Bharat Maps And The Path To Geospatial Self-Reliance

Policy Update
Nomula Pranay Goud

Bharat Maps and the Path To Geospatial Self-Reliance 2

Source: https://mapservice.gov.in/gismapserviceMVC

Background

Bharat Maps is an integrated Geospatial Portal of the Survey of India, the National Mapping Agency of India, functioning under the Ministry of Science and Technology. It is officially the web-based GIS (Geographic Information System) portal of India, and it does offer a common and standard geospatial data repository accessible to government agencies, businesses, and individuals.

Functioning

Bharat Maps collects geospatial data from a variety of sources, particularly:

Survey of India (SOI), Topographical maps & national surveys.
ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) Satellite imagery (e.g., Cartosat, Resourcesat).
Other Government Agencies – Ministry data (Transport, Agriculture, Urban Development, etc.).
OpenStreetMap (OSM) – Mapping contributions made through crowdsourcing.

Access to Bharat Maps can be made through the web portal (https://bharatmaps.gov.in),

APIs and mobile apps (Only some limited availability and primarily for government use)

The platform is comprised of:

Base Maps Layers

States, Districts, Villages
Roads/Railways /Airports (Transport Networks)
Hydrography ( Rivers, Lakes, Water Bodies )

2. Thematic Maps

Disaster management (Flood zones, earthquake-prone areas)
Farming and Soil Fertility
Smart city planning
Infrastructure and Utilities

3. Web GIS Tools

Zoom and Pan – To move on different scales on the map.
Search – Search by coordinates, names, and landmarks.
Measurement Tools – Compute the distances and areas.
Layer Control – Hide/unhide the layers of the map to analyse.

Performance

Bharat Maps, which is the official geospatial platform of India, has proven to be quite robust in delivering authoritative mapping information to the governance and planning arena. The platform is also provides high-resolution quality and multi-scale geospatial data, from credible sources like ISRO and other government agencies, and forms a very critical part of national programs like SVAMITVA in rural property mapping, PM Gati Shakti in the creation of infrastructure, and the Smart Cities Mission. It can also work with government systems and partially allow access to open data, which adds to its value in use by institutions.

Still, a closer analysis of its performance indicates that it is somewhat flawed in terms of public usability and instant usability. Bharat Maps is, however, struggling to match commercial products such as Google Maps or MapmyIndia, especially when it comes to user experience, real-time updates, and extra features such as navigation. Low speed of the web portal, absence of many mobile applications, and a small amount of information in high-resolution data available to the general user negatively affect its conversion. Although the site can accommodate thematic maps about specific areas such as agriculture and disaster management, they do not feature live traffic and weather information, making them less practical for daily use.

Whether Bharat Maps achieves its goal will depend on future design modifications to the interface, the timelines of data, increased partnerships between the government and the private sector and the extent to which the government and the planning agencies can use Bharat Maps as the major product to enhance the competitive and widespread application of geospatial resources.

Impact

Less reliance on foreign services such as Google Maps –
Enables the formation, operation, and regulation of spatial data infrastructures in India.
Facilitates data sovereignty – Vital in the national security agenda and strategic planning.
Facilitates the provision of real – Time decisions in infrastructure, urban planning, land records, and disaster management.
Fund schemes such as: Infrastructure coordination conducted through PM Gati Shakti, Mapping of rural property under the SVAMITVA Scheme, Smart Cities Mission, and Digital India.
Strengthens the geospatial economy, provides opportunities to Indian startups and MSMEs. Lowers price burden on the businesses and government agencies that depend on foreign GIS services. Supports developing sectors like agriculture, telecom, logistics, mining, etc.
Essential to defense planning, border administration, and safe infrastructure. Eliminates the dangers of having its data hosted in, or otherwise under the control of, a foreign entity.
Academic and Research Applications – Offers accurate data on scientific experiments, urban planning, and the environment etc. Supports innovations in data in universities and research organizations.
Empowering Citizens by providing general map – Based services to the population, making them more aware of the space. Open access to the government land and utility maps to enhance population accountability.

Cities such as Indore, Bhopal, and Pune have utilized Bharat Maps data layers to plan the cities, manage the traffic systems and development of the infrastructure.
In times of floods, earthquakes and cyclones, the Bharat Maps information can be utilized by the NDMA (National Disaster Management Authority) to map risk areas and undertake relief operations.

Emerging Issues

Correctness and Information Quality

Problem: Data can be rendered obsolete or less precise than the information in commercial data, such as Google Maps.

Restricted Real-Time Services

Problem: Absence of such features as up-to-date traffic conditions, responsive routing, or real-time navigation.

Poor Public Awareness and Adoption

Problem: The majority of the population still uses commercial solutions such as Google Maps or Apple Maps.

The right to privacy of data and restrictions on access to information.

Problem: Certain data can be limited because of national security.

Dependency on Government Updates

Problem: Heavily reliant on updates from government bodies like the Survey of India.

User interface (UI) and User experience (UX)

Problem: User experience/User interface is somewhat non-intuitive and does not feel as smooth as its counterparts in other parts of the world.

Way Forward

1. Improved Data Integration & Standardization – To make Bharat Maps a strong and sustainable application, it is important to integrate more geospatial information of different government departments including ISRO, NIC, Survey of India and state-level departments. The problem is that data is frequently distributed among the departments and these data are kept in uneven formats, which make their usage inefficient. There could be value added to the market by including voice-based navigation or agrarian mapping (soil grades, rain-patterns etc.) in a “Simple Map Mode” straight benefiting farmers and small entrepreneurs. It might need inclusivity (low bandwidth, offline, vernacular UX, and design) to enable the platform to reach mass as opposed to proprietary/elite use.

2. Real-Time, High Resolution Updates – The usefulness of the geospatial platform is highly reliant on the currency and the extent of specificity on the available data. The improvements brought by modern technologies in satellite imagery, AI/ML algorithms, and UAV drones can allow the map database to be constantly updated in an automatic fashion. Such real-time signatures, high-resolution updates, are essential to the development of smart cities, resilient infrastructure, traffic, and 3D mapping of urban areas.

3. Open Data Policy and PPP (Public-Private Partnership) – The innovation in Bharat Maps can be enhanced through partnerships with the leaders in the private sector such as MapmyIndia, Google Maps, and other geospatial startups. An appropriate or optimum open data policy ought to be embraced so as to enable researchers, entrepreneurs, and other parties to have a controlled and secure access to non-sensitive geospatial data. This would create a healthy ecosystem of apps and services that use Bharat Maps as a foundation, creating a fertile environment of logistics, agriculture, urban development and other innovative ideas.

4. Disaster Management and Security Renewal – The geospatial data is important in disaster preparedness and quick response. The Bharat Maps can be improved to give a live update on the disaster prone areas, evacuation corridors and relief infrastructure during an event such as floods, earthquake and cyclones. Reserved warning mechanisms and vulnerability maps would be of great help to the activities of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and the local governments.

5. Global Competitiveness – In order to make Bharat Maps a serious contender of international mapping providers such as Google Maps or OpenStreetMap, the platform will have to be based on the richness of local data, precision and diversification of services.

6. Sensitization and Community Education – Awareness and active participation of the people are important to make a complete use of the available potential of Bharat Maps. An educational and training program should be organized to raise awareness of geospatial technologies among government officials, students of the school and university level, startups and civil society.

References

Government of India. (n.d.). GIS map service. https://mapservice.gov.in/gismapserviceMVC

Hexagon. (n.d.). Streaming national maps as a service to India: Survey of India case study. https://bynder.hexagon.com/m/75630de48284d01/original/Hexagon_GSP_Streaming_National_Maps_as_a_Service_to_India_case_study.pdf

National Informatics Centre. (n.d.). Bharat Maps: A national GIS platform for planning and decision-making. Informatics. https://informatics.nic.in/uploads/pdfs/08dfccae_bharatmap.pdf

National Informatics Centre. (n.d.). Remote sensing & GIS services. https://www.nic.gov.in/service/remote-sensing-gis/

National Informatics Centre. (n.d.). About Bharat Maps. Bharat Maps. https://bharatmaps.gov.in/bharatmaps/#about

About the Contributor: Nomula Pranay Goud, Master’s student in International Relations at Manipal University, Jaipur, and a Research intern at Impact and Policy Research Institute (IMPRI).

Acknowledgement: The author sincerely thanks Ms. Aasthaba Jadeja and the IMPRI team for their valuable support.

Disclaimer: All views expressed in the article belong solely to the author and not necessarily to the organisation.