Govt liberalises mapping in self-reliance boost

NEW DELHI/BENGALURU: India on Monday liberalised its regulations on geospatial data, allowing private companies to conduct surveying and mapping without prior government approvals and sharing the data for various everyday applications, from logistics and transport to road safety and e-commerce.

Under the new policy, geospatial data from government agencies such as the Survey of India and the Indian Space Research Organisation will also be made available to public and private companies.

“.Liberalising policies governing the acquisition and production of geospatial data is a massive step in our vision for an Aatmanirbhar Bharat,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote in a tweet.

The government has shortlisted four mid-sized state-run banks for privatisation, under a new push to sell state assets and shore up government revenues, three government officials said.

Privatisation of the banking sector, which is dominated by state-run behemoths with hundreds of thousands of employees, is politically risky because it could put jobs at risk but the Centre aims to make a start with second-tier banks.

The four banks on the shortlist are Bank of Maharashtra, Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank and the Central Bank of India, two officials told Reuters on condition of anonymity. Two of these will be selected for sale in the 2021/2022 financial year which begins in April, the officials said. The Centre is considering mid-sized to small banks for its first round of privatisation to test the waters. In the coming years, however, it could also look at some of the country’s bigger banks, the officials said.

The government will continue to hold a majority stake in the country’s largest lender State Bank of India, which is seen as a ‘strategic bank’ for implementing initiatives such as expanding rural credit.

A finance ministry spokesman declined to comment.

The economic contraction caused by the pandemic is driving the push for bolder reforms, economists say. New Delhi also wants to overhaul a banking sector reeling under a heavy load of non-performing assets, which are likely to rise further once banks are allowed to categorise loans that soured during the pandemic as bad.