E-Paper
Web portals to offer geospatial data
India likely to host the second UN World Geospatial Information Congress in Hyderabad in October 2022
The Union government on Tuesday launched web portals to offer the geospatial data collected by the Survey of India and the National Atlas and Thematic Mapping Organization either free or at a nominal cost.
The launch comes nearly six months after the government announced liberalisation of collection and dissemination of geospatial data, in February, allowing private companies to conduct surveying and mapping without government approvals, and to share data for various applications — from logistics and transport to road safety and e-commerce. Under the policy, geospatial data from government agencies such as the Survey of India and the Indian Space Research Organisation was to be made available to public.
“The new geospatial policy launched erased all the regulations on surveying and mapping, thus removing a lot of cobwebs of the past in one sweep. By liberalising and democratising geospatial data, a direct impact of about 1 lakh crore will be created by 2030,” said professor Ashutosh Sharma, secretary, department of science and technology.
ISRO’s satellite-based navigation data is already available for use by citizens free-to-air; the space agency’s new policy states that it will work on making the data interoperable with other navigation signals such as GPS and GLONASS to increase acceptance and better navigation signals for people in India subcontinent.
The department of science also announced that India will be hosting the second United Nations World Geospatial Information Congress (UNWGIC) in Hyderabad in October 2022. “We are excited to host UNWGIC next year and looking forward to welcome all in Hyderabad next year for the event which would show a glimpse of India’s evolving geospatial ecosystem,” said Sharma.
The online maps portal of Survey of India has over 4,000 maps with national, state, district, and tehsil level data that have been indexed for end users. The portal also lists various formats the information can be downloaded in. Online payment is enabled on the portal for easy payment. The prices of the maps range from ₹0 to ₹68,750, according to the portal.
“With the launch of this online portal, the users will no longer have to visit the SOI offices, and they can easily purchase and download products online at their doorstep through Bharat Kosh payment gateway of Govt of India,” said the Surveyor General of India Naveen Tomar.
In addition to that, the Survey of India has also developed a web geographic information system (GIS) called Sarthi that will help users in creating applications for geospatial data visualisation, manipulation, and analysis without a lot of resources at their end. A GIS connects location data to layers of other information such as where health facilities are located, type of vegetation found in a region, or water resources in the area. “The portal will allow a company or say the Maharashtra government to create an application with different types of geographical data instead of investing resources in creating such application on their own from the geospatial data available,” said Sunil Kumar, joint secretary, department of science.
The third portal, called Manchitran, makes available thematic maps developed by NATMO. “NATMO works on creating various thematic maps such as the cultural map of India, the climactic map, or the economic map,” said Kumar.
