities; there is no need for them to get prior approvals, security clearances for either acquiring or producing geospatial data. Foreign entities would still need permissions. He added that high-definition data—a resolution of 1m horizontally and 3m vertically—can be acquired and owned only by Indian entities and stored only within India. “Fine data can be licensed by foreign entities, but not owned by them,'' he explained.
Similarly, terrestrial mobile street views and mapping and surveying territorial waters can only be done by Indian entities, both government or private. “All geospatial data using public funds, except classified data, will be made accessible to Indian entities free of charge for developing products for economic and security purposes,'' he added.
The official pointed out that the geospatial data and solutions industry was a growing one and is projected to be a Rs 1 lakh crore business by 2030. He said the new policy was a move towards facilitating the industry in developing such products.
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Maps and accurate geospatial data are crucial for developing infrastructure projects, such as linkages in rivers, creating industrial corridors and deploying smart power systems. The radical changes in the geospatial policy means that the private sector in India does not need prior approval for collecting, generating, preparing, disseminating, storing, publishing or updating digital geospatial data and maps within the territory of India.
The move is a shot in the arm, specially to the start-up sector, which is creating tech products for ease of living. As Science and Technology Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said, everyone uses Google Maps, but developing such products in India needs to become less regimented by government control. And just who and how can this deregulation help? The government will soon form an inter-ministerial geospatial data promotion and development committee to popularise the move and help entities.
