India’s geospatial economy is expected to cross Rs 63,000 crore by 2025 at a growth rate of 12.8% and provide employment to more than 10 million people, primarily through Geospatial Start-Ups. This was stated by Union Minister for Science and Technology and Ministry of Earth Sciences Dr Jitendra Singh while addressing the second UN World Geospatial Information Congress (UN-WGIC) 2022 in Hyderabad today. The five-day conference is attended by more than 2,000 delegates, including more than 700 international delegates and participants from approximately 150 countries. In addition, National Mapping Agencies (NMAs) such as the Survey of India, which has an illustrious history of 255 years, are attended by senior officials, NGOs, academia and industry, users and the private sector from around the world. Geospatial Congress.
Dr Jitendra Singh said that in the current boom in technology-based start-ups, there are around 250 Geospatial StartUps in India and to give further boost to the sector, the Minister unveiled the Geospatial Incubator today. The minister pointed out that national organizations such as Survey of India, Geological Survey of India, National Atlas and Thematic Mapping Organization (NATMO), Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and National Information Center have implemented several GIS-based pilot projects across a range of areas , such as waste management, forestry, urban planning, etc., to demonstrate applications of geospatial technology.
The minister said government, industry, researchers, academia and civil society are coming together to create a quality geospatial ecosystem to create key solutions. He said the democratization of India’s geospatial ecosystem will spur domestic innovation and enable Indian companies to compete in the global mapping ecosystem by leveraging modern geospatial technologies and fully realizing the dream of “Atmanirbhar Bharat” or “Self-sufficient India”.
Dr Jitendra Singh emphasized that geospatial technology and Geographic Information System (GIS) will have a significant impact on the way India adopts this technology and moves forward. He said the world is looking at India as it uses technology to address some of the major humanitarian and sustainability issues. The minister added that while geospatial technologies have been produced, used and managed in the country for more than five decades, the Indian government’s revolutionary steps towards geospatial democratization, enforcement and integration in the last few years have given a new impetus to this development. sector.
Technologies in the geospatial sector
Dr Jitendra Singh pointed out that the Ministry of Rural Development has mapped more than 45 thousand kilometers of rural roads using 21 map data layers that digitized information related to water bodies, green spaces, land and other structures necessary for administrative purposes. He also informed that nearly 2.6 lakh gram panchayats have been covered by the ministry under the mapping and digitization scheme. The minister said that evolving technologies in the geospatial sector have brought transformational changes through which even an inch of land in India can be mapped, thereby providing solid backups for India’s land reforms.
Dr. Addressing members of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the UN-GGIM Secretariat, international delegates and distinguished participants at the Geospatial Congress, Jitendra Singh pointed out that the Government of India has issued new guidelines for geospatial data in 2021, recognizing the benefits of having comprehensive, high accurate, granular and continuously updated representations of geospatial data across various sectors of the economy with the belief that it will significantly boost innovation in the country and significantly enhance the country’s emergency response preparedness.
Build human resource capacity and many research projects
However, Dr Jitendra Singh pointed out that a modernized and developed national geospatial ecosystem cannot be developed solely on the basis of innovation and advancement in technology, but must be based on the individual priorities of stakeholders (including nations) and how it can impact. lives and livelihoods of ordinary citizens. He said that to meet the growing needs of skilled geospatial manpower, several universities have introduced courses based on geospatial science and technology to build human resource capacity and many research projects have been initiated to develop the availability of trained geospatial manpower. He said these measures have opened an untapped opportunity to develop an international market for GIS services for the Indian geospatial industry.
An Indian minister told the UN Geospatial Congress that the world has progressed from the traditional definition of geospatial information and its applications to a much more dynamic definition of geospatial solutions to real-world problems using modern technologies such as digital twins and the metaverse. He said the world has come a long way from the days of using paper maps to finding places to adopt spatial intelligence in everyday decisions.
Dr Jitendra Singh pointed out that the recent management of the Covid-19 pandemic is a notable example where geo-enabled technology was used to develop a health services application that helped identify closed zones, aided in citizen movement tracking, vaccine administration and social distancing. . Other geo-enabled technologies have helped in managing activities such as hotspot disinfection, setting up telemedicine facilities for remote healthcare, and diagnosing and analyzing the availability of infrastructure to address a health crisis.
Dr Jitendra Singh said these developments are helping to unlock the true potential of the technology while changing the way geospatial information is created, used and managed across sectors. Public and private entities view geospatial information as the backbone of bottom-up sustainable development mechanisms. Government, industry, researchers, academia and civil society are coming together to create a quality geospatial ecosystem to create key solutions. In the exhibition part of this UNWGIC, we are showing a glimpse of this ecosystem, added the minister.
Concluding, Jitendra Singh said that the future national geospatial ecosystem requires a holistic transformation to keep pace with innovations in the digital economy, to “break and connect silos” and adapt and work in coordination with these technological innovations to simplify space. data usage across all ecosystems. The Minister wished that the second UNWGIC would be the landmark global event where the evolution of global geospatial information management will move towards technology-led human development.
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