Ayon Kumar Tarafdar GIS Development, India ayon@GISdevelopment.net

The cases of actual utilisation of geospatial information in planning and development process have been only handful. This paper attempts to delve into the Indian set-up and bring out an opinion of how possibly the present policy frameworks affected information flow and its tryst with development.

Relevance of information in ‘collective decision-making’
Development strategies always have a collective ‘well-being’ rather than an individual ‘well-being’ at its core. So any planning process or strategies taken by any organisation (State or Corporate) need to have a strong sense of rationality. While decentralisation is a ‘process’, which enhances rationality, ‘information’ is the important ‘tool’ that makes this happen. Spatial or geographic information is a very important component of ‘information’ as a whole when it comes to development planning. In developing countries, the domain of ‘development’ and of ‘technology’ - more specifically geospatial information and communications technologies - are conceptually complimentary but practically yet to be fused. In India, a vast amount of geographic data and accurate maps exist. However, very few people have access to it as it remains locked in the hands of the experts or specialised departments. The cases of actual utilisation of this information in planning and development process have been only handful. What is the reason behind such a scenario? While one key reason for this is the lack of awareness about the available tools, perhaps a larger reason lies in the policy framework of the land. This paper attempts to delve into the Indian set-up and bring out an opinion of how possibly the present policy frameworks affected information flow and its tryst with development.

Spatial information and its tryst with Indian ‘Policy’
India has a rich history of mapping and generating geographic information. The Indian geodetic control network is perhaps one of the best in the world. The geodetic data, collected through centuries of dedicated efforts including the Great Trigonometrical (G.T.) Triangulation Network of India has resulted in a huge repository of data of the country, lying with a 230 old premier mapping agency – Survey of India (SoI). Other than the detailed topographic data, there are the Satellite Survey Control Network, the High Precision, Precision and Secondary Levelling Network, the Laplace Stations Network, the Gravity Stations Network, the Tidal Stations Network and the Geomagnetic Stations Network.

The organisations with a mandate
There is large number of organisations that use geographic data on a regular basis for their work and also have the mandate to prepare relevant maps. Forest Survey of India, Central Water and Power Commission, Directorate of Mining and Geology, Geological Survey of India, Defence Organisations, Soil Survey Department, Mineral Corporations, Indian Bureau of Mines, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Atomic Mineral Division, Indian Space Research Organisation, National Remote Sensing Agencies, are some of such mandated organisations. Other than these, the University Departments of Geology, Agriculture, Geography, Sociology, Archaeology, Research Organisations dealing with Earth Science and related subjects, Planning Departments, Statistical Institutes, Environmental Organisations, are key users of such data. But is that all? We perhaps are leaving aside a much larger proportion of the population, i.e., the common man. Common man referring to the ones engaged in private sector and civil societies who do not belong to the government departments holding the key to such data. The question is, how do they get access to the data and what about the data they produce.

In essence, a huge amount of maps or related data for the country till date is restricted for the common man, or subject to multiple clearances. The history behind this can be traced back to the Colonial British Government in India who introduced the code of security by a rule that surveyors of SoI should treat their work as top secret. However, things are different now, except the restriction policy.

The restriction policy
According to the prevalent policy of restriction of maps and toposheets, all topographical and geographical maps of areas (of about 80 km) between the delineated line, shown on the ‘Index to Toposheets’ published by the Survey of India, and the land border, and also of similar maps of Bhutan and Sikkim, and similar maps of the outlying islands viz, Andaman and Nicobar, and Lakshadweep Island comprising Laccadiv, Minocoy and Amindivi, on scales of 1:1 million and larger, are restricted and their sale, publication and distribution are governed by separate set of rules. This was laid down in the late 1967 and further amended in the early 1968 by the Ministry of Defence, Government of India. Hence, in actuality, some 227 out of 385 toposheets remain restricted. In area terms, only about 43 percent of India is un-restricted. For the rest of the maps, application has to be made on a special form obtainable from Survey of India and issue of such maps is subject to series of conditions mentioned in the form. In 1971, clearance of Ministry of Defence was made compulsory for issue of restricted maps to private individuals, organisations and commercial firms. Not only that, it was also a practice that persons receiving ‘restricted’ maps have to submit an annual certificate of safe custody of such maps.

The implications
Gradually, the impediment to progress started getting felt at different levels. Aerial photographs for the entire country are classified as secret/top secret. As other countries have developed ahead, we carried on with the same rules despite the fact that these photographs are an important tool for research workers in cartography, environmental studies, geological interpretation, planning and development.

It is understandable that much of the geodetic data is of strategic importance. But the situation for every country in the developed world is similar. And it is technology that has the answer of how to differentiate between the same data in a manner that one series becomes security sensitive and another becomes open for all. With the advent of ICT and Internet boom, availability of many of these restricted maps over Internet from sources outside the nation has become a common thing. Finally, after 58 years of independence, the government has announced a revolutionary upcoming change to happen.

A new era In a government Press Conference on 19th May 2005, it came out that the Union Cabinet of the Government of India has given its approval to the new National Map Policy brought out by the Ministry of Science and Technology.

The New Policy envisages two series of maps- the Defence Series Maps (DSMs) and the Open Series Maps (OSMs). The DSMs will be for exclusive use of defence forces and authorised government departments. The Ministry of Defence will determine the policy regarding the use of DSMs whereas the Policy on OSMs will be the responsibility of Survey of India/Department of Science and Technology. OSMs will have a different datum, projection, content and sheet numbers. These maps will be derived from National Digital Topographical Database (NDTB), which will be created by the Survey of India. The use of OSMs will be through a process of registration for intimation. There will be a Map Information Registry Database (MIRD). 1:1 million and smaller maps do not require registration. OSMs (Digital or Analogue) can be disseminated by Survey of India, through an agreement to any agency for specific end use. The user can make value addition to these maps and can share the information under initiations to the Survey of India. It was also mentioned that all aerial photographs after masking of Vulnerable Areas/Points would be freely available for processing and project generation. Private agencies will be permitted to carry out surveys in all parts of the country using Public Domain Datum. But they should be registered and should carry the accreditation of Survey of India. Magnetic/gravity and other scientific data will be collected and disseminated as per existing instructions.

Policy for whom?
The point here that emerges is - who is this policy aimed at. Is it the department of the government and again the same expert community who deals with maps or the common man? Of course one line of thoughts will argue that it is for the common man. It is the citizens who will be positively affected with unrestricted flow of information. If maps become unrestricted, development shall be triggered. However, another line of thought can be that, most of this is only about the available maps of SoI, which were restricted. Or in other words, this policy is about the policy maker, in this case the government arm of SoI. The policy can be said to assume that the only source of maps is SoI and some other government departments and hence is all about enhancing the accessibility from this single source. It remains silent about the rest of the players even if they have the capacity of producing maps or have produced maps over time like the private sector. What about the huge amount of maps and spatial data that the private sector has invested in and developed over the years indigenously? And what about the types and scales of data, which are still not available from SoI? What about allowing the private or semi-private domains? Does the policy de-restrict generation of spatial data?

Further, in current times, the use of satellite and space sciences is indispensable in spatial data creation and updating. The mention of space data and its restriction policy seems hazy or null. Hence, the question of an impending discrepancy of topographic data accessibility and space-based data accessibility emerges. Can there be not an interdepartmental collaborative policy? Finally, the policy announcement does anticipate a revolution of the industry, but does it spell out the way in the un-restricted data shall be finally used by common man?

In the current times, with Internet and ICT applications exploding, and with mobile telephony picking up at a rate of over 150 percent growth per annum in Asia, the scope and potential for applications that demand spatial information is huge. It is just a matter of time before the market devises and internalises methods of alternative routes to get hold of data, both satellite based or topographic, in their workflows. Hence, it is time the market is let free and also capitalised upon.

The policy is yet to be out in the public domain and hence we can hope for the best about all the above factors. Perhaps all the answers are there in it. Its a matter of time and faith.