Map Asia 2003 Land Information System Map Asia Conference 2003 ©GISdevelopment.net, All rights reserved. Land Records Management System in India – Technical Framework Vinay Thakur vinay@hub.nic.in Ganesh Khadanga ganesh@hub.nic.in D.S Venkatesh venkat@hub.nic.in Dr D.R Shukla shukla@hub.nic.in SD Meena sdmeena@hub.nic.in Land Records Information Systems Division National Informatics Centre, New Delhi *IAS, Director, Land Reforms, DOLR, Ministry of Rural Development (sdmeena@hub.nic.in) Telephone: 9111-24362093, 4361133 Ext-4591/4581 Abstract Land is the habitat of man and its wide use is crucial for the economic, social, and environmental advancement of the country. Maintaining this vast land records data consisting of cadastral maps and alphanumeric data containing record of rights and crop statistics has always been a challenge to revenue department. Ministry of Rural Development and National Informatics Centre devised to use IT as a tool for maintaining this voluminous land records data. That will be a mammoth task as it envisages use of upcoming technologies such as GIS, Web, Open Source, smartcard and Data warehousing for the administration, distribution and analysis of land data, at all stages viz. recording, retrieving, disseminating & employing the data. Developing such Infrastructure, will lead to improving the effectiveness and efficiency of land management both from the perspective of the common man as well as that of managers implementing land based development activities. 1.0 Introduction: Although it is part of man's natural heritage, access to land is controlled by ownership patterns. Land is partitioned for administrative and economic purposes, and it is used and transformed in a myriad ways. Population growth, technological and social hazards, and environmental degradation have all to be taken into greater account today by policy makers, resource planners, and administrators who make decisions about the land. They need more detailed land information than has been traditionally available. Although the printed map is still useful, computerized systems offer improved ways of acquiring, storing, processing and retrieving such information. More recently, the need for thoughtful and careful stewardship of the land, together with the more intensive use and management of its resources, has emerged as a matter of major global concern. This has led to a re-evaluation both of the need for information about the land and of the