NITI Aayog launches Geospatial Energy Map of India

Rajiv Kumar, vice chairman, NITI Aayog, V K Saraswat member, NITI Aayog, and Amitabh Kant, chief executive officer, NITI Aayog launched the Geospatial Energy Map of India on October 18. K Sivan, chairman, ISRO & Secretary Department of Space also attended the event.

NITI Aayog in collaboration with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has developed a broad Geographical Information System (GIS) Energy Map of India with support from Energy Ministers of the Indian Government.

The GIS Map provides a complete image of all resources of the country, creating a visual of plants and renewable energy resource portal, through 27 thematic layers. The map identifies and locates all primary and secondary sources of energy and their transportation. Hence providing a comprehensive view of energy production and distribution.

Rajiv Kumar, vice chairman, NITI Aayog said, “Energy markets have immense potential to bring in efficiency gains. Going forward, GIS-based mapping of energy assets will be advantageous to all concerned stakeholders and will help in accelerating the policy-making process. Fragmented data has been brought together; this will be a great research instrument.”

Kumar stated that stated GIS-mapping of energy assets will be useful for ensuring integrated planning of the energy sector of India, given its large geographical distribution and interdependence.