A battle is brewing between the Congress and the government over the draft geospatial Information Regulation Bill 2016. The bill has been put into public domain. A strongly drafted letter by Congress MP Kapil Sibal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi has termed the bill as one “which seeks to muzzle both growth of technology and dissemination of information”.
The bill seeks to regulate all information which reflects geographical data acquired through satellite needs to be vetted. The providers of such information are required to get a license. The proposed penalties for violation range from anywhere between '1 crore to Rs 300 crores. The Congress also claims that the draft bill is in contravention to the national map policy 2005. At present Geospatial data is used in day today issues. For instance cab companies like Ola and Uber use this data. Google maps and google earth also uses this data in various forms.
Smartphones are also using this data through several apps. If the draft bill comes into existence all such features will have to be license based. The fear is that the Licence Raj could jack up the prices for these apps and features.
The Congress has also alleged that the bill will also act as an impediment in the growth of this sector. As of now the government says that this is just a draft bill and nothing has been finalised. This could once again become a sore point between the government and the Opposition. This draft bill could certainly be used as fresh ammunition.
