Across India, the digital turn in land governance is reshaping how rights are recorded, verified, and contested. As states modernise cadastral systems, introduce technology-enabled titling processes, and integrate data-driven decision-making into natural resource management, land administration is undergoing a profound transformation. These reforms promise greater transparency and efficiency, yet they also expose long-standing structural challenges, fragmented records, uneven institutional capacity, and the historical marginalisation of certain landholders. Digital systems, layered onto existing complexities, bring to the surface the tensions between technocratic ambitions and the social realities of land use and entitlement.
The shift towards digital governance is often framed as a neutral, technical upgrade, but its implications extend well beyond administrative efficiency. Technologies used for land titling, record digitisation, and resource mapping can inadvertently reproduce existing inequalities when they overlook informal practices, customary rights, or gendered patterns of access. Women, migrant households, and those relying on collective or seasonal use often remain invisible within formal records, and therefore within digital systems built upon them. As climate change intensifies pressures on land and natural resources, these exclusions become more consequential, shaping who benefits from emerging governance reforms and who is pushed further to the margins.
The papers in this session engage with these intersecting challenges by examining how digital reforms interact with diverse social, ecological, and institutional contexts. Together, they highlight the ways technological interventions can both enable and constrain access to land, shape patterns of mobility and resource use, and redefine relationships between communities and the state. Whether exploring the everyday impacts of digitisation, the governance implications of technology-led titling, or the intersections between gender, climate vulnerability, and land rights, the contributions show that digital transitions are never purely technical; they are deeply political.
A shared theme across the papers is the recognition that effective and equitable land governance in the digital age requires more than technological tools. It demands attention to local practices, community knowledge, and the socio-ecological systems within which land relations are embedded. The contributions also highlight the growing use of digital decision-support systems for natural resource management, raising questions about how data, algorithms, and landscape-based planning shape resource allocation and environmental futures. Together, the papers provide a nuanced understanding of what it means to reimagine land governance today, one that acknowledges both the transformative potential of technology and the need to ground reforms in justice, inclusivity, and lived experience.
About the session speakers
Ms Nupur
Centre for Social Justice
Panelist
NA
Faraz Ahmad
Centre for Social Justice
Panelist
Faraz Ahmad is the Programme Manager for the South Gujarat unit of the Centre for Social Justice. As an advocate by profession, he is passionate about issues affecting marginalized communities and social justice. He is also pursuing a Ph.D. in Law. Throughout his career, he has worked on various thematic areas, including energy, local governance, and anti-human trafficking initiatives. Currently, he is focusing on the tribal regions of Gujarat, addressing issues related to tribal land and broader social justice matters.
Zia
Centre for Social Justice
Panelist
Legal Researcher, Centre for Social Justice (CSJ). We have been working for access to justice for over 30 years including thematics such as adivasi and women's land rights, and Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups.
Shrimant Bakshi
Consultant, Indian Institute for Human Settlements
Panelist
Shrimant Bakshi is an external research consultant at the Centre for Land Governance (CLG), Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS), Bangalore, and an urban planner by education. His current work at IIHS explores aspects of land governance and its surrounding institutional, regulatory, and socio-economic dimensions. His interests lie at the intersection of land, real estate, and urban planning, and in how emerging technologies are reshaping these sectors and urban development.
Ms Rana Paul
Consultant, Indian Institute for Human Settlements
Panelist
I'm a human geographer by disciplinary interest and an urban planner by training, with more than 5 years of working experience at the intersection of urban housing, land, and poverty. I’m currently working as an external consultant at the Centre for Land Governance (CLG), Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS). For the past one and a half years, I have worked on projects supported by DOLR, the Ministry of Rural Development. These projects are- Evaluation of quality of digital land records, Preparing guidelines for NAKSHA project, and Comparing resurvey methodologies in eight Indian states.
Previously, I have worked as an associate fellow at the Delhi Assembly Research Centre (DARC), Delhi Legislative Assembly, where I was engaged in coordinating between the legislature and the executive for implementing development projects in Timarpur constituency, Delhi.
Ms. Sonchita Debnath
Udaipur Urja Initiatives.
Panelist
Sonchita holds a PhD in Public Policy from O P Jindal Global University, Sonipat. She has previously worked as a political consultant for a national political party. She also holds experience as a lecturer for undergraduate students in Mumbai University.
Mr Anmol Chauhan
GIZ
Panelist
Since 2019, I have built a career as a GIS and Watershed Management expert, working across government agencies, NGOs, and development partners to advance sustainable natural resource management through data-driven decision-making. My expertise lies in applying geospatial technologies to watershed planning, land use management, and environmental monitoring—bridging the gap between technical innovation and practical implementation on the ground.
Throughout my professional journey, I have contributed to projects that enhance community resilience, improve environmental governance, and promote sustainable water resource use. My experience spans spatial data analysis, digital mapping, capacity building, and the integration of GIS tools into policy and program frameworks.
Currently, I serve as a Digitalization Advisor with the SuATI Project of GIZ, where I focus on leveraging digital solutions to strengthen watershed and landscape management systems. In this role, I support the development and deployment of innovative digital tools and platforms that empower stakeholders to make informed, sustainable decisions.
Driven by a commitment to sustainability and technology, I continue to explore new ways digital transformation can support resilient ecosystems and inclusive development.
Ms Ankita Goyal
Assistant Professor, Centre for Social Development
Panelist
Dr Ankita Goyal’s area of specialization broadly covers agriculture, food security and sustainable farming, issues related to land ownership, customary laws related to land, policies for rural development and poverty alleviation. She has earlier worked as a consultant with the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Government of India, and was closely associated with the committee that was set up to look into the ownership, price fixation, value addition and marketing of minor forest produce. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor in CSD. She has worked on varied projects like those related to agricultural credit, cost of cultivation of farmers in Delhi, evaluation of governmental schemes such as National Food Security Mission and National Food Security Act, 2013, Village Commons, Water conservation, employment scenario in rural India and portability of social security schemes among migrant workers, sponsored by organisations such as the NABARD, erstwhile Planning Commission, NIRD, Department of Agriculture and farmers’ Welfare, Department of Food and Civil Supplies, Govt. of India, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, KFW, Germany etc. She has a number of national and international publications to her credit and has co-authored a book, Socio-economic Impact Assessment of BT Cotton in India. Dr Goyal holds an MPhil and a PhD from the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
Dr Pradeep Nayak
Additional Revision Commissioner, Board of Revenue, Odisha
Moderator
NA