India pushes for stronger Geospatial ecosystem to modernise land, rural and data infrastructure

New Delhi [India], December 2 : Geospatial technologies are becoming central to transforming land governance, rural development and national data infrastructure, stressing that India must accelerate the adoption of advanced mapping and spatial intelligence to strengthen governance and support long-term economic growth, senior government officials and industry leaders said today.

The SVAMITVA programme is one of India's most significant technology-led governance reforms, said Vivek Bharadwaj, Secretary in the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, while addressing the GeoSmart World Conference & Expo 2025 held in New Delhi.

The initiative, which uses drones and advanced mapping tools to survey rural land parcels, has so far covered more than 350,000 villages and enabled the issuance of nearly 30 million property cards. Bharadwaj said the programme had reduced disputes, expanded citizens' access to credit, and improved transparency in local administration.

"This is not just mapping, it is rewriting the economic and social story of rural India," Bharadwaj said.

Manoj Joshi, Secretary of the Department of Land Resources, said India was moving toward a modernised land-governance architecture anchored in high-precision geospatial layers.

He detailed the government's work on creating an integrated 'India Land Stack', combining national base maps, verified parcel boundaries and unified datasets to support planning, service delivery and public trust. "A precise land map is the backbone of transparent governance, efficient planning and citizen confidence," he said.

India should reduce its dependence on foreign navigation systems in light of recent GPS disruptions that affected aviation operations, Srikant Sastri, Chairman of the Geospatial Data Promotion and Development Committee, said.

He said geospatial infrastructure was emerging as a pillar of India's economic resilience and technology sovereignty. Sastri cited the success of Operation Dronagiri, an initiative that deployed coordinated geospatial and satellite-backed insights to support local administrations and farmers, as a model for future cross-sector collaboration.

Industry leaders too echoed government's call for rapid scaling. Esri India Managing Director Agendra Kumar said the adoption of GIS tools across governance, infrastructure, disaster resilience and climate programmes had expanded sharply.

He noted that Esri India now hosts more than 800 authoritative datasets and is advancing platforms such as Bharat Envi Analytics, which blend satellite imagery, AI-driven models and geospatial insights. "Geospatial technology is now a strategic asset for national growth and India is ready to scale it like never before," he said.

The private sector also announced new initiatives. GMR Group's Digital & IT chief, Rahul Shandilya, unveiled plans for a national spatial data bank developed with Vexcel, saying high-resolution aerial data would transform infrastructure planning, urban resilience and environmental management. "High-quality spatial data is a national resource," he said.

Survey of India Additional Surveyor General S.K. Sinha reiterated the national vision of "One Nation, One Map", emphasising a unified geospatial framework integrating decentralised data through the new Unified Geospatial Interface.

"Maps are no longer static tools, they are dynamic assets that enable precision governance and strengthen sovereignty," Sinha said.

During his special address, former NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant underscored that the Rs 50,000 crore geospatial market doubling by 2030 and the USD 44-billion projection for India's space economy by 2033 must serve as a catalyst for far greater ambition.

He stressed that India's aspiration of a USD 30-trillion economy demands exponential growth in innovation, data accessibility, and public-private collaboration.

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