World Geospatial Information Congress, Hyderabad

Second World Geospatial Information Congress, Hyderabad

• The Prime Minister recently spoke at Hyderabad's second United Nations World Geospatial Information Congress.

The Geospatial Sector in India

• According to data, India's geospatial economy is projected to reach Rs63,100 crore by 2025, growing at a 12.8% annual rate.
• By increasing productivity, assuring sustainable infrastructure design, and efficient administration, and supporting the agricultural sector, geospatial technology has emerged as one of the main accelerators in socio-economic development.

What is Geospatial Technology?

• Innovations in geospatial technology enable us to pinpoint a person or an object's precise location on our planet.
• We use them in a variety of fields, from GPS navigators for cars to broad-field remote sensing by Earth-orbiting satellites.

Geospatial Technology Types

• Remote Sensing
• Electromagnetic impulses
• Filmed or digital aerial imagery
• Radars and lidars
• Global Positioning Systems (GPS)
• Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

Uses for geospatial technology

• Logistics: Monitoring and ensuring the quality of products.
• Transportation skills include planning a route and an arrival time as well as navigating.
• Meteorology: Referring to weather predictions for certain regions.
• Forestry: Monitoring for forest fires, stopping deforestation, and avoiding major wildfires.
• Agriculture: Evaluating the state of the plants on a certain terrain.
• Healthcare: Keep an eye on locations where epidemics are spreading.
• Ecology: Locating species populations in specific regions, averting disasters, etc.
• Advertising and marketing: directing adverts to the appropriate areas.
• Real Estate: Remotely visualising and examining objects related to real estate
• Insurance: Using historical georeferenced data analysis to manage risks in contested locations.

India's new geospatial policy guidelines:

Free geospatial data access

• The Department of Science and Technology will release the geospatial data into the general public domain.

Individual Certification

• For conformity to rules, startups do not require pre- and post-approval certificates. A self-declaration is effective.

Promotion of cutting-edge technology

• The government will advocate for the most recent mapping innovations.

Applicability

• The Guidelines apply to geographic information, such as maps, products, solutions, and services provided by autonomous entities, government agencies, private businesses, non-governmental organisations, and individuals.

Negative List of sensitive attributes

• The Guidelines stipulate that before any person can obtain and/or use such sensitive data, the DST must notify the public of a list of sensitive qualities that require control.

Importance of the Geospatial industry:

Strong ecosystem

• Geospatial technology is used by the Survey of India (SoI), the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), remote sensing application centres (RSAC), the National Informatics Centre (NIC), and all ministries and departments overall.

Getting Data

• With the aid of geospatial technology, we may collect data that is georeferenced and use it for analysis, modelling, simulations, and visualisation.

Making wise judgments

• Because most resources are restricted in nature, geospatial technology enables us to make well-informed decisions based on the significance and priority of those resources.

Models and maps with intelligence

• In a STEM application, geospatial technology can be utilised to build intelligent maps and models that can be interactively queried to produce the required outcomes. It can also be used to support social research and policy-based research.

Problems/Difficulties in This Sector

• Negligible involvement
• Both the full advantages and significant GDP contributions have not yet reached the general population.
• Lack of a market
• One of the biggest obstacles is India's lack of a substantial geospatial market.
• There is no market for geospatial goods and services.
• It is as a result of potential consumers in the public and private sectors not being aware of it.
• Another significant problem is the overall pyramid's shortage of skilled labour.
• There are still no ready-to-use solutions Specifically created to address India's concerns.

Related Projects

• Drones are used by the SWAMITVA scheme to survey properties in villages. SWAMITVA stands for Survey of Villages and Mapping using Improvised Technology in Village Areas.
• Rural residents now have undeniable proof of ownership.

The satellite for South Asia

• It promotes neighbourhood interaction and communication for India.
• India's drone industry received a significant boost, and the country also allowed private companies and 5G technologies access to its space industry.

Instantaneous digital payments

• When it comes to real-time digital payments, India leads the world. Digital payments are accepted and preferred by even the tiniest suppliers.

PM Master Plan for Gati Shakti

• Infrastructure for many modes is being built. Geospatial technology is driving it.

Way Forward

• Open to all: India's geospatial industry has been made available to its young, talented individuals. Data gathered over a 200-year period had been made public and free to anyone.
• In a mission mode, this entails enabling the final individual during the final mile. This idea has helped us empower people in the last mile on an enormous scale.
• No one is being left behind, thanks to India: Insuring 135 million uninsured people, roughly twice as many as there are in France, banking 450 million unbanked people, a population larger than that of the USA, providing access to sanitation facilities for 110 million families, and providing tap water connections for more than 60 million families.

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