The 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 Geographical Information Systems (GIS) services today stands at $3 billion.
Flagship programmes
Noting the financial share of the industry, Union Minister of Urban Development, Housing and Information and Broadcasting M Venkaiah Naidu said the government has also launched several flagship programmes that make use of geospatial technologies. These include the much-coveted Smart Cities programme, skill development, Digital India, Start-Up India and Make in India.
He inaugurated the Geospatial World Forum at International Convention Centre in Hyderabad on Monday. The theme of the three-day Geospatial World Forum is ‘Geospatial + Deep Learning: Shaping Smarter World.’
Naidu said the massive urbanisation in the country was a very natural process. The government has taken several initiatives to focus on making cities more livable and urban life more comfortable. Nearly 606 million people are poised to live in urban centres by 2030.
Currently, cities are built along highways, but next generation cities will be built around optical fibre highways and places with good digital infrastructure.
The Minister suggested the municipalities to undertake geo-tagging of their employees. The geospatial sector has a bright future; there is an opportunity for up to $500 billion in investments and thousands of jobs.
Land records
The Union Minister of State for Labour and Employment (Independent charge) Bandaru Dattatreya felt the land records are not maintained properly in Telangana, and there is a need to integrate the land record system with geospatial technology.
The Forum is hosted by the Survey of India which is in its 250th Year. The Union Ministers released the Global Geospatial Industry Outlook Report. 300 Experts from the 100 nations, 3,000 professionals from India and across the worldfrom the global geospatial community have participated in this forum.