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Can Elephants Dance?
Ravi Gupta
Centre for Spatial Database Management and Solutions (CSDMS)
G-4, Sector 39, NOIDA 201 301 India
Email: Ravi.Gupta@csdms.org
Web: www.csdms.org
Introduction
National Mapping Organisations (NMOs), which played a crucial role, once upon a time in creating
accurate and reliable spatial databases in many developing countries are slowly becoming victims of
their own success. They are unable to come out of the old-age control mindset and allow equitable
access to spatial data to other government and non-government agencies.
The GIS scenario in India is very complex and fairly difficult to understand. On the supply side there
is government, which is making huge investments in remote sensing satellite programme. There are
many large national mapping agencies in surveying, geology, forestry, agriculture, water etc., which
work independently of each other, with little coordination among themselves. The client of all these
government efforts is various government user organisations themselves, at central, state and local
levels. Unfortunately, in spite of huge geographic information generating infrastructure, the
availability and usage of geographic information within the government itself at all levels is very very
low.
In the age of reforms, when private and the NGO sector are playing crucial role in the developmental
planning and implementation, this dogmatic approach of the NMOs has led to anxiety, anguish and
despair among the spatial data users. Forced to look for options, they are now relying more and more
on the private sector for fulfilment of their spatial data needs.
NMOs are sometimes termed as Elephants (many a times white ones) to point out their massive size,
the huge funds needed to maintain them and their having more of an exhibitory role than a utilitarian
role in day-to-day life of the citizens, in many developing countries, if not elsewhere.
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