09.08Geospatial & Remote Sensing Infrastructure

National Resilience | Spatial Sovereignty | Strategic Preparedness

The Sector at a Glance

Geospatial and remote sensing infrastructure is the means by which a nation sees, measures and understands its own territory. Remote sensing gathers information about the earth from satellites, aircraft and drones using optical, infrared, radar and other sensors; geospatial systems then organise this information, together with ground surveys and location data, into maps, models and decision tools. The sector covered under this tab extends across earth observation satellites and ground stations, aerial and drone survey, geodetic networks and reference frames, satellite navigation and positioning, including NavIC, topographic and cadastral mapping, geographic information systems, digital elevation and three-dimensional city models, spatial data infrastructure, and the analytics that turn imagery and location data into intelligence.

The scope of this tab covers the full value chain from sensors, platforms and launch, through data reception, processing, archiving and distribution, to applications in defence, disaster management, agriculture, water, urban planning, infrastructure and land administration. It also covers the standards, policies and institutional arrangements that govern who may collect, hold and share spatial data. It is the command of this chain, and not access to imagery alone, that determines whether Bharat sees its territory through its own eyes or through those of others.

Why This Sector Is Critical

Almost every critical decision of the state has a spatial dimension. Border management and military operations depend on accurate terrain data and imagery; disaster management depends on rapid mapping of floods, cyclones, landslides and earthquakes; infrastructure planning for roads, railways, pipelines and power lines depends on reliable base maps; and agriculture, water and forest management depend on regular monitoring of land and resources. Satellite positioning, meanwhile, provides the timing and location signals on which telecom networks, power grids, financial systems, aviation and logistics increasingly rely. Geospatial infrastructure is therefore a silent foundation beneath many other forms of critical infrastructure.

The structural vulnerabilities are significant. Dependence on foreign satellite navigation systems exposes critical services to denial or degradation in a crisis; high-resolution imagery and geospatial software are often sourced from foreign providers; sensitive spatial data about critical installations can be exposed through commercial platforms; and national spatial datasets held by different agencies have historically been fragmented and difficult to combine. If geospatial and positioning infrastructure fails or is denied, disaster response slows, military situational awareness suffers, and timing-dependent systems such as telecom and grids may be disrupted. It is argued that spatial sovereignty is a precondition for both strategic autonomy and effective governance.

The Bharat Context

Bharat possesses one of the more mature remote sensing programmes among nations, built over decades by ISRO and its National Remote Sensing Centre, alongside the long institutional tradition of the Survey of India. The country operates its own regional navigation system, NavIC, and national geoportals such as Bhuvan provide access to a range of spatial data. The gaps lie in the depth of the downstream ecosystem: adoption of NavIC in consumer and industrial devices has been slow; much high-resolution commercial imagery and advanced geospatial software is still imported; large-scale, high-accuracy base maps and cadastral data remain incomplete in many areas; and integration of spatial data across ministries and states is still a work in progress.

The enabling environment changed substantially with the liberalisation of geospatial data guidelines and the National Geospatial Policy, 2022, which opened the sector to Indian private enterprises, and with the Indian Space Policy, 2023 and IN-SPACe, which support private participation in space activities including earth observation. The National Spatial Data Infrastructure provides a framework for sharing data, while PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan, the SVAMITVA scheme for rural property mapping, the Digital India Land Records Modernisation Programme, Jal Jeevan Mission, the Smart Cities Mission and NDMA's disaster programmes create strong demand for spatial data and analytics. What remains missing is an integrated view of geospatial infrastructure as critical infrastructure, covering positioning resilience, imagery independence, data security and cross-sector integration; and this is the gap that BAP-I seeks to address through this tab.

Importance of the Sector

Research Focus Possibilities

BAP-I invites original research articles, policy papers, technical reports, diagnostic assessments, case studies and white papers across the following indicative research streams. The list is open-ended; contributions that connect a new question to the resilience objective of this tab are equally welcome.

A. Positioning, Imagery and Data Sovereignty

• Dependence of telecom, power, finance and transport systems on foreign satellite navigation timing, and the pathway for NavIC adoption and resilient timing
• Assessment of dependence on foreign high-resolution imagery, radar data and geospatial software, and the capacity of domestic providers
• Security of sensitive spatial data on critical installations in commercial maps and platforms

B. Critical Infrastructure and Disaster Applications

• Use of remote sensing for structural and environmental monitoring of dams, embankments, pipelines, railways and coastlines
• Rapid mapping and damage assessment for floods, cyclones, landslides and earthquakes, and its integration with response agencies
• Geospatial support for border management, coastal security and strategic island territories
• Climate risk mapping for infrastructure planning and insurance

C. Policy, Standards and Spatial Data Infrastructure

• Implementation of the National Geospatial Policy, 2022 and its effect on private participation and data access
• Interoperability, metadata standards and data sharing across central, state and local agencies
• Accuracy, completeness and dispute reduction outcomes of rural property and land record mapping

D. Enterprise, Innovation and Human Capital

• Business models and market access for Indian earth observation, drone survey and geospatial analytics start-ups
• Applications of spatial analytics in agriculture, water, forestry and urban governance, with evidence of impact
• Workforce gaps in surveying, photogrammetry, remote sensing and GIS, with curriculum recommendations
• International cooperation in earth observation data and its implications for strategic autonomy

Who Can Participate

This tab invites participation from Survey of India, ISRO, NRSC and the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, state remote sensing application centres, IN-SPACe and private space and earth observation companies, drone survey firms, geospatial analytics start-ups, the armed forces and border agencies, NDMA and disaster management authorities, ministries and departments responsible for land, agriculture, water, infrastructure and urban development, geography, geoinformatics and civil engineering departments of IITs and universities, policy think tanks, international collaborators and individual researchers with domain expertise. Contributions from field surveyors and practitioners carry the same standing as those from policymakers and academics within the BAP-I research framework.