 EDITORIAL
NSDI for India: The Goa Communique – Part 1
Last week, 67 representatives from about 12 government data producing
departments in India gathered at Goa for the sixth time in almost seven
years, to deliberate upon the status of national SDI. The two day
workshop started with reading out the recommendation of the last
workshop which was held about a year and a half back. Government
agencies, private vendors and academic institutions made presentations
on their contribution to the NSDI in last one year. Most of the
organisations talked what has been done by them on data production. Few
talked specifically what has been done by their organisation which
strengthens the cause of NSDI. Vendors, who were asked to refrain from
corporate presentation, talked about what they had to offer in terms of
solutions for NSDI. Academic institutions had a different approach to
the NSDI, which I think was couple of years ahead of the basic issue
which the members of NSDI were battling with.
The availability and access of data between the government department is
a hurdle. For example the soil data required by forest survey has been a
long story with 'soil survey' failing to interpret whether they are on
the right side of the law, if they provide the asked datasets to forest
survey.
How can the availability of spatial data from soil survey department for
forest department be a concern to 'National Security'?
As suggested during the workshop, it was suggested that New Mapping
Policy has to be understood to further proceed with providing data to
another government organisation. Why can't we have specific mapping law,
at least for the government inter-departmental data exchange? Why do we
make the policies which become a subject of interpretation?
 Maneesh Prasad
Managing Editor & Chief Operating Officer
GIS Development
maneesh.prasad@gisdevelopment.net |
|
GEO INTELLIGENCE 2007
 A conference on geospatial applications for Defence and Internal Security - is being organised by GIS Development on 26-27 July at Hotel Intercontinental, New Delhi. It aims to provide a platform for the defence personnel and the industry at large, to participate in a discussion on the latest in the field of geospatial technologies vis-a-vis their applications for better command and control. The conference will be inaugurated by Lt Gen Deepak Kapoor, PVSM, AVSM, SM, VSM, ADC Vice Chief of Army Staff. The valedictory session will be addresses by Lt Gen Sushil Gupta, AVSM, YSM Dy. Chief IS &T.
The theme for this year's seminar is " C4ISR for Decision Support". The four Cs are Command, Control, Communication and Computers, whereas ISR is Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance. The 4Cs and ISR are the key elements in any defence operation and mission. The seminar has been divided into Plenary and Vision sessions.
The Vision Session shall consist of addresses by Lt Gen B. S. Dhaliwal, PVSM, AVSM, VSM – Engineer in Chief, Lt Gen R. Goswami, Commandant, College of Military Engineering and Maj Gen M Gopal Rao, Surveyor General, Survey of India who will share their thoughts and experiences on the use of latest technologies for arriving at better decisions during operations.
For more information visit the Geo Intelligence 2007 website. |
|
|
|
