Shri Agendra Kumar, Managing Director, Esri India, said, “The new Geospatial Data guidelines announced by the government was the first major policy change in decades and in order to derive full benefits from these guidelines, creating fresh data sets is very important. This can be done by government agencies under public-private partnerships as well as through the private sector, which can play a crucial role in the implementation of various government programs. And most importantly, focused investments through government schemes, is the need of the hour; hence, the upcoming budget should allocate funds for a period of 5 years for consumption by national mapping organizations like Survey of India and Geological Survey of India for updating existing data sets and creating new data sets, which will be an ongoing activity. The industry is also looking for a higher allocation of funds for the use of geospatial technologies in programs like Gati Shakti, Har Ghar Jal, and various other programs under the ministries of Jal Shakti, MoRTH, MoHUA. Geospatial data and technologies can help in more efficient execution, thus, it is important to expand the reach of GIS through sufficient funding support.”