The government has formulated a legislation on sharing of geospatial data amongst all arms of the administration and members of civil society to optimise the power of knowledge and fuel the growth process.
A National Geospatial Data Regulatory Authority Bill, to be introduced in the next session of Parliament, is expected to be cleared by the Union Cabinet before February 2009, Mr. Kapil Sibal, Union Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, disclosed here today.
Inaugurating ‘India R & D 2008 – ‘Geospatial Technologies in India – Challenges & Opportunities’ organised by the Department of Science & Technology, National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) and FICCI, Mr. Sibal said: "The new legislation seeks to create an independent regulatory authority which will determine and regulate the basis on which data should be used and shared seamlessly amongst the various departments of the government and other stakeholders’.
He said, the government’s view was that data to be used for public good should made available free of cost. "People can then add value to it. This could be a source of profit for industry". The next revolution in the domain of Information Technology, Mr. Sibal said, would be in the mobility of knowledge (data) and the pace of data access. For this to happen, there is imperative need to devise a national data format so that there is seamless flow of such knowledge for public good.
Elaborating on the power of geospatial data use, Mr. Sibal said, with the help of 3-D technology it would have been possible to know the exact location of each room in the ill-fated Taj and Trident hotels in Mumbai which were attacked by terrorists recently. Armed with full 3-D access to every nook and cranny of the buildings, each member of the NSG could have figured the location of the enemy. That would have made their task so much easier and effective, he pointed out.
"But to do this, you need international experts to conduct flights equipped with camera, for which permission is required from the other departments of the government," he said, adding that since international experts are looked upon with suspicion, the whole process gets bogged down. "Bureaucracy cannot be allowed to stand in the way. It must change its mindset. Internal security and technological solutions for boosting economic growth demand results today, We cannot afford to wait for 10 years," Mr Sibal declared.
On the occasion, the Minister launched the ‘India Geoportal’. The portal is the repository of national infrastructure for the availability of and access to organised spatial data. It is for the use of the community, local, state and regional and national levels for reducing costs and ensuring sustained economic growth
Mr. Sibal said, geospatial data could be put to effective and efficient use in water and electricity distribution, transportation and traffic management, fire prevention, town planning, water management and exploration of groundwater. It can transform agriculture by providing field-wise productivity assessment to enable determination of a deficit or surplus production. That would help plan import or export of agriculture products much in advance.
Geospatial technology can also become an effective tool to ensure fool-proof security for the upcoming Commonwealth Games in 2010, he said.
Dr. K Kasturirangan, Member of Parliament, in his address, underlined the need for a regulatory body for NSDI, faster implementation and beefing up of capacity building.
He said, geospatial data had larger implications, not only for development but also for national security. Within NSDI, he said, there might be reasons for protection of data including national security, privacy and confidentiality to avoid the entire database to be either misappropriated or misused. At issue was whether at this juncture, NSDI needs a pragmatic policy and whether a TRAI kind of regulatory body is required to describe the relevant legislation, regulation and policy, he said.
NSDI, Dr Kasturirangan said, was an umbrella of technology, policies, standards, and human resources under which organisations interact to foster more efficient use, management and production of geospatial data. "Now the technology is available. Standards are worked out, we need to focus on policies and human resources for realising the objectives of NSDI," he said.
Dr. T Ramasami, Secretary, Department of Science & Technology, spotlighted the crucial importance of de-bottlenecking of information sharing within government departments and other stakeholders and called for speedy and effective implementation of the benefits of technological solutions that are at hand.
Maj. Gen. (Dr.) R Siva Kumar, CEO, NSDI, explained the objectives of NSDI and the advantages to society from the use of geospatial data.
Dr. Amit Mitra, Secretary General, FICCI, while acknowledging that easy accessibility of data to the wider public would certainly go a long way in India’s exponential development, called for finding a balance between accessibility of data and digital maps for commercial use and security of sensitive information to prevent terrorist threats. The restrictions on access also arise out of considerations on the copyright that needs to be addressed. Clear written guidelines from authorities like Ministry of Defence would provide speedy and timely flow of relevant data in public domain. Also, there is a need to set ‘quality standard’ or certification standard for GIS data produced so that end users are able to evaluate the quality of data supplied by GIS players, he pointed out.