The new policy, which lifts some restrictions in force for the past 10 years, came against the backdrop of a CAG report which had found that almost 80 per cent of images of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) were idling.
According to ISRO, earlier the policy allowed all data of resolutions up to 5.8 metres to be distributed on non-discriminatory basis, but the new policy has brought that down to up to one metre. This would allow more people to access the data. However, the RSDP-2011 will require all data of better than one metre resolution to be screened and cleared by the appropriate agency prior to distribution to protect national security.
Government agencies and departments, including government educational and research institutions can, as per the new policy, obtain better than one metre resolution data without any further clearance.
Even private sector agencies supporting development activities, recommended by at least one government agency, can obtain data without further clearance.
The policy explains that such a decision was taken after having taken into consideration the availability of very high-resolution images from foreign and commercial remote sensing satellites.