Govt to open up $870-M market for digital mapping

By siliconindia   |   Friday, 30 January 2004, 20:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: The scorching pace of technology revolution in IT-related industries has forced the government to open up yet another forbidden sector which is estimated to hold business potential worth thousands of crores of rupees – commercial use of digital mapping. With the Defence Ministry relenting on some internal security-related apprehensions, the government will soon clear commercial sale of digital maps and related data for use by the corporate sector. The business potential of this sector is around 4,000 crore, according to industry estimates. Speaking to The Economic Times on the development, secretary, Department of Science and Technology, VS Ramamurthy, said that the proposal is to be taken to Cabinet for detailed discussions and the liberalisation envisages a dual series of maps of the country. One series, sans sensitive details, will be for the public and another, comprehensive in nature, will be available only for defence purposes. The final nod from the Defence Ministry is expected after the possibility of introducing two categories of maps is discussed.