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Dear Readers,
“There is something for everybody in these three days” was the punch line that précised and definitely kicked off the significant conference of Map India 2004. The conference has a theme that shouts - ‘Geospatial Democracy’. A fascinating (and definitely ‘heavy’) term to deal with. For in its core, the term envelops four different schools of thoughts to concur with - ‘geo’, ‘spatial’, ‘demos’ and ‘kratos’. And as I grappled to articulately capture its manifold interpretations in various presentations on the first day of Map India conference, so did over 1000 others. Map India 2004 saw its opening day commence with a massive participation and response. A response that spoke of and reinstated the need for such forums and platforms. GIS Development remains dedicated to foster the spread and use of geospatial technologies across the world and bring the latest deliberations and happenings in this arena. We bring you a live report of Map India 2004, the largest and 7th annual international conference on geospatial sciences in India. Welcome to a gist of each of the three days from the venue as it unfolds. Happy Reading. With regards, Inauguration Ceremony The inauguration rolled off sharp at 10 am in the grand ambience of Shahjehan Hall of Taj Palace with a packed crowd of over 700 people. The occasion was presided over by Dr. M. P. Narayanan, President of Centre for Spatial Database Management and Solutions (CSDMS), India, Dr Prithvish Nag, Surveyor General of India, Kiran Karnik, President, NASSCOM and Ravi Gupta, Director, CSDMS. The first surprise of the day was the inaugural small film that opened the occasion. The film was a depiction of mapping the neighbourhood project underway in India where children are mapping issues in their locality and developing on their own a database for decision making. Dr. Narayanan gave a lucid welcome address touching upon the significance of the conference for users, industry, government and everyone. He emphasised upon the term geospatial democracy and interpreted that it is not only is about the right to information but also the freedom of expression and dissemination. He wished that the conference, in the next three days, builds upon points that can concretise many aspects related to both these concerns. This was followed by a brief but noteworthy inaugural address by Kiran Karnik. The NASSCOM president admitted that geospatial sciences in their realm fall under IT enabled services and himself stated that it is perhaps not the right connotation to the discipline – remembering that about 100 billion USD export is attributed to this industry. He mentioned that the need for services and data in the spatial sector is abundant and perhaps far ahead of what the market can supply or adhere to. He clearly pointed out that government has been slow and tardy in many respects particularly when one compares other departments. Artificial barriers that restrict the full utilisation of technology are a concern. He hoped that small initiatives happen in the coming days that first develop enthusiasm and then specialists. Dr Nag followed with the keynote address after the brief lamp lighting ceremony. He started with saying that “There is something for everybody in these three days”. He briefly discussed the initiatives Survey of India and the government in terms of unshackling the maps and easing the access to data for general public. The occasion ended with a small vote of thanks by Ravi Gupta. Plenary Session : Geospatial Democracy Kiran Karnik chaired this important plenary session focussed on the conference theme. The session had three important speeches by Amitabha Pande, Joint Secretary, Dept. of Science & Technology, Govt. of India, Preetha Pulusani, President, Intergraph Mapping & Geospatial Solutions and Xavier Lopez, Director, Spatial Technologies, Oracle Inc. A brief of each is as follows – ‘Overdeveloped state apparatus’ vs ‘democracy’ This thought-provoking and bold speech by Mr Pande went much into the depths of democracy and people. It took up state as an apparatus of dominance that subverts or dominates many aspects of democracy in itself. He himself representing the ‘state’, this speech became more interesting as he delved into the history of the development of an overdeveloped state in India that emerged as a class in itself. He went into various domains of discussion putting democracy and the state against each other and pointing towards a situation where market seems an emerging solution. Market which represents, the people, the users and also the commercial interests. The limelight of his speech was his interpretation of the conference theme - “To strengthen the people by giving shape and life to facts about physical space on this earth” He ended with the significant pointers that depict the status of NSDI in India and the Map Policy on the anvil. Is SDI the spatial voice of democracy? Preetha Pulusani started off with a much wider realm where she took up cases from across the world. Cases of spatial data infrastructures (SDIs) being developed at various stages and levels. She mentioned cases of South Africa, UK, Philippines, India, Spain and New Zealand. She touched on the status of each and the models followed in each. Based on this she elaborated on certain key realisations from these cases. However, she emphasied that the real issues are not in these aspects and lies in She culminated with the thought that we have to ‘stop GIS from being isolated’. It has to move farther and solve the dilemma of SDI and Standards (a typical chicken and egg case). He took up to emerging market trends that need to be looked upon before understanding geospatial democracy. He referred to US Policies on information and also explained the case of Ordnance Survey, UK. Mr Karnik summed up the session interestingly. He put across the ideas of Mr Pande against Mr Lopez, where the former hinted at enabling the market to realise geospatial democracy while the later talked of the government’s crucial role needed. Keynote Session : Technology Trends The session was chaired by Mr Venkatram, Advisor, Jlets Technologies. The session had an amazingly packed turnout and stimulating discourses. There were three speakers all of whom spoke of emerging technologies in the field. Brad Skelton, Vice President, Leica Geosystems talked on the subjects of photogrammetry, aerial photography, LIDAR and Remote Sensing. He went into the basics of each first, putting one against the other and also briefly touching on the evolution of each. He summed up with the statements that imageries and any survey generates data. The amount and quantity of data generated has increased in size over the years. The need of the day is centralised data warehouses and systems that can handle massive amount of data in terms of quality and quantity. John Allen, Director, BAE Systems talked on technologies involved with photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. He emphasised on the difference between satellite imagery and these subjects as technologies. The last presentation was by Dhirendra from HP India. His words emphasised on aspects of precision, exactness, durability and cost effective ways of production – all subject domains of HP. Technical Sessions The day had three important technical sessions, which ran parallel in 4 halls. A brief of each hall is as follows – 2:28 PM 1/29/2004 Geospatial Democracy The session was chaired by Rajesh Mathur, ESRI, India. The papers in this session were - India: I Speak GIS Author:S Raghavendran, Organisation: PIXEL INFOTEK PVT LTD Paper Title Geospatial Democracy Author: r R Malliga, Er.B.Vimala, Er.P.Arun Prasath Organisation: PERIYAR CENTENARY POLYTECHNIC COLLEGE Paper Title Small Area Statistics for NSDI Author: .C.S. Taragi, Organisation: The Planning Council Paper Title How Map India 2004 become Geospatial Democratic Developed Country before 2020? Author: arayan Agrawal, Organisation: Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi Paper Title RESOURCESAT-1 Author: oseph Arokiadas, Organisation: NDC, NRSA Paper Title Mapping India using Remote Sensing Technology Author: Dr. Asit Kumar Sarkar, Organisation: Digital Mapping and GIS division, National Atlas and Thematic Mapping Organisation Paper Title Mahiti Kosh (Information Cell) - A GIS based Decision Support System for Rural Planning & Development Author: Shetal Shah, Organisation: Geographis (India) Limited Paper Title Geospatial Data Policy - A Perspective and Issues before India Author: Nirmalendu Kumar, Organisation: Survey Of India Paper Title Digital India System Author: M. Nagamani, R.N.Anjani, V. Subramanian, S. Rajendra kumar, K.M.M. Rao Organisation National Remote Sensing Agency Water Resources The session was chaired by D K Paul, Physical Planning Consultants Indis Ltd. The papers in this session presented were - Paper Title Multi Criteria Evaluation in GIS environment for Ground Water Resource Mapping in Guwahati City area, Assam Author Dr. Parag Phukon, S. Phukan, P. Das, B. Sarma Organisation Department of Geological Sciences Paper Title Development of User Interface in ArcGIS for Watershed Management Author Dr. A. Sarangi, Dr. C.A. Madramootoo, P. Enright Organisation Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, McGill University Paper Title Towards a Framework for Quantifying Water Resources in India Author D. Shankar, Vidya Kotamraju, S. R. Shetye Organisation Physical Oceanography Division Paper Title Application of Geographical Information System (GIS) Tools in Watershed Analysis Author Paritosh Gupta, Rajendra M Tamhane, A K Mookerjee, Damanjit S Minhas Organisation ESRI India Paper Title Integration of Thematic Maps Through GIS for Identification of Groundwater Potential Zones Author Amaresh Kr. Singh, S. Ravi Prakash Organisation Remote Sensing Applications Centre, Health The session was chaired by J P Misra, European Commission, India and R Dwivedi, WHO. The papers in this session presented were - GIS to the Rescue - Controlling the Killer AIDS Author Sudeep K V, Organisation IES Geospatial Systems India Pvt. Ltd. Paper Title Disease Surveillance And Monitoring Using GIS Author R.Shriram, Rajiv Gupta Organisation Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) Paper Title Use of GIS to analyze the priority to far edge residents for presumptive treatment to control the spread of malaria Author Ayan Nandy, Organisation IIM Calcutta Paper Title GIS Application in Public Health to Study the Spatial Pattern of Variation of HIV/AIDS in Madurai City (Tamil Nadu) India Author Dr.S.Shanmuganandan, Organisation Madurai Kamaraj Universit User Meets The day had two user meetings – one on NRDMS, Got of India and the other of Alumni association of the ITC, The Netherlands. The ITC meet was of restricted entry. The NRDMS meet had 7 important presentations and was chaired vy Brid SivaKumar, Head NRDMS and NSDI, India. Kavi Sammellan : Poets Convention The day ended with another surprise element. A poet’s convention. In the main hall, presiding over a 800 strong audience, a group of 7 eminent poets in Hindi presented their interpretation of mapping and the science related to it. Their interpretations spanned in the widest horizons of the meaning and understanding of maps and the elements of a map. Recitations, songs, satires and facts clubbed with periodic thunders of applause further added fuel to the discussions of geospatial democracy throughout the day giving it a philosophical dimension. |
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