The Centre would soon unveil a policy that would allow access to data, barring those of sensitive nature, to registered users for scientific, economic and social developmental purposes.

Thirumalachari Ramasami, Secretary in the Department of Science and Technology (DST), made this announcement at a conference on 'Geospatial Technologies for Good Governance' organised by FICCI.

The National Policy on Data Sharing and Accessibility (NPDSA) will increase the accessibility and easier sharing of non-sensitive data among the registered users and their availability for scientific, economic and social developmental purposes, he said. It would also allow cross flow of data, barring sensitive data among different government organisations.

Ramasami said all the data holding organisations have been asked by the DST to classify their data and prepare a negative list of sensitive data.

Surveyor General of India S Subba Rao, while inaugurating the conference, said that Survey of India has embarked on a major initiative of mapping the entire country on 1:10,000 scale. The project which will be completed in three years will produce not just a digital map but a map with Geographical Information System (GIS).

Rao said at a time when the government is planning to connect all villages and panchayats with broadband, availability of proper geospatial data would make the delivery of all services efficient and speedy.