India's geospatial sector set to boom

Land Journal: Can you explain how the Indian geospatial sector was restricted before the introduction of the guidelines?

Sanjay Kumar: Regulations for surveying and mapping in India were established in the colonial era, and although they were relevant 100 years ago they were not subsequently reviewed. There was no clear guidance from the Indian government that allowed surveyors to make use of ground control points – the points on the ground with known coordinates – or topographical information, which are the foundation for survey work.

Surveying and mapping was subject to archaic laws from various ministries such as the Ministries of Defence, Finance, and Science & Technology, with multiple overlapping regulations that sometimes contradicted each other. So it was a challenging profession to be in, although also a highly respected one.

LJ: How will the announcement of the India Geospatial Guidelines change the situation for the sector?

SK: The policy guidelines show the importance of the profession, and the value of geospatial data to achieving national development goals. The guidelines have also helped commercialise surveying, so anyone who wants to carry out a survey does not need approval from government.

What is critical is that these guidelines clearly direct government agencies such as the Survey of India (SoI) to share reference points with the surveying profession. They also mean it will be mandatory for the government to make freely available the data that has been collected from taxpayers by various institutions such as the GSI, the Indian Forest Service and the Central Ground Water Board.

At Geospatial World magazine we campaigned for 22 years to make these maps accessible, so this is a dream come true. As part of an holistic review, the government is repealing a lot of archaic laws and has been proactive about opening the science and technology sector by lifting legislative restrictions on practice and allowing new entrants to flourish. I'm pleasantly surprised by the speed at which this has taken place.

LJ: How will these changes affect the use of geospatial information in the Indian infrastructure and construction sectors?

SK: I think these sectors will be major beneficiaries. At the moment, you plan a highway and then do your survey. But with all the regulations a survey that could be done in three months takes three years, and the cost of the project rockets.

The quality of surveying and geospatial data capture is important at all stages of infrastructure development including design. When you don't have access to ground control points or don't get coordinates from the Survey of India (SoI), then it becomes more difficult to accommodate new infrastructure plans in the national framework. This democratisation of geospatial data and liberalisation of surveying will help construction, architecture and engineering firms to do their jobs better, in terms of quality, cost-effectiveness, efficiency and compliance, bringing transparency.

LJ: How will the changes help India achieve its economic and environmental ambitions?

SK: Environmental impact assessments requires geospatial data. We formed Geospatial Media and Communications with the intention of creating an environmental atlas, but we struggled to get maps for EIA models. That's when we started our advocacy programme.

The democratisation of data under the new guidelines will help better model the environmental impact of infrastructure projects, because you need decades of historic data to do the modelling. Using this data for modelling enables better design, so a project with a 30- or 40-year life cycle might then last 50 years. But if it's not well designed, it might collapse in 20 years.

The guidelines help the environment in two ways. First, they allow us to carry out better environmental modelling because we can bring a lot of statistical information to the infrastructure project. Second, integration of geospatial and building information modelling (GeoBIM) helps reduce waste, increase cost-effectiveness and extend the life cycle of the infrastructure by making it more resilient.

LJ: Prime minister Narendra Modi has also announced sweeping changes to India's land information and administration. Can the new geospatial policy help with land reform?

SK: The guidelines will help us expand surveying as a profession, and support its role in the transformation of India. This will also help with land administration, which will need to use surveying to its fullest capability. The reforms are going to help with digitisation of the land records. 60% of land is always under dispute, which takes a long time to resolve in the civil courts.

LJ: Are there any challenges for the future of the geospatial sector in India?

SK: The guidelines present huge opportunities and challenges for India. Data is your information base and if it is not correct, organised or legal, then that's a challenge. Because geospatial was a restricted sector under the previous regulations, it is not mature; but now it is open the government is expecting maturity, and that will take a while. We need to establish standard operating procedures and ethics, so there's a need for an institution of chartered surveyors.

The whole market is becoming commercialised, so surveying firms will need investment. One of the aspects mentioned is that if you go for the threshold of resolution it has to be done by Indian entities, which will make it difficult to attract foreign investment. We will need to overcome that.

How you streamline the implementation of the guidelines is another challenge. The guidelines also say any existing policy that contradicts these guidelines will be suspended. But how do we consistently educate departments that are by nature not so open? When you get into the detail of, say, customs or defence policies, these will have to be reframed. We have to educate other departments consistently and constructively. It's an opportunity and a challenge.

At Geospatial Media our job is bigger now. The work begins with collaboration and convergence between stakeholders: we were a fragmented profession, so hardware, software and services have to come together. If we do this right, a lot of developing countries that are still working with restrictive policies may use India as a role model.

These geospatial guidelines will provide an integrated policy framework. They mark a high-level political recognition of the need for geospatial knowledge in fulfilling the national ambition to be a $5tr economy.

It's worth recognising the political weight behind this, alongside the development of geospatial infrastructure and strategy globally. It's an exciting time for geospatial professionals to be showcasing our value to society.

Related competencies include: Cadastre and land administration, GIS (geographical information systems), Legal/regulatory compliance, Surveying and mapping