In his address to the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort to mark the 75th Independence Day, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted the need to repeal regressive laws/policies, especially those constraining science and technology, to ensure the development of the country. PM Modi specifically cited the example of the country’s years long mapping policy, which prevented citizens from creating and publishing maps.
“I want to give you an example. A law has been in place in India for over 200 years, even before 1857. As per this law, the citizens of the country did not have the right to create maps. If you want to create a map, then seek permission from the government; if you want to print the map in a book, then seek permission from the government. There is also a provision for arrest if the map is lost. Nowadays every phone has a map app; satellites have so much power. How will we take the country forward with the burden of such laws? It is very important to get rid of this burden of compliances,” the PM said in his speech on Sunday.
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Mr. Modi was referring to his government’s decision of February 15, 2021, to liberalize rules for acquiring and producing geospatial data and geospatial data services, including maps. “We have abolished several regulations in various sectors like mapping, Space, Information Technology and BPO,” the PM said. The government’s new policy not only rendered some of the regressive provisions pertaining to collection and use of geospatial data obsolete, it also marked a significant shift in the approach to data acquisition, processing and sharing. Prior to the new rules, geospatial data and maps were regulated by various policies and notifications by the Survey of India, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Defence, among others.
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The move was welcomed by the Indian geospatial industry, as it meant that Indian innovators and companies no longer had to face hurdles to “collect, generate, prepare, disseminate, store, publish and update digital geospatial data and maps within the territory of India”. “What is readily available globally does not need to be restricted in India, and therefore geospatial data that used to be restricted will now be freely available in India,” the Ministry of Science & Technology had said in its statement.
Key initiative
During his address, Mr. Modi also made a special mention of his government’s flagship ‘Swamitva’ project, which stands for “Survey of Villages and Mapping with Improvised Technology in Village Areas”. The project was launched on April 24, 2020, and it aims to provide an integrated property validation solution for rural India. Under the project, the demarcation of land is being done using drone surveying and continuously operating reference station (CORS) technology. “The Swamitva project is an example of one of the initiatives taken to boost the capabilities of our villages today. We all know what happens to the price of land in villages. People do not get any loan from the banks on the basis of land, despite being the owners of the land, because no work had been done in terms of documents of rural land for several years,” the PM said.
He added that “today, every village, every house, every land is being mapped through drones. The data and property papers of village lands are being uploaded online. With this, not only the disputes related to land in the villages are ending, but a system has also been created for the people to get loans easily from the banks. The land of village poor should be the foundation for development rather than disputes”.
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Other initiatives
The Indian Prime Minister also highlighted a few other focus areas, such as agricultural growth, and the potential of the blue economy, both of which can benefit immensely from geospatial data and technology. “In this decade of the 21st century, India will further accelerate its efforts towards the blue economy. Along with aquaculture, we have to take full advantage of the new possibilities that are emerging in the cultivation of seaweed. The Deep Ocean Mission is the result of our ambition to explore the unlimited possibilities of the ocean. The mineral wealth which is hidden in the sea, the thermal energy which is in the sea water, can give new heights to the development of the country,” Mr. Modi said.
