“Government of the people, for people, by the people” constitute the basic ingredients of democracy and encompass in itself greater guidelines for code of conduct of a democratic nation state which allows appropriate and sustainable development of human resources and its environs; provide good governance, amenities, infrastructure, resources; and opportunities to live in a free society and develop inherent capabilities.

Democracy has its own dimensions like political, economic, and social, and in contemporary times other equally important dimension is the ‘Information democracy’, which has its own sub fields.

Every nation has to understand its natural resources and harness the same to its optimum potential to server the best interest of the nation and its citizens. Geographical information holds the key to unlocking the nations full capacity and fulfil its democratic commitments. Thus understanding of nation’s geography and its resources and infrastructure by its citizens is very important towards overall development of the nation.

India is the “Worlds’ Largest Democracy”. It is noteworthy that a country with such huge diversity in terms of religion, language, culture, lifestyles and living standards has proved to be the true character of political, economic and social democracy. While good number of initiatives has been taken towards ‘Information democracy’ but still a lot has to be achieved. In particular a lot is to be done in setting up infrastructure, understanding natural and physical resources, land information system and empowering citizens to understand geospatial information and its critical contribution in local government.

In view of the above we propose to have “Geospatial Democracy” as the theme of Map India 2004 – 7th Annual international conference and exhibition on mapping technologies. We request your attention and contribution to initiate discussion and evolve policies to achieve the following parameters of “Geospatial Democracy”: -

Geospatial Information of the People:
Every human being has some geospatial reference by birth. In mythology ‘place of birth’ is very important to prepare the ‘Kundli’ (Horoscope) of the person. Every citizen identifies oneself with a geographic boundary and resources around hence has a “geospatial possessiveness” information by birth.

Geospatial Information for the People:
People constitute the basic tenets of a democratic nation state and their awareness level of geospatial information is critical to allow them contribute effectively towards the nation’s development fulfilling of its democratic commitments. People involved in building nation in any form (be it local government, panchayat, amenities, infrastructure, planning, policy making and so on) need geospatial information to perform effectively and efficiently. Therefore, geospatial information is for the people.

Geospatial Information by the People:
Traditionally geospatial information has been generated by the government agencies by using public money. It is the people who directly contribute toward creation of geospatial information and its maintenance.