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INDIA'S GEOSPATIAL SECTOR
What the article is about?
- Talks about the concerns and way ahead for realising the true potential of India’s geospatial sector.
Syllabus: GS-II Government Policies & Interventions, e-governance
Geospatial data:
- Geospatial data is data about objects, events, or phenomena that have a location on the surface of the earth.
- The past decade has seen an increase in the use of geospatial data in daily life with various apps such as food delivery, e-commerce or even weather apps.
India’s Geospatial sector
- On 15th Feb 2021, the Ministry of Science and Technology released new guidelines for the Geo-Spatial Sector in India, which deregulates existing protocol and liberalises the sector to a more competitive field.
- However, the full benefits have yet to percolate to the public; neither is there much contributions to the nation’s GDP.
Key Issues:
- The absence of a sizeable geospatial market in India.
- There is no demand for geospatial services and products on a scale linked to India’s potential and size.
- This is mainly due to the lack of awareness among potential users in government and private.
- The other hurdle has been the lack of skilled manpower across the entire pyramid.
- The unavailability of foundation data, especially at high-resolution, is also a constraint.
- The lack of clarity on data sharing and collaboration prevents co-creation and asset maximisation.
- Lastly, barring a few cases, there are still no ready-to-use solutions especially built to solve the problems of India.
Way Ahead:
- First and foremost is the need to publish the entire policy document and make government and private users aware of things.
- There is a need to formulate an open data sharing protocol.
- The data available with government departments should be un-locked, and data sharing should be encouraged and facilitated.
- There is also a need to establish a geo-portal to make all public-funded data accessible through data as a service model, with no or nominal charge.
- Most important is to inculcate the culture of data sharing, collaboration and co-creation.
- There is a need to generate foundation data across India.
- This should include the Indian national digital elevation model (InDEM), data layers for cities, and data of natural resources.
- Local technology and solutions should be promoted, and competition should be encouraged for quality output.
- There is a need to develop a geospatial data cloud locally and facilitate a solution as a service.
- India should start a bachelor’s programme in geospatial also in the IITs and the NITs.
- Besides these, there should be a dedicated geospatial university.
