On the 4th of May, 2016, the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, has released a note to all stakeholders and citizens of India, requesting for comments/suggestions on the draft "The Geospatial Information Regulation Bill 2016". Comments/suggestions are only open until 3rd June, 2016. The draft bill itself is available here: http://mha.nic.in/sites/upload_files/mha/files/GeospatialBill_05052016_eve.pdf The document is 13 pages long. I'll try to do a quick summary of it, quoting section/point numbers, mentioning how it could affect the common man.

1. Who does it apply to: Chapter 1, Section 1.2, (1.1.2) points a, b and c make it clear that it extends to the whole of India, and also applies to citizens of India outside India, persons in service of the Government, wherever they may be, and persons on ships and aircrafts registered in India, wherever they may be.
2. Jurisdiction: 1.1.4 specifies that any offense committed outside India is also punishable under this act, as if it had been committed in India.
3. Definition of Geospatial Information, as per this bill: "Geospatial  Information"  means  geospatial  imagery  or  data  acquired  through  space  or  aerial  platforms  such  as  satellite,  aircrafts,  airships,  balloons,  unmanned aerial vehicles including value addition; or graphical or digital data depicting natural or man-made physical features, phenomenon or boundaries of the earth or any information related thereto including surveys, charts, maps, terrestrial photos referenced to a co-ordinate system and having attributes;
4. What the definition actually includes: If you are a runner or a bicyclist logging your activity on a sports tracking tool like Strava/Endomondo/Runkeeper etc, you are using geospatial information. You also use it when you call a taxi with an app like Uber or Ola.
5. Acquisition of Geospatial Information of India: According to Chapter 2, section 3 of this draft bill, nobody can acquire geospatial information of any kind, without special permission of the security vetting authority. This means that you cannot use any GPS course available on the internet. Furthermore, if you already have any such courses in your possession, you have one year to seek the required permission and pay the required license fee, otherwise you are in violation of the law.
6. Dissemination, Publication or Distribution of the Geospatial Information of  India : According to Chapter 2, Section 4, ,unless you have the general or special permission of the Security  Vetting  Authority,  no  person  shall  disseminate  or  allow  visualization  of  any  geospatial  information of India either through internet platforms or online services, or publish or distribute any geospatial information of India in any electronic or physical form. What this means is that it would be illegal for you to upload your ride/run data to any sport-tracker site, or share it on any kind of social media platform, unless you have a special licence/permission to do it. It wolud also be illegal to create a GPS route of a ride and share it.
7. Use  of  Geospatial  Information  of  India  outside  India: According to Chapter 2, Section 5 states that one cannot use, disseminate or publish any geospatial information of India, outside of India. For instance, an event such as Tour of Nilgiris (TFN) cannot publish the course of the event; even if TFN manages to obtain permission to share it, Indians living abroad cannot use this geospatial data, or even look at the course without violating the law, if they don't have special permission or license to do so.
8. Penalties: According to Chapter V, Sections 12,13 and 14, penalties range from fines from Rs 10 Lakhs to 100 Crores, and imprisonment upto 7 years, for illegal use, dissemination or publication of geospatial information.

In short, this proposed draft bill is extremely short-sighted, and overreaching, in its current state. If this is implemented, it will force law abiding citizens to have to run around from pillar to post, having to deal with red-tape to simply get permission to use a GPS device.  It also would make millions of Indians potential criminals for doing nothing more than hailing a taxi, or sharing a ride data on social media. Considering that India now has its own world-class GPS satellite system of which we are all proud,  this draft bill is extremely ill thought-out, shameful, and regressive.  I appeal to all Indian citizens, both resident and non-resident, to take note of this serious matter, and respond by writing in against this draft, before the 3rd June 2016. The email address to write in to, is jsis@nic.in For more details, please see: https://medium.com/@geohacker/save-the-map-that-saves-lives-8a7fe1718092#.1rh4zw6oo