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Charting the Trajectory of India’s Promising Geospatial Sector 46 / Glimpses of an Extraordinary Life
22 SECTORAL OVERVIEW Charting the Trajectory of India’s Promising Geospatial Sector
The increasing ubiquity of spatial applications and solutions, and their intertwined nature with EO and space, offers enormous prospects for sustainable growth, however, there are certain challenges that need to be resolved. By Anil Prakash, Director
General, Satcom Association of India (SIA)
The Ministry of Science and Technology, in February 2021 deregulated the geospatial sector to grant open access to the geospatial data and services, including maps, for all Indian entities, with the exception of sensitive defence or security-related data.
Due to this watershed move, the private sector and innovators no longer require prior approvals before generating or updating digital geospatial data and maps within the territory of India. There is also no requirement for security clearance, license, or any other restrictions.
Geospatial technologies mainly consist of Remote Sensing GIS (Geographic Information System), GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) and Survey 3D modelling. The biggest consumer of geospatial data in India is the Survey of India (SoI), Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Remote Sensing Application Centres (RSACs), the National Informatics Centre (NIC) and all ministries and departments.
Geo-Intelligence is another massive use category of spatial data collection. Increasing use of horizontal technologies like IoT, big data analytics, AI, mobility, and cyber not only enables full potential utilization of geo-intelligence assets but also opens up new use cases in military intelligence
The Geospatial market as of 2021 was Rs 38972 Cr. As per the Geospatial "Artha" Report 2021, India’s geospatial economy has been projected to cross Rs 63,000 crore by 2025, growing at a rate of 12.8%, providing employment to more than 10 lakh people mainly through geospatial start-ups. There are also reports that put the projected net worth growth at Rs 1 lakh crore by the year 2029 CAGR. As mentioned by Union minister of state for Science and Technology Shri Jitendra Singh, India’s robust ecosystem is led by technology start-ups. There are around 250 geospatial start-ups in India and most would be moving towards high-tech ground-level surveillance.
With more investments and government budgetary support, there will be a spurt in geospatial innovations leading to more accuracy of data which would eventually bring down the cost of innovation, a huge win-win for tech start-ups. The private sector is set to take precedence over international tech giants sooner than we know. The country will extend this infrastructure access to benefit South Asian neighbouring states as well.
To provide a much-needed impetus, the Indian government has provisioned for a Geospatial Incubator and the Bhunidhi portal, both developed by Hyderabad’s National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), and a solar calculator developed by ISRO’s Space Application Centre in Ahmedabad and National Toponymy Database.
Recently, several bodies such as Survey of India, Geological Survey of India, National Atlas and Thematic Mapping Organization (NATMO), ISRO, and the National Informatics Centre implemented several GIS-based pilot projects across a range of domains such as waste resource management, agriculture, telecommunications, disaster and climate management, environmental studies, architecture, forestry, urban planning, etc. to demonstrate the applications of geospatial.
There are plans by the government to leverage spatial data in projects such as SVAMITVA, Gati-Shakti, Smart Cities and Disaster Management. Let’s look at some of these ambitious projects of the government where geospatial technology would disrupt the market.
Establishment of Continuous Operating Reference System (CORS) network with large-scale mapping using Drones of Rural inhabited (Abadi) locations by Survey of India using drone Survey. The objective of the program is the creation of accurate land records for rural planning, and to bring financial stability to the citizens in rural India by enabling them to use their property as a financial asset.
In the creation of survey infrastructure, GIS maps would be leveraged to support the preparation of a better-quality Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP).
The survey will be done across the country in a phased manner over the period 2020 -2025.
The Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR) is the Nodal Ministry for the implementation of the SVAMITVA (Survey of Villages and Mapping with Improvised Technology in Village Areas) Scheme. Survey of India shall work as the technology partner for implementation.
Massive role of Spatial Data in the Gati Shakti Project
The most ambitious Gati Shakti project entails the geospatial mapping of everything where different layers of maps would be integrated, leading to unified and coherent planning with better time-and-cost optimization.
The introduction of GIS in governance would ease of doing business and reduce compliance burden. Moreover, advances in mapping technology will become the base for innovation in other projects like Smart Cities and Disaster Management Policy.
Disaster Management
During any emergency, the role of a reliable Decision Support System is very crucial for effective response and recovery. With better connectivity networks, damage costs from natural disasters can be potentially reduced by 39% therefore Information and Communication Technologies in form of Internet, GIS, Remote Sensing, Satellite communication, etc. are indispensable in achieving that.
The country is already proving satellite-based near real-time information support to Central Ministries / Departments and State Ministries / Departments, before and after major natural disasters.
‘Digital North East 2022’ was announced to leverage GIS, RS and space technologies in fulfilling the ICT (Infor-
Indian Geospatial Economy 2021
COMMERCIAL MARKET
INR 38,972 Crore
EMPLOYMENT
Market by 2025
INR 63,000 Crore
Domestic Market INR 14,050 Crore
Export Market (Solutions/Services) INR 11,122 Crore
Government Expenditure On Geospatial Agencies INR 13,800 Crore
Source: Geospatial World Analysis Geospatial Employees 4,70,000
Employee Distribution - 2021
12.40%
18.10%
69.50%
Export Services Domestic Market Government Services Geospatial Employees 10 Lakhs
mation and Communication Technology) needs to act as a Decision Support System [DSS] in the North Eastern Region [NER] which has been a digitally deprived region in India.
ISRO is actively involved with various other countries in this, through international frameworks, such as International Charter ‘Space & Major Disasters’, Sentinel Asia, UNESCAP, and so on. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has joined hands with India in implementing the GoI-UNDP Disaster Risk Management (DRM) programme in 169 most vulnerable Districts of 17 States in India
Relevant information is disseminated in the interactive geospatial domain through various geoportals like Bhuvan, National Database for Emergency Management and the Meteorological & Oceanographic Satellite Data Archival Centre [MOSDAC] for the administrators to better understand the impact and for improved decision support.
Way Forward
There is a massive potential for India’s geospatial sector, however, a few hurdles remain viz., lack of awareness among potential users including the government, and inadequately skilled manpower. The unavailability of high-resolution data is also a huge constraint. Additionally, there is a lack of clarity on data sharing and collaboration which prevents co-creation and asset maximization.
The scope of deospatial tools is humongous, however, due to these challenges the use cases aren’t foolproof. India lacks skilled manpower and core professionals who understand geospatial end-to-end.
Despite being the most rational technology for managing disasters, spatial tech is hindered by the high cost of adoption. In next-gen mapping and GNSS in India, global tech giants are still dominating the space although homegrown companies are trying to make inroads.
India needs to raise awareness, increase access to government data, provide training for professionals, and plunge investment into the sector.
We need to develop our own resources for mapping
and GNSS to realise the goal of Atmanirbhar Bharat and the vision of a $5 trillion economy. In the case of indigenous GNSS service in India, the Government needs to invest in developing and mandating the adoption of standards. There's a need for uniform standards, protocols and norms across the country.
The role of Artificial Intelligence [AI] is vital to all disaster management phases, leading to a faster, more concise, and equipped response. Technologists are rapidly pushing AI’s ability to have highly accurate forecasts, optimizing aid deployment and real-time monitoring and staying prepared for a more resilient tomorrow and India needs to catch up with the required pace in this arena.
Data accuracy is a critical challenge and to achieve this a network of ground control points (GCP) is needed to accurately map the imagery with ground coordinates and its relative position on Earth. There is also a need to create a centralized database to capture and store all data results. standardization of the data entry process, and smooth availability of high-resolution data remains essential. Therefore, the issue of availability of suitable equipment to capture data must also be addressed.
Awareness needs to be created among potential users in government and private across various sectors. Inter-ministerial collaboration needs to be formed.
Localisation of Data can address national security issues. There is a need to develop a geospatial data cloud locally and facilitate a solution-as-a-service. National organizations like the SOI should be entrusted with the responsibility of regulation and projects related to the nation’s security and scientific significance.
Academic backing is also critical. India should start a bachelor’s programme in geospatial also in the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the National Institutes of Technology (NITs). Besides these, there should be a dedicated geospatial university.
We need to promote research and development efforts for technology indigenization.
26 INTERVIEW EO and Spatial Analytics for Sustainable Agriculture
"The access to archival satellite data, combined with current agricultural season data can help cultivators gain insights into the crop condition in different areas, and stages of crop growth, allowing them to plan resources accordingly", says Prateep Basu, CEO, SatSure, in an exclusive interview with Geospatial World.
What do you think is the role of EO and satellite imagery data in agriculture today?
Globally, the adoption of EO satellite imagery has increased. This is not just in specific sectors but across the agricultural value chain like credit lending, insurance, input and machinery, agriculture co-operatives, commodity markets, production companies and market linkage players.
In the context of India, initiatives like Digital India, AI in agriculture and, industrial revolution 4.0 are driving the adoption of satellite imagery based analytics.
As a fallout of first the pandemic supply chain disruptions and then the Russia-Ukraine conflict, millions of people globally are at a risk of starvation as per the UN. How can we best leverage EO, analytics and AI to avoid or better manage similar scenarios?
Geospatial plays a crucial role in global supply chain disruption scenarios, providing transparency and insights into what is happening in a particular location without the need of any physical visits.
Infact, we saw an increased awareness and interest regarding remote assessment using satellite imagery during COVID-19, especially in the financial sector. We have two unique scenarios which prove the importance of geospatial analytics during crisis.
Scenario 1: During the 2018 Kerala Floods, the Government of Kerala used geospatial technology for evacuation planning and mitigating strategy for limiting the loss of life and property. SatSure worked along with IBM to deliver a platform which combined diverse datasets like emergency call locations, current and estimated flooding intensity, digital elevation models for slope analysis and rainfall data to create risk zones. The Government of Kerala was able to evacuate more than 12,000 people using a portal.
Scenario 2: The advent of COVID-19, around March 2022 saw a massive supply chain disruption in agriculture. Due to restrictions on movements and lockdowns farmers and traders had a hard time buying and selling the commodities. We built a public portal with details of warehouses, cold storage facilities and logistic providers and invited buyers and traders to engage on the platform which helped farmers and traders from different parts of India engage and trade.
Thus, it is very clear, if used with the right intent, EO data analytics can play a constructive role in helping people, communities and organizations, public or private, tackle situations of crisis
How to make agro-business more resilient to vagaries of
extreme weather and other uncertainties, and what role can Earth Observation, data analytics and new technologies play in it?
Companies engaged in the agricultural value chain need to understand the threat of climate change and act to build resilient models for themselves and the ecosystem if they want to mitigate the risks associated with it.
This starts with the basics of understanding the role EO data and educating the teams and ecosystem about it. This has to be a collaborative approach. The technology is still new in many parts of the world, especially in developing countries which are have a poor digital infrastructure. The demand for food is going to increase, 9.7 billion people by 2050 will need to be fed.
Thus, to tackle this growth in demand, organizations involved in agriculture have to be future ready, and the first step towards this is digital transformation, of data and processes. Governments need to play an active role in digitization of processes and datasets like land record data, farm boundaries etc. and open it up with good data governance models, for accelerated adoption and technological innovation driven by the growing startup ecosystem .
Geospatial data will play a critical role in enabling access to data and information and create a decision making model which shall be backed by scientifically derived information, instead of the current, physical survey based model which is not scalable, highly prone to errors and lacks transparency.
How can satellite data and earth observation data empower cultivators and what can governments do to promote its use?
Government is the most important enabler for digital transformation in agriculture, because globally, the agriculture and land data is managed by it. Additionally, the data infrastructure and decisions on production, distribution and pricing is taken care of by the government bodies in most developing countries.
Thus, without an active participation of governments, any large scale implementation and adoption is not possible in the area of agriculture. Like highlighted previously, satellite imagery based analytics can help cultivators gain transparency throughout the crop growth stages.
Additionally, the access to archival satellite data, combined with current agricultural season data can help cultivators insights into the crop condition in different areas, stages of crop growth and plan the resources accordingly, In a pre-harvest scenario, this means providing the right resources at the right time for a good production and controlling damage due to a natural event and in a post harvest scenario, it boils down to better decision making on harvesting intervals, storage planning, market arrivals and a seamless distribution supply chain.
What is your view on food security?
To meet the global food demands, which will increase by 70% by 2050 to feed more than 9 billion people, food security is and will be one of the major objectives of countries globally.
The green revolution post-independence in India helped pull India out of food production crisis and made the country not just self-sufficient, but also one of the largest producers of major commodities in the world. This happened due to adoption of technology.
With the growing population, today, food production may not be a major concern for many countries. However, its efficient distribution is what will define that every person gets access to quality food. This is where technology now has to play a pivotal role. Another aspect is the threat of climate change which will reduce the production capacities globally. It is hence, very important to adopt sustainable agricultural practices for optimum use of resources using advanced technology to create a climate resilient mode for tackling food security.
