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April 2002
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A reform that is still awaited!
As per an estimate of NASSCOM (National Association of Software Services Companies), the GIS industry employs around 15,000 people in India. Moreover, 90 per cent of them are working on overseas project. This figure is at least ten times higher than the number of people working in the field of GIS in the whole Government of India at central, state and local levels combined!
Is it not astonishing that this country of nearly 1 billion people has just 1,500 professionals working with Government in the field of GIS and Remote Sensing?
Why is that?
Say, if you are a PhD in GIS or Remote Sensing from a reputed university from India or abroad and want to use your professional knowledge for the development of the country, what are the options available to you?
You cannot apply to the Survey of India, the premier institution in this field, as it has a cadre-based system sourcing its professionals from military and engineering services. You cannot apply to the Geological Survey of India, because you did not qualify their Geologists’ exam five years back when you did your Masters; you cannot go to the Forestry Survey of India, because you are not an Indian Forest Service Officer, you cannot join the census department, since a post of that nature does not exist at that level to give you a direct entry, you cannot join the water resource department since it has five people working in GIS and perhaps it is believed that some of them are surplus, you cannot joint a municipal organisation since a position for your qualifications does not exist at all.
And if the national scenario is that grim then the speeches on popularisation of science / development of science in India, in and outside the parliament, hardly make any sense. As the country has launched ambitious reforms in various walks of life and a process of reformation is well under way, can’t a meaningful reform be adopted and implemented for the sake of science? Sooner it is done, the better.
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