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Context

• The National Geospatial Policy 2022 was notified by the Science & Technology Ministry.

Geospatial Technology

• Geospatial Technology is a term used to describe the range of modern tools contributing to the geographic mapping and analysis of the Earth and human societies. These technologies have been evolving in some form since the first maps were drawn in prehistoric times.
• Geospatial Technology includes Geographic Information System (GIS), Remote Sensing (RS), and Global Positioning System (GPS).
• Geospatial technology enables us to acquire data that is referenced to the earth and use it for analysis, modeling, simulations, and visualization. Geospatial technology allows us to make informed decisions based on the importance and priority of resources most of which are limited in nature.

What is Geo-Spatial Data?

• Geospatial data is data about objects, events, or phenomena that have a location on the surface of the earth.
• The location may be static in the short-term, like the location of a road, an earthquake event, malnutrition among children, or dynamic like a moving vehicle or pedestrian, the spread of an infectious disease.
• Geospatial data combines location information, attribute information (the characteristics of the object, event, or phenomena concerned), and often also temporal information or the time at which the location and attributes exist.
• Geo-spatial data usually involves information of public interest such as roads, localities, rail lines, water bodies, and public amenities.

Applications of Geospatial Technology

• Geospatial technology can be used to create intelligent maps and models which help to collect geographically referenced data.
• Intelligent maps and models can be created using geospatial technology. It can be used to reveal spatial patterns hidden in large amounts of data that are complex to access collectively through mapping.
• The scope of geospatial data use is vast: it embraces every sphere or industry where geographical position matters. The list includes geography proper, ecology, tourism, marine sciences, agriculture, forestry, marketing and advertising, military forces, navy, aircraft, law enforcement, logistics and transportation, astronomy, demography, healthcare, meteorology, and many others.

Here are some typical examples of how geospatial technology is applied:

• Tracking goods and ensuring their quality.
• Identifying location and time of arrival, route making, and navigation.
• Referring weather forecasts to particular territories.
• Detecting forest fires and deforestation & preventing large-scale wildfires ( example: satellite monitoring of forest fires and deforestation).
• Assessing vegetation state on a selected terrain.
• Healthcare. Monitoring areas of epidemic outbreaks.
• Tracing species populations in certain areas, preventing and addressing calamities.
• Marketing and advertising.Targeting ads to relevant regions.
• Real estate.Visualizing and analyzing real estate objects remotely.
• Managing risks in questioned areas (e.g., via historical georeferenced data analysis).

Use of Geo-enabled Technology amid Covid-19 The recent Covid-19 pandemic management is a remarkable example where geo-enabled technology was used to develop a health service app, which helped in identifying containment zones, aided in monitoring citizen movement, administrating vaccines and ensuring social distancing. Other geo-enabled technologies helped in managing activities like sanitizing hotspots, establishing telemedicine facilities for remote health care and diagnosis, and analysing infrastructure availability to address the health crisis.

National Geospatial Policy, 2022

About:

• The National Geospatial Policy, 2022 is a citizen-centric policy that seeks to strengthen the geospatial sector to support national development, economic prosperity, and a thriving information economy.

Aim and Objectives:

• Working towards creating an enabling infrastructure for the sector.
• Bring out a high-resolution topographical map covering every inch of the country by 2030
• Bring out fashion digital twins of India's major cities and towns by 2035.’

Mandate:

• Under the policy, the central government will constitute a Geospatial Data Promotion and Development Committee (GDPDC) at the national level. GDPDC will be the apex body for formulating and implementing appropriate guidelines, strategies and programmes for the promotion of activities related to the geospatial sector.

GDPDC The GDPDC is a 17-member body to be headed by a person of repute from industry, government or academia, that will drive the overall development of the geospatial ecosystem. It will replace and subsume the functions and powers of National Spatial Data Committee (NSDC) constituted in 2006 and Geospatial Data Promotion and Development Committee constituted in 2021.

• The focus of the Policy is to make geospatial technology and data as agents of transformation for achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
• It will also try to bring efficiency in all sectors of the economy and instill accountability and transparency at all levels of governance.

Significance:

• The national geospatial policy 2022, comes at a time when India's geospatial economy is expected to cross Rs 63,000 crore by 2025 at a growth rate of 12.8%. The sector is expected to provide employment to more than 10 lakh people mainly through geospatial start-ups.

Future of Geospatial technologies

• Geospatial technologies enhance the performance of artificial intelligence and smart machinery in multiple spheresand agriculture in particular. Remotely controlled equipment completes numerous tasks via GPS and digital dashboards. Robots and smart machinery in the fields seem futuristic no longer, and it is not the limit.
• Expansion and new application solutions are expected in biosecurity, education, construction, engineering, ecology, food supplies, precision agriculture, financial market, statistics, transportation,to mention a few.
• Basically, geospatial data enhances performance in each sphere, outlining specific needs or issues in selected regions. Example: Employment of GPS in the automobile and aircraft industries enables frequent use of driverless vehicles and UAVs as a matter of fact.
• New achievements in this branch mean the corresponding upgrade of related industries. So, the improvement process will be ensuring even greater precision, credibility, performance, quality, and security.

Closing Thought

• Democratization of Indian geospatial ecosystem will spur domestic innovation and enable Indian companies to compete in the global mapping ecosystem by leveraging modern geospatial technologies and realizing the dream of "Atmanirbhar Bharat" or “Self-sufficient India” fully.

DEREGULATION OF THE GEOSPATIAL SECTOR What was the previous policy on Geospatial Data? ·      There were strict restrictions on the collection, storage, use, sale, and dissemination of Geo-Spatial Data and mapping earlier. ·      The policy had not been renewed in decades and had been driven by internal as well as external security concerns. ·      The sector was dominated by the Indian government as well as government-run agencies such as the Survey of India and private companies need to navigate a system of permissions from different departments of the government (depending on the kind of data to be created) as well as the defence and Home Ministries, to be able to collect, create or disseminate geo-spatial data. ·      GIS mapping was also rudimentary, with the government investing heavily in it after the Kargil war highlighted the dependence on foreign data and the need for indigenous sources of data. ·      This system of acquiring licenses or permission, and the red tape involved, can take months, delaying projects, especially those that are in mission mode – for both Indian companies as well as government agencies.   The government has deregulated Geo-Spatial Data ·      The deregulation eliminates the requirement of permissions as well as scrutiny, even for security concerns. ·      Indian companies now can self-attest, conforming to government guidelines without actually having to be monitored by a government agency- these guidelines therefore place a great deal of trust in Indian entities. ·      There is also a huge lack of data in the country which impedes planning for infrastructure, development and businesses which are data-based. The mapping of the entire country, that too with high accuracy, by the Indian government alone could take decades. ·      The government, therefore, felt an urgent need to incentivize the geospatial sector for Indian companies and increased investment from private players in the sector. ·      There has also been a global push for open access to geospatial as it affects the lives of ordinary citizens, and the new guidelines has ensured such open access, with the exception of sensitive defence or security-related data.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/geospatial-policy-notified-hi-resolution-indian-map-by-2030/articleshow/96606447.cms