New Delhi, Feb 15 (IANS): With India liberalising policies that govern the collection, generation, preparation and dissemination of geospatial data, the industry on Monday hailed the move, terming it historic and visionary.
Local companies will no longer need license to collect, generate, store and share geospatial data within the country and the decision will unlock opportunities for applications of GIS (geographic information system) in sectors like agriculture, mining, water, urban, utilities, public safety and infrastructure which rely heavily on geospatial infrastructure.
Agendra Kumar, President, Esri India technology Pvt Ltd said that the new geospatial guidelines are historic and visionary.
"Private sectors like insurance, manufacturing, retail, banking can now tap into multitude of new opportunities enabled with location analytics. This would further boost the innovation in overall geospatial industry with Indian startups and software ISVs leading the development of GIS applications and solutions," Kumar said in a statement.
According to the Department of Science and Technology, it is announcing sweeping changes to India's mapping policy, specifically for Indian companies.
"What is readily available globally does not need to be restricted in India and therefore geospatial data that used to be restricted will now be freely available in India," it said in a statement.
The announcement came as the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and digital mapping and location-based deep-tech company MapmyIndia last week announced a new initiative to offer a fully indigenous, mapping portal and geospatial services.
The services will combine the power of MapmyIndia's digital maps and technologies with ISRO's catalogue of satellite imagery and earth observation data.
"Having successfully created 360 degree immersive street imagery of all major Indian cities and undertaking several path-breaking projects for the government, we foresee a positive impact on several industries and overall on the economy as well," said Sajid Malik, CMD of Genesys International, a 3D mapping company.