India showcased its SVAMITVA Scheme and Gram Manchitra platform at World Bank Land Conference 2025 held at the World Bank Headquarters, Washington, D.C., USA.
About World Bank Land Conference 2025
- Theme: “Securing Land Tenure and Access for Climate Action: Moving from Awareness to Action”
- Objective: Bring together global leaders, policymakers, experts, and development partners to:
- Secure land tenure
- Modernize land administration
- Strengthen climate-responsive governance
- Key features:
- High-level plenary sessions
- Regional workshops
- Thematic exchanges
- Innovation expo
- Focus areas:
- Best practices in land tenure reforms
- Use of geospatial technologies
- Climate adaptation and resilience building
- Operational strategies for modern land governance
India’s Role and Contributions
- India presented its flagship SVAMITVA (Survey of Villages and Mapping with Improvised Technology in Village Areas) Scheme in two major sessions.
- At World Bank, SVAMITVA Scheme was showcased as a transformative rural empowerment model using drone mapping, high-accuracy geospatial data, and Gram Manchitra for climate-aligned village planning.
- Technical session:
- Topic: “Establishing the Land Foundation for Climate Action and Disaster Risk Management”
- India demonstrated Gram Manchitra’s use of SVAMITVA data for:
- Village-level planning
- Solar energy site selection
- Disaster mitigation
- Rural development
- Plenary session:
- Topic: “Good Practices and Challenges in Land Tenure and Governance Reform”
- India was represented as Country Champion with SVAMITVA’s global significance on:
- Rural property rights
- Women’s empowerment
- Dispute resolution
- Contribution to SDG Target 1.4.2: Proportion of adult population with secure land tenure, legally recognized documentation, and perceived security
India’s Global Leadership in Land Reforms
- In March 2025, India hosted a six-day International Workshop on Land Governance with participants from 22 countries.
- SVAMITVA attracted strong global interest.
- Several nations expressed intent to collaborate on digital mapping and geospatial approaches.
About SVAMITVA Scheme
- Full form: Survey of Villages and Mapping with Improvised Technology in Village Areas
- Key achievements:
- Issued property cards to over 24.4 million households in 1.6 lakh villages
- Mapped over 100 million property parcels
- Unlocked an estimated $1.162 trillion (~₹100 crore crore) in land value
- Applications:
- Tax administration
- Infrastructure development
- Disaster preparedness
- Strengthening inclusive and technology-driven governance
- Global impact:
Positioned India as a leader in digital land reforms and South-South cooperation for scalable, people-centric land solutions