Geospatial Policies in India and Their Implementation in Good Governance

Abstract

Geospatial policies governing spatial data sets and processes are an important component of spatial data infrastructures (SDIs). In last few years, a huge volume of geospatial information has been collected, stored and managed in the form of geographical information system framework for developing various applications which has opened a new vista for business opportunities. During 1947–1975, geospatial data sets were available in the form of maps and not GIS enabled were governed by the rules and regulations as per the Ministry of Defence orders issued from time to time. By and large, the provisions were mostly restrictive, and consequently data sets have never been adequately shareable with the end users in digital form. With the advances in Geo Information and Communication Technologies (Geo-ICT) (i.e. remote sensing, positioning, Internet, mobile devices, and GIS.) and with end users’ increased accessibility to those technologies, demand for geospatial data sets for utilisation in different applications has gained momentum. Taking into consideration the need for improving access to geographical data for implementing various developmental schemes at different hierarchical level, i.e. state, district and gram panchayat, relaxing the rules for sharing geospatial data and products using open Web service become necessity. In this direction, international companies like Google have made tremendous progress to achieve such targets so that real-time data can be accessed and make use for various applications. In India, lot of efforts have been made by geospatial data generating agencies like Department of Space, Survey of India, Forest Survey of India, Geological Survey of India and National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning. All these agencies have made concerted efforts to collate and integrate geospatial data in such a format where it is easily interoperable and shareable with the user agencies. This progress has made substantial scope for attending numerous applications using geospatial technologies. The contribution made by Department of Space by developing Bhuvan portal is appreciable. After realising the importance of geospatial data and its utility for good governance, GOI has notified various policies for governing the geospatial data in such a way to keep balance between developmental activities without jeopardising the national security.