India's geospatial economy is expected to cross Rs 63,000 crore by 2025 at a growth rate of 12.8 per cent and is likely to provide employment to more than 10 lakh people, Union Minister for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh said on Tuesday (11 October).

Singh said this while addressing the second United Nations World Geospatial Information Congress (UN-WGIC) 2022 in Hyderabad.

The five-day conference is being attended by over 2,000 delegates including 700 plus international delegates and participants from about 150 countries, according to a Science and Technology Ministry release.

Singh said, in the current boom of technology-led start-ups, there are around 250 Geospatial StartUps in India.

To give further boost to the sector, the minister also unveiled a geospatial incubator.

The minister pointed out that the national organisations like Survey of India, Geological Survey of India, National Atlas and Thematic Mapping Organization (NATMO), Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and National Informatics Centre implemented several GIS-based pilot projects across a range of domains like waste resource management, forestry, urban planning, etc., to demonstrate the applications of geospatial technology.

Singh emphasised that Geospatial technology and Geographic Information System (GIS) is going to make a significant impact in the way India has been adopting this technology and moving ahead.

He said the world is looking at India as to how it is using technology to tackle some of the major humanitarian and sustainability problems.

The minister added that even though geospatial technologies have been produced, used, and managed in the country for over five decades now, the government's steps towards geospatial democratisation, advocacy, and integration over the last few years gave a new momentum to this sector.