The Centre on Monday announced sweeping changes to the country’s mapping policy, which it said will benefit Indian companies. The changes have been made in the policy keeping in mind the the government’s Atmanirbhar Bharat vision.
Announcing this on Twitter, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the policy change is a massive step in the government’s vision to make India self-reliant.
“Our government has taken a decision that will provide a huge impetus to Digital India. Liberalising policies governing the acquisition and production of geospatial data is a massive step in our vision for an Aatmanirbhar Bharat,” he tweeted.
“The reforms will unlock tremendous opportunities for our country’s start-ups, private sector, public sector and research institutions to drive innovations and build scalable solutions. This will also generate employment and accelerate economic growth,” the Prime Minister further said in subsequent tweet.
He also said that the country’s farmers will benefit by leveraging the potential of geo-spatial and remote sensing data. “These reforms demonstrate our commitment to improving ease of doing business in India by deregulation,” PM Modi said in another tweet on the matter.
According to radical changes announced by the government, what is readily available globally does not need to be restricted in India and therefore geospatial data that used to be restricted will now be freely available in India, according to Ministry of Science and Technology.
The changes also seek to remove unnecessary red tape and obstacles in innovation.
“The existing regime imposed significant restrictions on the mapping industry – from creation to dissemination of maps, requiring Indian companies to seek licenses, follow a cumbersome system of pre-approvals and permissions. Compliance with these regulatory restrictions has subjected startups in India to unnecessary red tape, hindering Indian innovation in map technologies for decades,” Ministry of Science and Technology said in a release.
“Our corporations and innovators are no longer subject to restrictions nor do they require prior approvals before they collect, generate, prepare, disseminate, store, publish, update digital Geospatial Data and Maps within the territory of India,” it added.
The ministry also said that the government is looking forward to see India emerge as a mapping power.
