May 6, 2016 ☼ cyber security ☼ Economy ☼ geopolitics ☼ information technology ☼ regulation ☼ Security
This is an archived blog post from The Acorn.
Just read that draft geospatial information bill. #felloffmychair
— Nitin Pai (@acorn) May 6, 2016
My responses to Times of India’s Kim Arora on the draft Geospatial Information Regulation Bill, 2016.
The wording in the draft bill is way too general and could cover anything from school children’s maps, to digital maps used by consumers to navigate, to more specialised commercial/scientific usage. Such a general wording will defeat any policy intention and create a morass of bureaucracy and corruption. With that kind of wording, anything is possible. Lawyers will have a field day.
There is a case for the government to insist that all companies and individuals in India must represent India’s boundaries accurately according to our government’s official position. However, this purpose does not require a license-permit-enforcement raj that the bill will end up creating. A simple law that imposes penalties for deliberate misrepresentation of boundaries will suffice.
As it stands, the bill will harm innovation in the IT and tech sector, raise costs for farmers and industry and create a lot of petty corruption. This is not a bill that is consistent with PM Modi’s stated vision of Digital India and Startup India.
Read her report that also quotes the indefatigable Nikhil Pahwa.
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