India joined 164 countries that voted in favor of the UN General Assembly resolution from September 4 titled 'Correcting the Map: Restoring Balance in Global Cartographic Representation and Promoting Fair Representation of World Regions, Especially Africa.'
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) explained that the goal of this resolution is to encourage the use of equal-area projections, which preserve the relative sizes of continental landmasses. Furthermore, the resolution does not adopt or certify any specific world map, nor does it touch upon political cartography, including international borders, disputed territories, or place names.
Randhir Jaiswal stated that India voted for the resolution and provided clarifications, emphasizing the fundamental principle of promoting equal-area cartographic representation. He also noted that the resolution is not an endorsement of any specific map, projection, or depiction of national borders.
The resolution received abstentions from Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova, Serbia, and Ukraine, as well as one vote against from the USA.
The resolution noted that the Mercator projection continues to be widely used in educational, media, digital, and official materials, despite the significant distortion of land sizes in northern and southern latitudes far from the equator. It expressed concern that this distortion has contributed to the underestimation of the perceived size of Africa, Latin America, and South Asia, perpetuating an unbalanced view of the world.
India welcomed the intent behind this resolution aimed at promoting more accurate and representative cartographic practices.
