FICCI-PwC report suggests 3-point agenda to deploy LBS for smart cities

Integrating efficient land use with Location Based Services will transform India's landscape: Secretary, Dept. of Land Resources

The proposed National Land Use Policy which seeks to regulate land use efficiently would help in augmenting the use of waste and non-cultivable land and integrating them with Location Based Services (LBS) would make it easier to update and maintain digitized land records.

This was stated here today by Ms. Vandana Kumari Jena, Secretary, Department of Land Resources, Ministry of Rural Development, at a conference on 'Location Based Services 2015: Transforming Coordinates to Business' organized by FICCI in partnership with the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India.

Speaking about how LBS could transform India's landscape, Ms. Jena said that the government has been trying to digitize land records of the country and so far 23 states have digitized its records and 24 states have a computerized registration for land. She added that only 10 states have integrated the two systems. Hence, to leverage the true potential of LBS, it was necessary that all states of India have real-time information on land records.

Citing the example of Gujarat, Ms. Jena said that it was one of the states in the country which had been able to update and digitize its land records with physical resurvey after digital mapping of the region. She added that the digitized land records instantly provide information to investors and businesspersons, who are contemplating to start a business or invest in the region with details about available land and other related data.

Ms. Jena said that a strong political will was required for digitization of land records. ICT should also be extended to rural areas. The northeastern states of India, lack data and it needs to be addressed. She added that throughout the country if the land records were updated and real-time data was available for both urban and rural India, then LBS would play a critical role in integrating various sectors and providing services to the people.

The report recommends that in order to mitigate challenges and ensure effective implementation of LBS along with smart city components across cities, there is a need to use LBS during assessment of city master planning; create a single agency for generating, collecting and utilising location and geospatial data of a city and frame a policy for data security and privacy. Dr. Sudhir Krishna, Former Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development, said that the Bureau of Indian Standards has constituted a committee to formulate standards for smart cities. It would help in adopting a systematic approach towards building smart cities. Speaking on LBS, he said that LBS applications are seeping into the ICT supported services incessantly. It is gradually becoming almost impossible to find mobile telephone based GIS application/services that are not integrated with LBS. But it also carries the danger of intruding into the privacy of an individual. Hence, while preparing any project incorporating the LBS applications, the issues of privacy and other possible negative concerns of the citizens need to be carefully addressed.

In his theme Presentation on 'Location Based Services for Smart Cities' Mr. N S N Murty, Associate Director and Smart Cities Leader, PwC, said LBS would add a different dimension to the way people work, will become core to providing mass customized products & services, transform the way government provides services to citizens and leverage the mobile penetration and couple that with urban development. He added that with increased digitization a city can offer a more sustainable and livable environment for the citizens.

In his presentation Mr. Rajesh Mathur, Chairman, FICCI Committee on Geospatial Technologies, said that GIS was a system of records, which organized and managed the geographic context of one's assets and resources; powers location platform to deliver citizen centric service; and provided decision support system to administrators. He added that geospatial enables cities and enhances citizen's experience by providing real-time information about transportation, healthcare, education, environment, security and emergency response.

Dr. A. Didar Singh, Secretary General, FICCI, said that LBS has multi-sectoral applications. With the focus of the government on smart cities, the usage of LBS-enabled application would increase manifold. Emerging technologies, like LBS would be extremely beneficial and appropriate in handling the current state of economic development, urbanization, population growth, level of infrastructure and rising expectation of the people, he added.

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