India Votes for UNGA Resolution Endorsing New World Map
UNITED NATIONS: India has voted in favor of a UN General Assembly resolution seeking a more accurate and equitable representation of the world’s continental landmasses, particularly Africa, on commonly used maps.
The 193-member General Assembly on Friday overwhelmingly adopted the Togo-sponsored resolution titled “Correct the map”: Rebalancing global cartographic representation and promoting equitable representation of the world’s regions, particularly Africa.
The resolution received 164 votes in favour, while the United States was the only country to vote against it. Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine abstained.
The initiative seeks to address distortions associated with widely used map projections, particularly the Mercator projection, which makes regions closer to the poles appear disproportionately large while understating the relative size of areas around the equator, including Africa.
The resolution promotes the wider use of map projections that provide a more accurate representation of the relative size of continents and regions. The move has been backed by the African Union, which has argued that conventional cartographic representations can distort perceptions of Africa’s actual geographical scale.
India’s vote placed it among the overwhelming majority of UN member states supporting the initiative. The resolution is aimed at encouraging governments, educational institutions and other organisations to consider more geographically representative maps.
