New geospatial policy to foster startup ecosystem

Source: The post is based on the article “New geospatial policy to foster startup ecosystem” published in Livemint on 1st January, 2023

What is the News?

The Department of Science and Technology(DST) has notified a National Geospatial Policy 2022 with the goal of making India a world leader in the global geospatial sector. 

What is National Geospatial Policy 2022?

Purpose: It is a citizen-centric policy that seeks to strengthen the Geospatial sector to support national development, economic prosperity and a thriving information economy.

Objectives of the policy

– To make India a World Leader in Global Geospatial space with the best in the class ecosystem for innovation.

– To develop a coherent national framework in the country and leverage it to move towards a digital economy and improve services to citizens.

– To enable easy availability of valuable Geospatial data collected utilizing public funds, to businesses and the public.

– To have a thriving Geospatial industry in the country involving private enterprise.

Key Features of the policy

The policy aims to achieve the following milestones: 

– By 2025, the government aims to expand the availability of and access to what it calls “enhanced location data” for enterprises and other organisations, including private organizations.

– By 2030, the government plans to have established an Integrated Data and Information Framework(IDIF), which will serve as the basis for constructing a Geospatial Knowledge Infrastructure(GKI).

– By 2035, one of the goals of using geospatial data will be to map the underground infrastructure of India’s most important cities and towns.Another goal will be to generate high-resolution, accurate geospatial data for bathymetry to assist India’s “Blue Economy.” 

Institutional Framework: The Government of India will constitute a Geospatial Data Promotion and Development Committee(GDPDC) at the national level.

– It will be the apex body for formulating and implementing appropriate guidelines, strategies and programmes for promotion of activities related to the geospatial sector. 

– GDPDC will be a 17-member body to be headed by a person of repute from industry, government or academia.

National Digital Twins of India’s major cities and towns by 2035: The digital twin is a virtual replica of a physical asset, process or service that lies at the core of the new digital revolution. This facilitates policymakers to understand how infrastructure will function in different situations such as increase of population or during natural disasters.