What’s Uber — or any other cab-hailing app in India — without digital maps? In fact, the whole startup ecosystem thrives on providing consumers the convenience of using exact, real-time locations for delivering goods and services.
But all that is now in for a rude shock as the ruling government wants to regulate ubiquitous services like Google Maps.
What’s the New Regulation?
A new proposed law – the Geospatial Information Regulation Bill 2016 – seeks to impose a fine of Rs 100 crore and punishment of seven-year jail term on a person or institution for wrong depiction of India’s map.
Geospatial refers to data and images of a location, collected through cameras on board satellites, unmanned aerial vehicles, aircraft and balloons.
This draft bill, which is open for public comments till 3 June, wants companies to procure government licence or security clearance to offer map and navigation services.
Who Bears the Brunt?
However, the impact is far-reaching.
Not only do those acquiring the data need licence, those disseminating the data need clearance too. So, besides Uber and Ola, any startup (e-commerce, food delivery, and so on) using maps, providing locations, or allowing users to share locations, would need a licence, according to Nikhil Pahwa, founder of news website Medianama.
“This looks like a policy made for policing Google Maps that has ended up throwing out the baby with the bathwater,” Pahwa wrote in his blog.
The people involved in drafting this have absolutely no clue about how users and businesses use geospatial data to make users lives easier, and how integral it is to every day life.Nikhil Pahwa, Founder, Medianama
If implemented, the new law is likely to make the use of apps expensive.
“Apart from Google and Apple, many apps use maps from Google for servicing its customers, and if players like Google are made to pay extra then the cost will be indirectly passed on to the consumers,” Kiran Jonnalagadda, founder of HasGeek.com, a platform for technology events and hangouts, told The Hindustan Times.
Digital Nationalism
Experts say the bill is regressive.
“The draconian fines, the criminal process, ousting the courts from jurisdiction reflect an ambition to control information,” Mishi Choudhary, executive director of Software Freedom Law Center, said in an email to The Quint.
“This bill is not consistent with Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi’s stated vision of Digital India,” Nitin Pai, who heads Bangalore-based think tank, The Takshashila Institution, told The Economic Times.
From a push for Digital India, India seemingly is being pulled back to Licence Raj, experts said.
“It bears semblance to the conditions that prevailed in the Licence Raj. The bill is a clear over-reaction to legitimate security concerns,” Pranesh Prakash, Director of the Centre for Internet and Society, told The News Minute.
What the Govt Thinks it is Doing
The government has found that terrorists had used services like Google Maps to plot two major attacks in the last decade—the Mumbai terror attack of 2008 and the Pathankot airbase strike in January 2016.
“We won’t create hurdles for business and technological development, but national security considerations must not be compromised either,” Kiren Rijiju, Minister of State for Home Affairs, told The Economic Times.
But the government is simultaneously making a case for a “patriotic” government clamping down on holier-than-thou Google.
Google has been “behaving as if it were above Indian law. Why do we need Google? We should stop becoming Google’s instruments,” BJP MP Tarun Vijay told The Economic Times.
The patriotic government of Narendra Modi has taken a right step in a big relief to the security establishment. I congratulate the Modi government for showing spine in the face of the arrogance of these IT giants.Tarun Vijay, BJP MP
At the same time, he appealed to “patriotic Indians” to use the country’s own ‘Bhuvan’ app for maps.
With that, Google Maps users could be the new ‘anti-nationals’.
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