Centre Govt to utilise geospatial technology for Smart Cities

Union Minister for Urban Development Venkaiah Naidu hopes that geospatial industry in the country is expected to attain a $ 20 billion size by 2025

​Hyderabad: The Centre would extensively utilise geospatial technology in realising its vision for betterment of human civilisation, Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said on Monday.

Inaugurating the Geospatial World Forum at International Convention Centre here, the Union Minister said, “We are living in a new age, with new aspirations, new innovations and new inventions.

We are moving towards a smart future. Indian geospatial industry is expected to become a $20 billion market by 2025, growing at a cumulative annual rate of 12-15 per cent. The estimated annual budget of government agencies for GIS services today stands at $3 billion."

Venkaiah Naidu further said the Centre had also launched several flagship programmes that would make use of geospatial technologies. These included the much-coveted Smart Cities programme, skill development, Digital India, Start-Up India and Make in India.

He said development and speedy governance were now the top priorities of the NDA government. The Centre, he said, was implementing the schemes MISIDICI - Make in India, Skill India, Digital India and Clean India. For achieving Digital India, geospatial science was the basic enabling technology.

Speaking on the urbanisation in the country, the Union Minister said a massive urbanisation project was on in the country. The government had taken several initiatives to focus on making cities more liveable and urban life more comfortable. Nearly 606 million people would move to urban centres by 2030 in India.

India’s present urban population was 11 per cent of the world’s urban population which would grow to 13 per cent by 2020. He asserted that the need for effective urban planning had increased more than ever.

He also said the Ministry of Urban Development programme like Smart Cities, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) and Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY) were poised to transform India, he felt.

The Union Minister said that the Ministry of Urban Development had recently launched Google Toilet Locator app that would help users find the quickest way to a clean toilet. He suggested that the municipalities undertake geo-tagging of their employees.

The geospatial sector has a bright future; there was an opportunity for up to $500 billion in investments and thousands of jobs. He said that foreign investors were interested in investing in India. India was the bright spot for investments, according to the World Economic Forum and the Asian Development Bank reports. The India has the highest Forex reserve and the lowest inflation.

Union Minister of State for Labour Bandaru Dattatreya said the ‘Survey of India contribution is immense to the society’s living, development and advancement.” He claimed that the land records were not maintained properly in Telangana State and there was a need to integrate the land record system with geospatial technology.

He further said that India will be among top 3 countries in world in science and technology by 2030. He further said that people should be conscious on Disruptive Technologies like Hacking, cyber crimes etc and control them with technical innovations.

The Union Ministers released the Global Geospatial Industry Outlook Report. They later inaugurated the Survey of India Exhibition Stand. Nearly 300 Experts from the 100 Nations, 3000 professionals from India and across the world, several high-profile delegates, policymakers, academia, researchers, technology providers, solution providers, and end-user segments from the global geospatial community are participating in this forum.