New rules for map data in India betray its small farmers

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Geospatial data regulation is part of a larger picture. They are the last of some reforms …land reforms, proposed farm laws, Amendments to the Forest Law, new drone regulations and Earth digitization schemes—all of which are positioned as beneficial to individuals, but which make it easier for private corporations to access these sectors.
Over the past decade, successive governments have promised prosperity through “digital governance” to force more and more Indians to use their data — personal and otherwise — apparently for their own good. schemes such as Aadhaar, a unique ID based on biometrics; AgriStack, a collection of technologies and digital databases on agriculture and agriculture; du Health ID; and others have created massive digital databases. Although they specialize in different things, when these databases are interconnected, they form a powerful, unverified digital superstructure. scope creep, no data protection laws, and draft regulations about the use and access of such data. Since geospatial data is available, there is no clarity on how it can be integrated or related to other existing databases.
So while these companies can extract land data and use it to make money, excluded people who live in these areas and earn a living off the land are moved to the far periphery. The more the private sector advances on indigenous lands and smallholder lands, the more control over land and its resources grows. This is happening, for example, in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, where the government intends to hand over inland roads to private companies. it endangers livelihoods the local fishermen.
Another example how this is played out, explains Srikanth L. of the Cashless Consumer consumer collective tweet stone, Comes from the so-called Survey of Villages and Mapping with Improvised Technology in Town Areas (Svamitva), which aims to draw plots of land living in rural areas using drones.
Svamitva now gives the official title to his property to anyone living in a particular rural area, which, Singh wrote, would serve as collateral for the loans. (Indian may be land ownership complicated due to the systems created during the 19th century colonial era, along with legal gaps and poor administrative records.) Srikanth, however, is skeptical. “That doesn’t mean this can’t happen,” Srikhant says. “It will happen, but not for everyone, maybe for first-time users.” This is because they tend to be rural loans outside the formal banking system, sometimes with new exceptions and credit schemes that may be unknown, is largely dependent on informal credit.
However, although the prescribed guarantee system will not work, Svamitva may be the umbrella for accessing drone surveillance infrastructure. Government of India bottom a network of continuously operating reference stations (CORS) —a kind of “highway” for drones to fly autonomously and make their topographies to help Svamitva. Srikanth believes the Svamitva scheme uses the “low fruit” of exploring rural residential land to immerse itself in drone technology. Exploring residential land is “a little less political than pursuing agricultural land, for example,” he says, and when technologies such as drone-based shipping, imaging, and photography are made possible, CORS ends up being a key infrastructure invested by the state. in.
That these geospatial data regulations are consistent with the new ones corporatization and privatization mining, defense manufacturing, civil aviation, space exploration, and more is probably not a coincidence. Private companies will be lined up to offer back-end technologies. Also for the collection of geospatial data, someone will have to provide back-end technology: operate drones, map data, issue property cards, and so on.
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