The Ministry of Home Affairs recently posted the draft of a bill aimed at regulating the acquisition and use of geospatial information pertaining to India. In brief, the provisions of the draft Geospatial Information Regulation Bill, 2016, make it illegal to acquire and even maintain previously acquired Indian geospatial data without applying for and receiving a licence from an authority that is to be created for this purpose. The remit of this authority, as per the draft, is, first, to conduct “sensitivity checks” on the geospatial information being used, and, second, to “screen” the “credentials” of both end users and end applications. Media reports have tended to focus on the aspect of the bill that talks about heavy penalties for misrepresenting the boundaries of India, but let us instead focus on the important aspects that pertain to the data ecosystem. The bill, as written, raises some questions.
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