In a bid to meet the requirements of the liberalised geospatial data regime that was released last year, the central government has released a list of economic- and national security-related strategic and sensitive locations that cannot be mapped and exported, reported BusinessLine on Tuesday.
These sensitive locations include bulk oil and gas depots, and nuclear and military installations among others.
The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs in a notification released on Friday said, “The export of maps and geospatial data with sensitive attributes will be restricted.”
The central department, which comes under the Finance Ministry, said, the transgression of the threshold values the Department of Science and Technology had mentioned in its guideline issued on February 15, 2021, will not be allowed for mapping and collection of location data of the identified installations and facilities, reported BusinessLine.
“For the maintenance of the security of India, it is necessary so to do, hereby prohibits the export of Maps and Geospatial data of spatial accuracy and value finer than the threshold values as specified in Annexure-I,” the department stated.
The threshold values, as per the notification, are: “On-site spatial accuracy - one meter for horizontal or planimetry and three meters for vertical or elevation,” and “gravity anomaly - one milli-gal”. It further added the threshold value in the case of “vertical accuracy of bathymetric data ( study of underwater depth) in territorial waters - ten meters for up to five hundred meters from the shore-line and one hundred meters beyond that”, reported BusinessLine.
The government tagged 52 security installations and secured facilities as 'sensitive attributes' and added that each carries 'stipulated regulations' to prohibit them from mapping and location data sampling.
The directive has listed out 51 “security installations/ features and secured facilities” that have been tagged as “sensitive attributes” with each carrying “stipulated regulations” to prohibit them from mapping and location data sampling.
The notification, for instance, added that all missile test ranges, be it for launch and firing, will 'not to be labelled in geospatial data and map.'
Other locations that are prohibited to be labelled in geospatial data and maps are: oil bulk depots/ storage tanks; LPG/ LNG storage area/tanks; operational control rooms of oil and gas terminals; seizing up of glacier lake depth; all nuclear installations in India; the nation's intelligence agencies and its governance architecture; the space centre and space port; international boundaries with neighbouring countries, reported BusinessLine.
The central intelligence agencies and governance architecture that are barred from mapping include Aviation Research Centre (ARC), Intelligence Bureau (1B), National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS), Research & Analysis Wing (R&AW), and Cabinet Secretariat.