The Geospatial Policy for National Development conference kick-started with a session on Developing Geospatial Strategy at the Dr. Ambedkar International Centre, New Delhi.
The inaugural note was presented by Sunil Kumar, Joint Secretary, Surveyor General of India, who talked about the initial phase of the geospatial policy framework and its role for the entire geospatial community. He also discussed the new geospatial policy called ‘liberalizing geospatial technology.’
“While the guidelines of the National Geospatial Policy liberalized the entire geospatial industry in this country, the policy also addresses the entire geospatial ecosystem of the country and talks about the social infrastructure, enterprise development, innovation, and the standards of data that will be produced from now,” Kumar said.
ISRO Chairman S Somanath talked about Enabling Space Positioning and Digital Infrastructure. While emphasizing the need for a thorough space policy, which he said is in the works and shall be drafted soon, Somanath covered various topics, from an amalgamation of geospatial data in space to the role of startups in building a resilient India.
“New startups are coming up to handle the geospatial domain now. These startups are making geospatial data and talking about building drones and satellites independently. This will create business opportunities in this sector and make the data more accessible,” Somanath said.
“Many startups are building small satellites. In the coming days, we will have a fleet of these satellites, all built by private companies. The radar technology, a major lacuna, is an important aspect of this system,” he added.
Greg Scott, Inter-Regional Advisor, UN-GGIM, United Nations Statistics Division, who joined the conference virtually, said, “The transformative nature of the 2030 Agenda requires new and innovative data sources and integration approaches to implement the SDGs and to ‘leave no one behind.’”
“The SDGs are highly dependent on geospatial information and enabling technologies as the primary data and tools for relating people to their location, place, and environment to measure ‘where’ progress is, or is not being made, especially at local levels,” he added.
Rakesh Verma, FICCI Geospatial Technologies Committee, said, “No company can understand the depth and details and the knowledge of every industry, and that’s where hundreds of startups have a role. For example, One of the things that we are giving back to society is supporting startups in different sectors. Whether in oil & gas, drone or education, IoT sector what that is doing is these startups are becoming part of the ecosystem, and they are ultimately giving solution to the industry without having to worry about geospatial.”
