Add official country and state boundaries of India from Survey of India

[planemad]

The Survey of India has made the shapefiles of the official borders available on their online portal https://indiamaps.gov.in/soiapp/

Shapefiles: https://indiamaps.gov.in/SOIApp/downloadLayer/IndiaBoundary.zip https://indiamaps.gov.in/SOIApp/downloadLayer/StateBoundary.zip

Visually checked them and they look quite accurate except for some issues along the coastline. This can be used to replace some of the existing shapefiles in the repository.

[devdattaT]

Thanks @planemad This dataset looks great in places, but at others, is extremly weird, and in some places wrong.

Some Examples (Blue with Black boundaries is existing State Boundary; Red is the SOI boundary) : Gulf of Kutch & Kabhat:

Pondicherry Boundary:

Even the New AP/Telengana boundry does not match the one that they have at http://www.surveyofindia.gov.in/files/Telangana%20Map.pdf

[planemad]

You are right, the State boundaries might need some cleanup before use. Also found holes in Madhya Pradesh and Dadra Nagar Haveli

The International boundary looks much better.

[thejeshgn]

It doen't mention Goverment Open Data License. But has

This Public Portal facilitates free access to accurate &amp; authoritative GIS-ready spatial data to empower, inform &amp; enrich every citizen<br>
            • Free use of data for Consultative, Research and Education purposes
            • Free access to various base maps viz Imagery, Hill Shade and Vector data
            • Citizens can annotate over the autorotative basemap and download the work done for their use
            • Citizens can download the approved boundary files for Consultative, Research and Education purposes

Practically all use except commercial. Should we write to them, to release under GODL?

[planemad]

Should we write to them, to release under GODL?

@thejeshgn yes its best to clarify if this comes under NDSAP+GODL

[planemad]

Also to note that this dataset does not fall in the negative list of products from SoI. Does that mean it automatically comes under GODL or does that need to be explicitly stated?

cc @naveenpf

[naveenpf]

Better is when it is released explicitly. We community should write to DST and SOI to appoint a CDO for SOI. If datameet,cis all supporting orgs request SOI, they will understand the need.

[thejeshgn]

We can write one as DataMeet community.

[thejeshgn]

Should I start a letter for coediting?

[thejeshgn]

@devdattaT @planemad @naveenpf

1. Also should we add them to the under https://github.com/datameet/maps/tree/master/Survey-of-India-Index-Maps As shapefiles, without changing format.

2. Also we can share on the group

[thejeshgn]

1. Added https://github.com/datameet/maps/tree/master/Survey-of-India-Index-Maps

2. Discussion on the list - https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/datameet/gRRSDXDiEeY

[thejeshgn]

Screenshots for the record

[planemad]

This is done!

[answerquest]

as of 2022-04-29, SOI website has shared a shapefile on https://surveyofindia.gov.in/pages/outline-maps-of-india for India International boundary vector format. It is in CRS LLC_WGS84 and isn't very accurate at higher zooms esp around islands and coastlines. But I guess that's the most "official" one available. Should that be added here for completion sake?

[planemad]

@answerquest definitely makes sense to archive a copy on the maps repo

[thejeshgn]

@devdattaT and @planemad here it is https://github.com/datameet/maps/pull/76 for archival purpose.