Nations getting obsessed about their maps dates back to ancient times when the sailors, ministers and the sea captains used to preserve and protect their maps from the getting into the hands of a wrong person. So the commencement of the draft, The Geospatial Information Regulation Bill, as of May 4, 2016 with its sole motto to, “regulate the acquisition, dissemination, publication and distribution of geospatial information of India which is likely to affect the security, sovereignty and integrity of India and for the matters connected therewith or incidental thereto”. In a single stroke, this bill manages to rupture all the open data sharing, privacy and human dignity.
According to the bill, it will be mandatory for companies like Google and Apple to take permission from the government authority before acquiring, assimilating, publishing or distributing any geospatial information of India.
What is Geospatial Information?
Geospatial information means any information, be it imagery or data acquired from satellites or through aerial platforms such as aircraft, balloons, airships, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles including value addition, or digital or graphical data depicting man-made or natural physical features, boundary lines throughout the surface of the Earth or any relevant information that includes surveys, maps terrestrial photos or charts.
What does the bill say?
Any addition or creation of anything that has to do with geospatial information or location, within the territory of India, will need the permission of the security vetting authority. The government says that the objective of the bill is not to ban the services that provide geospatial data but to regulate this for several reasons including securing the country’s strategic installations from the eyes of its enemies. But the blatant motif going all around in disaccord to the publication of the draft is quiet bewildering. Despite the anger and the wrath circulating around there is nothing hyper extraordinary that has been added to the draft. The companies that make use of maps for their businesses had to make a peaceful settlement with the government regarding the vetting of maps by the concerned securities about a decade back. The information regularly had to be updated to the security of defence before dispatching it to the consumers. The engrossment of the companies to have a license to operate on these maps will be nothing but a minor adjustment to the previous set of laws. Since the very beginning, it has been illegal to publish a map that does not depict the maps correctly and the statute book has put a restriction on the use Indian geospatial information outside the country from the British times. Indian mapping regulation dates back to times when, the sole onus of map making was in the hands of the survey of India, in which, the maps were drawn on Everest spheroids that depicted the physical feature of the earth most accurately. The valuable tactical advantage that the SOI provided was something that the defence felt needed utmost protection. From the time, the US department of defence developed the World Geodetic System (WGS-84), to serve as the reference framework for the modern GPS, the mapping agencies around the globe adjusted to their map data set to this meet up with the common global standards. But the reason why the Indian Government is still looking forward to preserve those set of regulatory restrictions is still inexplicable. Despite this antediluvian regulatory environment, we have experienced something closer to renaissance with regard to the map based companies in India. Now, we rely on our phones for navigation and exploit the services provided by Uber or Swiggy. But these had to come to an end owing to the stringent map regulations in the country.
Who will it affect?
Now, the implication of this law will affect everyone who uses location as a major feature to function. This includes app like Ola, Uber, Zomato and social platforms like Facebook and twitter, which can track your location. Not just that, but there is again a heavy penalty for violating it. The bill recommends a seven year jail or a fine of Rs 1,00,00,000 for its violation. The fine and the punishment may be steeper than the crime itself, but these laws are not anew and as long as the laisser-aller continues, we should be in a good state.
But the matter that really has become a matter of concern for people is the antagonistic manner in which the government is intending to defend the bill which is directly indicative of the fact that we have to face and embrace this new reality because the strict enforcement of any of our map regulations will snatch off many conveniences and comforts that had been taken for granted. The surprise is that after decades of ignorance, the government altogether takes a different look and approach to the matter pulling the rug under our feet.
