Certain business like publishing, for example, have undergone a radical change. In the earlier times books were first printed and then distributed. Now, in the internet you can distribute the book and it can be printed by those who are interested, by downloading the contents from their computers. The idea of the geographical data on paper in the form of maps or tables is not new. In fact, ever since navigation started and the age of exploration followed especially in the eighteenth and ninteenth centuries, mapping has been s part of the ever expanding curiosity of manind.
Maps however belong to the age of atoms.
But now in the age of bits in computers and remote sensing satellites computer technology for the GIS has added s totally new dimension to the old idea of maps. Geographic information can be of strategic advantage for a number of applications, including spatial planning, command and control systems, environmental protection, utility management, traffic regulation etc. These digitised based maps will be made available for applications development, for planning and for Geographical Information Sytems purposes. Individual states have also set up agencies like the AP State Remote Sensing Applications Centre in the case of Andhra Pradesh which are engaged in the development of digitised bass maps. There is no common standard for reference systems, scales, degrees of accuracy, formats and data structures for developing base maps across the states.