India Backs UNGA Resolution For More Accurate World Map

United Nations, Sep 5: India has voted in favour of a UN General Assembly resolution seeking to promote a more accurate and equitable representation of the world’s regions on maps, particularly addressing the under-representation of Africa.

The 193-member General Assembly on Friday overwhelmingly adopted the resolution titled “Correct the map”: rebalancing global cartographic representation and promoting equitable representation of the world’s regions, particularly Africa. Sponsored by Togo, the resolution received 164 votes in favour, while Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine abstained. The United States was the only country to vote against it.

The resolution noted that the Mercator projection, developed in the 16th century primarily for navigation, continues to be widely used in educational, media, digital and official materials despite significantly distorting the size of landmasses located farther from the equator.

It expressed concern that such distortion contributes to minimising the perceived sizes of Africa, Latin America and South Asia and perpetuates an unbalanced understanding of the world.

Explaining India’s vote, First Secretary at India’s Permanent Mission to the UN, Raghoo Puri, said India welcomed the resolution’s objective of promoting more accurate and representative cartographic practices.

Puri said maps play an important role in shaping how societies understand geography and the relative scale of the world.

However, India clarified that the resolution should be understood as supporting wider consideration and use of Equal Area map projections, rather than endorsing the Equal Earth projection or any specific map projection. (Agencies)