Centre ends barrier on publishing, creating maps for private players

NEW DELHI: The government on Monday ended restrictions on cartography and geospatial information to help local entities generate, distribute and store topographical data, a move that will help the nation spur infrastructure development and improve delivery of government services.

Companies in India had so far been required to seek licenses and approvals to create and publish maps and other geospatial data. Ending those restrictions is part of the country’s push toward Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s goal of an “aatmanirbhar Bharat” (self-reliant India), department of science and technology secretary Ashutosh Sharma said in a statement.

For Indian entities, there will be complete deregulation with no prior approvals, security clearances, licenses, for acquisition and production of geospatial data and geospatial data services, including maps, he said. The reform will benefit country’s farmers, start-ups, private sector, public sector and research institutions to drive innovations and build scalable solutions, Sharma said.

Union science and technology minister Harsh Vardhan in a press conference said the eas

of norms will greatly help in several sectors that were suffering because of non-availability of maps. He said earlier, even the Survey of India, the agency entrusted with making maps, had to seek permission for mapping, delaying its work by up to six months.

“Our government has taken a decision that will provide a huge impetus to Digital India. Liberalising policies governing the acquisition and production of geo-spatial data is a massive step in our vision for an Aatmanirbhar Bharat,” PM Modi said in a series of tweets soon after the annoucement.

India’s farmers will also be benefited by leveraging the potential of geo-spatial and remote sensing data. Democratising data will enable the rise of new technologies and platforms that will drive efficiencies in agriculture and allied sectors. These reforms demonstrate our commitment to improving ease of doing business in India by deregulation, he said on Twitter.

Rohan Verma, chief executive officer of MapmyIndia, which has been building digital maps and advanced geospatial technology products, said the move will an “unprecedented value creation for Indian economy and society”. “Sectors such as agriculture, healthcare, finance, revenue, logistics, transportation, technology, commerce and many more — which form 70% of India’s GDP will be positively impacted,” he said.

The move will also help companies that develop apps which use location data to provide services.

“Instead of seeing geospatial data from a security lens alone, this deregulation will allow Indian companies to freely build maps and applications for a variety of developmental purposes,” said Pranay Kotasthane, head of research at Takshashila Institute. “This will make maps with India’s political boundaries easily available in the digital form on the internet.”

THE MOVE WILL ALSO HELP COMPANIES THAT DEVELOP APPS WHICH USE LOCATION DATA TO PROVIDE SERVICES.