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GEOTECHNOLOGY
AND SOCIETY
GIS & Society – An Indian Perspective
GS Kumar
British Legacies & Indian
Policies
The restrictions on maps introduced in India by the
British in the eighteenth century continue to grow in
Independent India. Paper maps of all scales along the
coastal belt and International boundaries, as well as
digital maps and aerial photographs of the entire country
are classified as secret/restricted. According to the
instructions of Ministry of Defence (MoD) of July 1998,
ten specified government organizations are permitted
digitization of specified details from unrestricted maps
up to 1:50,000 scale and their use is subject to clearance
from MoD. Control data up to a half-minute is made
available through a special procedure. A half-minute in
central India represents about 900 meters!
The Inter-Departmental Committee for Review on
Restriction Policy made a recommendation in July 1989,
that data and maps of unrestricted areas should be allowed
to be produced without any restriction. In August 2002,
Surveyor General announced a plan to publish dual series
of maps (for defense and civil use). The first digital map
at 1:50,000 scale was released in November 2002 with great
fanfare. No further maps have appeared since. IKONOS (one
meter resolution) and QuickBird (sub-meter resolution)
covering India available in USA and other places needs
MoD’s clearance for use in India! It is in this
situation that citizens, private companies, and government
organizations, in the field of GIS in India, are
struggling to develop GIS based applications.
Changing Scenario
Since the first Indian Remote Sensing Satellite
(IRS-1A) launched in 1988, India achieved 5.8-meter
resolution with IRS 1-C and 1-D and 2.5 meter resolution
with CartoSat in 2004. Common people are aware of this,
while scientists and professionals are making use of IRS
data in several ways. The major motivating factor is its
cost which is less than Indian Rupees 5 (about 10 cents)
per sq km. The high cost of imported software and training
has impeded its application growth.
The GeoMap Society (GEMS) and Indian National
Cartographic Association (INCA) initiated Map Awareness
Programs for school students in collaboration with other
professional bodies in 1990. More than 100,000 students
all over India have been exposed to the map related
popular and educative GeoMap Quiz programs (Figure 1). The
“Mapping the Neighborhood” program of Department of
Science & Technology for students in the recent years
was another such attempt. In several universities, post
graduate courses in geomatics have been introduced, while
geomatics has been introduced as part of the syllabus in
several engineering colleges. GIS India, the first GIS
journal started in 1992, was followed by GIS@ Development
and GeoSpatial Today. All three are promoting the cause of
GIS. Private industry in GIS in India owes its growth
mainly to the support from Department of Space.
There is Hope
India needs better management systems for proper
utilization of its resources. GIS fills this need because
of its unique features like transparency, team work,
efficiency in all stages, exposure of errors when
combining layers, increased employment, etc.
For the first time in India, the Government of
Andhra Pradesh introduced the system of Cadastral Licensed
Surveyors to create a survey of land ownership. Under the
e-government schemes several state governments are
providing citizen user-friendly information at computer
kiosks. Private companies like Map World Technologies
(Hyderabad), provided GIS support for the National Games
in 2002, mid-day meals distribution in 2003, Afro-Asian
Games in 2004, Locality
Information Management System (LIMS), site selection and
other socially relevant activities. In World Bank
supported, land-related projects, use of GIS is mandatory.
It is hoped that in the course of time a similar
requirement will be implemented in India. There is hope
that citizens will increasingly benefit from GIS with
changes in policies on generation and sharing of spatial
data.
About the Author
GS Kumar is the Former Director of the Survey of
India. He currently serves as Chairman of MapWorld,
Founder and Managing Editor of GIS India (since 1992),
President of GeoMap Society (since 1990), and is actively
involved with promotion of GIS.
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