New Guidelines on Liberalisation of Acquisition and Production of Geospatial Data

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‘National Map Policy, 2005’ (NMP) and the ‘Guidelines for Implementing National Map Policy’ (NMP Guidelines) issued by the Survey of India (SoI), which is the National Survey and Mapping Organization under the DST. In terms of the NMP Guidelines, the distribution of digital data for mapping was made subject to the following licenses issued through the Map Transaction Registry (MTR): (a) digital licence; (b) publishing licence; (c) internet licence; (d) media licence; and (e) value addition licence.

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‘National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy, 2012’ (NDSAP) issued by the DST on 17 March 2012. Though the NDSAP is primarily aimed at promoting the accessibility of data to the public, it defines the term ‘geospatial data’ as “all data which is geographically referenced”. Geospatial data is further described under the NDSAP as data that “consists primarily of satellite data, maps, etc.”

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Applicability: The Guidelines are applicable to geospatial data, maps, products, solutions and services offered by government agencies, autonomous bodies, academic and research institutions, private organizations, non-governmental organizations and individuals.

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Definition of ‘Geospatial Data’: The Guidelines provide a restrictive and narrow definition of ‘geospatial data’ (in contrast to the erstwhile definition under the NDSAP). Geospatial data has been defined to mean positional data which could be in the form of images, videos, vectors, etc. in digitized or non-digitized form or web-services. Similarly, the Guidelines further define ‘maps’ and ‘geospatial technology’ in specific terms. Additionally, the Guidelines set out certain threshold values for spatial accuracy, gravity anomaly, and vertical accuracy for the maps / geospatial data.

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Exemption from prior approvals, licences, etc.: In contrast to the NMP Guidelines, the present Guidelines provide that there shall be no requirement for prior approval, security clearance, license or any other restrictions on the collection, generation, preparation, dissemination, storage, publication, updating and/or digitization of geospatial data and maps within India (subject to the ‘negative lists’ as described below). The Guidelines also envisage a self-certification requirement.

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Negative Lists: The Guidelines authorize the DST to notify a list of ‘sensitive attributes’ in the ‘negative lists’. Acquisition and/or use of such attributes in the negative list would be subject to the regulations of the DST, as may be passed. Such negative lists may include certain attributes which are prohibited from being marked on any map. Any issues arising out of such lists shall be decided by Geospatial Data Promotion and Development Committee, which is to be constituted by the DST.

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Options for ‘Indian Entities’:

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Options for foreign companies: Foreign companies and foreign owned / controlled Indian companies can license the digital maps / geospatial data of spatial accuracy / value finer than the threshold value from Indian Entities only for the purpose of serving their customers in India. Such access can be made available by the Indian Entities only through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) which do not allow maps / geospatial data to pass through the foreign company or its servers.