Union Commerce Ministry Expands India’s Digital Infrastructure Platform to Plan Ocean and Public Projects
SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure | SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals
Institutions: Ministry of Commerce & Industry
The Ministry of Commerce & Industry commemorated four years of the PM GatiShakti National Master Plan (NMP) by launching several transformative initiatives aimed at evolving the platform from physical to social and digital infrastructure planning. The key launches included: 1. PM GatiShakti Public: A query-based web platform that democratizes access to selected non-sensitive geospatial data from the NMP, enabling private sector entities, consultants, and researchers to leverage advanced analytics for infrastructure and investment decisions. 2. PM GatiShakti – Offshore: A pioneering digital platform for the integrated planning and management of offshore development across sectors like wind energy, marine resource exploration, and coastal infrastructure, aiming to strengthen India’s Blue Economy. 3. PM GatiShakti District Master Plan (DMP): The DMP, initially developed for 28 Aspirational Districts, is now being progressively rolled out across all 112 Aspirational Districts to enable data-driven, integrated planning for critical social infrastructure (schools, health centers, anganwadis) and economic projects. These expansions—along with the new Knowledge Management System (KMS) and Decentralized Data Uploading and Management System (DUMS)—reinforce the initiative’s “Whole of Government” and “Whole of Society” approach. Policy Relevance: The new public and offshore platforms solidify PM GatiShakti’s role as a strategic cornerstone for national development, significantly lowering logistics costs, accelerating project execution, and advancing the national vision of Viksit Bharat 2047 by extending integrated planning capabilities to remote areas and the private sector.
PM GatiShakti platform started by drawing up better maps for roads and trains, and is now moving to drawing up better maps for where to build hospitals, plan digital networks, and develop offshore resources, embodying a transformation from a logistics tool to a strategic tool for human development and national progress.
What is PM GatiShakti NMP? The PM GatiShakti National Master Plan (NMP), launched in October 2021, is a digital platform that integrates geospatial data from over 57 Central Ministries, Departments, and States/UTs. It is designed to bring a “paradigm shift” to infrastructure development by enabling coordinated planning and reducing project delays and logistics costs.
Relevant Question for Policy Stakeholders: With the public release of geospatial data, what new regulatory or institutional mechanisms will be established to ensure fair competition and prevent monopolization of high-value infrastructure planning insights by large private conglomerates?
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