India votes in favour of UNGA resolution endorsing new world map
The UN General Assembly has adopted a resolution to promote more accurate world map projections to better represent the scale of regions like Africa and South Asia. India supported the resolution while clarifying its preference for general equal-area projections over specific proprietary models.
Why it matters
This reflects a growing global movement to address historical cartographic biases that minimize the perceived importance of the Global South.
India has voted in favour of a UN General Assembly resolution aimed at correcting the world map to promote a “more accurate representation” of continental landmasses.
The 193-member UN General Assembly on Friday (September 6, 2026) overwhelmingly adopted the resolution ‘“Correct the map”: rebalancing global cartographic representation and promoting equitable representation of the world’s regions, particularly Africa’.
The resolution was sponsored by Togo, receiving 164 votes in favour, with abstentions from Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine, and a lone vote against from the United States.
The resolution noted that the Mercator projection, designed in the 16th century for navigational purposes, remains widely used in educational, media, digital and official materials, despite the considerable distortion of landmasses to the North and South, far from the equator.
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