On the 19^th November we held our popular standards in action event in Goteborg. A series of 13 talks on geospatial data initiatives, highlighting the role of standards in their development.

The slides and the recordings from the event covering topics as diverse as BIM, Digital Twins and educating the next generation of standards makers are now available online: 2025-11 Göteborg Plenary

In India, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), through its Geospatial Information Sectional Committee (LITD 22), plays a pivotal role in developing and harmonizing standards that support India’s expanding geospatial ecosystem. As geospatial data becomes increasingly integral to planning, governance, and service delivery, the importance of standardized data practices has grown significantly. BIS actively develop standards, ensuring they suit regional contexts while aligning with international frameworks. This strengthens India's global standing and enables cross-border collaboration in geospatial initiatives.

The National Geospatial Policy (NGP) 2022 emphasizes the need for robust geospatial infrastructure and standards across 14 priority sectors such as land administration, agriculture, urban development, and disaster management. In response, BIS has published the NavIC Receiver – Specifications, applicable for generic applications, ensuring the compatibility of NavIC receivers with the NavIC satellite constellation and Land Administration Domain Model (LADM) that provides a structure for describing land administration systems, including rights, responsibilities, spatial units, and ownership information. A revision of the Metadata Standard for Geospatial Information, which serves as the foundation for all geospatial datasets, is currently under publication. The committee has developed a standard on LiDAR and Functional Areas (Administrative Boundaries) both of which are nearing finalization. 

LITD 22 is actively developing a comprehensive suite of standards covering diverse domains, including Data Content Standards for Geospatial Information – Soil, Forestry, and Geology. In collaboration with the Survey of India (SOI), BIS is developing additional standards aligned with NGP themes that are currently under different stages of standard formulation. The standards include Geodetic Reference Frame, Orthoimagery, Collection, Processing and use of Geographical names, Topographic data harmonization, and Elevation. Such standards directly support national initiatives like Digital India, Smart Cities, and the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI).

Standardization in geospatial information ensures consistency, accuracy, and interoperability across systems, sectors, and jurisdictions. A well-defined framework of geospatial standards enables the integration of datasets from different sources such as satellite imagery, land records, and real-time sensor feeds into unified platforms for analysis and decision-making. These standards create the technical backbone for high-quality, interoperable spatial data. These collectively enable more accurate mapping, better decision-making, and seamless data exchange among government departments, research institutions, and industry stakeholders.