Country's geospatial economy likely to cross Rs 63,000 cr

Hyderabad: Union Minister of State for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh on Tuesday said the country's geospatial economy was expected to cross Rs 63,000 crore by 2025 at a growth rate of 12.8 per cent and would provide employment to more than 10 lakh people.

He delivered the keynote address at the second United Nations World Geospatial Information Congress (UN-WGIC) 2022 at HICC. The minister said the country never had dearth of talent; during the last eight and a half years this has been an era of path-breaking initiatives, including some which used to be a taboo.

He said there has been a dramatic advancement in different sectors. "India has improved its rank to 40 from 82 in the global innovation index". However, he said technology was available but adaptability was not uniform.

The minister called upon scientists to take into consideration requirements of stakeholders and initiate projects which have relevance. He spoke on how India had been an earliest adopter of technology and how institutions like Survey of India had taken up mapping. geospatial science and technology and trained manpower help develop an international GIS services market for the Indian geospatial industry, he stated.

As many as 2,000 delegates, including over 700 international participants from about 120 countries are taking part in the five-day congress. More than 250 geospatial start-ups in India working across a range of domains like waste resource management, forestry, urban planning and mapping of roads to demonstrate the applications of Geospatial Technology were part of the congress.

Srivari Chandrasekhar, secretary, Department of Science and Technology, UNGGIM secretariat director Stefan Schweinfest, co-chair of UNGGIM Ingrid Vanden Berghe also spoke.