GIS Events Reports 2005

Eighth Annual India ESRI User Conference
December 1-2, 2005
Venue: Hotel Radisson MBD, Noida

Inauguration
The Eighth Annual India ESRI User Conference 2005 was held on December 1-2, 2005 at Hotel Radisson MBD, Noida, India. The theme of the conference was "Expanding GIS horizons for India". The conference deliberated on different ways and means of increasing the usage of Geographic Information Systems in India. The two-day event was attended by close to 700 ESRI software users from India and abroad.

The conference began with a warm welcome by Mr. Rajesh Mathur, President, ESRI India, followed by lamp lighting ceremony, by the guests of honour. The plenary session was graced by Mr. Arvind Thakur, Director, NIIT Technologies, Mr. N Vijayaditya, Director General, NIC, Mr.Dean Angelides, Technology Strategist, ESRI, Mr. Joseph Arokiadas, Head, NDC, NRSA and Mr. Rajesh Mathur, President, ESRI India.

Mr. Mathur, President, ESRI India, on giving a brief about the evolution of GIS in India during the plenary session, said “the first GIS users in India in the early 90s were mostly the national mapping agencies, educational and research institutes. During this time, it was the universities that played a major role in creating interest among students about the use of spatial technologies.” He then spoke about the current status and the trends in GIS in India. He also touched upon a few GIS projects that are implemented in India like the Multi-layer GIS for Planning developed by NIC and the Andhra Pradesh Micro-Irrigation Project etc. He also highlighted the achievements made by ESRI India in the past twelve months.

Giving the keynote address during the plenary session of conference, Dr N Vijayaditya, Director General, National Informatics Centre, talked about the growing use of GIS in the government and also how GIS is enabling the government. Further he stressed on making the technology cater to the needs of the citizens.

Highlights
The other highlights of the conference was the technology sessions- Desktop Products and Server Products, Quiz, Map Gallery, Workshops, Exhibition and Paper Presentations Sessions on Natural Resources, Infrastructure, Technology, Utilities etc.

Closing Ceremony
The two-day conference ended with the valedictory session by Prof K K Agarwal, Vice chancellor, I P University, New Delhi, followed by the awards distribution. Prof Agarwal stressed on the growing use of GIS in various fields. He felt that the vital factor is the actual use of technology in fields like resource planning, urban planning, rural development and many more such areas. He further said that he foresees the most important and a speedy growth of GIS application in pre-disaster warning system as well as post disaster mitigation effects.

During the awards distribution, the first paper award was presented to Ms. Jayata Sen, CPCB, Delhi. The best student award was presented to Ms. Paramita Banerjee, JNU and the best poster award was presented to Reliance Digital World.