It was 15th February 2021 when new geospatial data and services guidelines were announced and seemed to have a magical effect on the industry. As quickly the news spread, so did the fervor and happiness, rejuvenating all of us with new energy and vigor.
It was Aristotle who said: “Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.” Who knows better than those in the geospatial business? After a significant delay of more than two decades, I may say these guidelines are progressive and path-breaking. Geospatial advancements for a long have assumed a crucial part in the development of economies across the world. Empowering geospatial thinking, these reforms divulge a modern phase.
Location-based geospatial information is data about the natural or man-made features, whether above the ground or below, boundaries, points of interest, natural phenomena, mobility data, weather patterns, statistical information, etc. Faced with complex challenges, finally, “The Science of Location” became an integral part more than ever before. Over the years, there has been immense progress in technology for the capture of geospatial data through ground-based survey techniques, photogrammetry using manned/unmanned aerial vehicles, terrestrial vehicle-mounted mobile mapping system, LIDAR, RADAR Interferometry, satellite-based remote sensing, mobile phone sensors, and other techniques.
In 2016, the Government of India prepared the draft Geospatial Information Regulation Bill. It had some of the terrifying provisions for creating or publishing geospatial data. It was mentioned that any person or company who produces geospatial data must apply for a license or permission to publish that data. If someone publishes such information without a license, they would be penalized with a heavy fine (approximately one crore rupees). Just imagine how difficult it would be to order food on Swiggy or book a cab on Uber.
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Location-based economy
Location data forms a necessary part of the modern digital era and very significant towards attaining sustainable development and improvement of the country. It is also an integral part of modern industry, offering location-based services such as e-Commerce, delivery and logistics, and transport. It is also essential for more traditional sectors of the economy such as agriculture, construction and development, and mines and minerals. With a possibility to open the conduits of chances across the sectors, these new guidelines will play a catalytic role in reinforcing the geospatial infrastructure across the country. All the stakeholders have great takeaways from these reforms and are expected to trigger a new wave of geo-enabled digital transformation. These recent reforms now provide numerous opportunities to leverage geo-data, discover insights from within, and transform how governments, organizations, and communities can see, think, and act while strengthening their resilience.
Over decades, the geospatial economy of the country has suffered due to restricted data regimes and resultant redundancies. While hardly ever recognized, this has affected the efficiencies of all the economic, social, and environmental sectors that were deriving information through geospatial technology. Undoubtedly, the time and money spent on geospatial data creation is one of the major cost heads and leads to extra efforts. Finally, after a long wait, the Government of India acknowledged that the availability of comprehensive, highly accurate, granular, and constantly updated representation of geospatial data will benefit diverse sectors of the economy and will boost innovation in the country, and greatly enhance the preparedness of the country for emergency response.
By eradicating the vast majority of the limitations, the government has set a new milestone for true democratization of the geospatial technologies in the country. With the initiation of publicly available geospatial services, many geospatial data that used to be in the restricted zone are now freely and readily available, and some of the guidelines used to regulate such information have been rendered outdated and unnecessary. What is readily available globally does not need to be regulated. Geospatial data produced using public funds can now be invested back into the geospatial economy for reuse and value addition, helping bring down the data creation costs and improve turnaround times while boosting efficiencies and cost-reduction. This also facilitates better utilization of project investments, including decent allocations for research and development, which has been hard to achieve in the past.
Monetizing geospatial data has always been burdened with obstacles due to the restrictions and multi-ministry procedural hassles one had to go through to get approvals to use any Location Intelligence (LI) data. With the sovereignty to use geo-data for solutions and products, monetizing data now becomes much easier. While monetization of the geospatial data adds up as an additional revenue stream for the governments and data producers, data creation and supply on its own has the potential to be a mini-industry within the geospatial industry.
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Self-reliance and boost to industry
The availability of data and modern mapping technologies to Indian companies is crucial for achieving India’s policy aim of Atmanirbhar Bharat. These reforms also boost the start-up ecosystem that can now impart geospatial thinking to get the most out of LI in solving complex problems faced by businesses and societies. India presently relies heavily on foreign resources for mapping technologies and services. Liberalizing the mapping industry and democratization of existing datasets will encourage domestic innovation and enable Indian companies to compete in the global mapping ecosystem. Geospatial data would also help improve the planning and management of resources and better serve the specific needs of the Indian population. With multiple advantages and benefits, Cloud technologies are becoming critical for governance and businesses. It is inspiring to see the government recognizing this and allowing Cloud-based solutions.
It is 2021, and we are yet to see even basic data related to administrative boundaries, like wards, villages, census, road networks, etc., or even a list of datasets created with public funds in the open. The ‘open data’ movement has been working wonders worldwide, and India should be moving in that direction as well. As a rapidly growing economy, complex socio-economic-environmental challenges faced by India have always offered plentiful domestic opportunities to exploit and harness geospatial technologies to solve location-based problems. The geospatial industry in India is not mature and depends heavily on foreign sources for software, methods, methodology designs, and many other things. So we should allow the industry to grow progressively and collaboratively instead of in a protectionist manner. With geospatial thinking finally arriving, India is all set to be a global leader for a knowledge-based geospatial economy.
Also Read: The 5 ways geospatial technology is supporting circular economy practices
