Government Approves New Map Policy

The union cabinet in India has approved a national map policy that draws a distinction between maps for defence and civilian purposes.
"Under the policy, there will be two kinds of maps - the defence series maps and the open series maps," Finance Minister P. Chidambaram told reporters after a cabinet briefing here.
"The open series maps will be available to the public...and the users can do value-addition to these maps to reflect their needs," he said.
The Survey of India has been given the task of preparing both variants of the maps, he said.
The cabinet also approved amendments to the Patents Act, introduced in parliament, exchange of land between the defence ministry and Andaman and Nicobar administration, opening of a consulate office at Songkhla in Thailand and the setting up of a national statistical commission.