Reliable tamper-proof records with a real time link between Registration, Survey and Revenue departments with common shared textual and spatial data that are geo-referenced and ground-truthed so that there is no need for repeated universal ground survey.

Such records are available to the respective land-holders/ owners with a simple system to update whenever a transfer takes place through sale, inheritance or any other transfer.

The State and central govt responsibilities are clearly laid out with no contradictions or anomalies ensuring the legislations are updated with obsolete provisions deleted.

In all above the citizens’ participation is important to ensure public trust: digitalization and modernization should not create new areas of graft and exploitation. 

It is high time the customary land rights are addressed, viz. Lal Dora (Delhi), Malki (Maharashtra), Unsurveyed lands (Kerala).

When land records are digitized, the software needs to be inter-operable between states.  A national digital map should be the ultimate aim for seamless connectivity, created by the Surveyor General of India.

Technology is only a tool for safe and tamper-proof records, ease of living and ease of business, it is not the be-all and end-all. Hence it is important that all stakeholders constantly keep an eye on the Epistemology of technology: who and what is pushing it, the govt or the corporate? How much is it helping the common man should be the litmus test.

Role of corporates in land administration need to be defined with clarity, it should be citizen-driven.

Trans-disciplinarity approach is essential to do away with schism and chasms between technology and the social sciences, academics and administration.

Universities and centres of higher learning need to develop and float courses based on the need and requirement of the govt. and citizens and not on the basis of what documents or data are readily available. Same goes with research.

What kind of land administration training is provided to public servants is crucial.  Revenue Department is not considered a glamourous department and in demand for postings, that mindset needs to change.

Land matters need to be part of the high school curriculum with a 360 deg view and also as electives for higher studies.  Scholars and students need to understand the importance of land in development, good governance, etc and not remain survey-centric.

Regular awareness building and training of political executive and elected representatives is equally important as in a democracy their role remains supreme. This includes ministers, members of Parliament and state assemblies and elected members of local bodies.

Healthy critique of the govt is essential in a democracy, but portraying the public servants alone as the villains can be misleading; blatant encroachments, poor project design, inadequate technology, court delays, etc. are also to blame.

With speedy urbanization, there is need for Master Plan for all urban centres, especially the Tier 2 and 3 towns, such Plans need to be diligently followed. For optimal use of resources Resource maps of Panchayats is also essential.

The colonial or zamindari mindset on land has to go:  land is not merely an asset meant to be exploited, we have much to give back to land, it is an organic, two-way synergestic relationship.

Land matters need to be connected to larger public issues: Ease of business, generating employment, Banks and fintechs, gender parity, environment and climate change and disaster management among others.

Land issues are closely intertwined with issues of water; protecting water bodies, river banks, rivulets, watersheds, etc. that also need inventorising and protection.

Land has always been the asset that has been the cause for inequalities.  Technology should help reduce and do away with inequalities rather than get them further entrenched.