|
|
|
Careers at Indian GIS Industry A Disarrayed Saga
| ‘Industry could still contribute more’ Interview with Brig. KKV Khanzode, Director, Symbiosis
Institute of GeoInformatics (SIG), Pune |
Q.What was the driving force
behind inception of the
course on GIS?
When the idea of establishment of
SIG was thought of during 2003-
04, Geoinformatics was considered
as an extension of IT and was virtually
unknown in our country.
While the awareness level has now
gone up, the situation continues to
be so even today to some extent
and there is much scope for further
raising it.
We along with experts from
industry, academia and representatives
from renowned organizations
visualized that in the forthcoming
decade, there would be extensive
use of GIS technology in multifarious
fields in our country and that
there would be a requirement of
trained human resource both in the
public and private sectors.
|
Q.Do you think regular interaction
with the industry in way
of industrial / summer trainings,
workshops, setting up of development
centers help to grow the
geospatial industry as a whole?
Yes, we do. We are of the opinion
that such interaction would help to
grow the geospatial industry as a
whole. Training in the class-rooms
and laboratories is more academic
in nature.
There is a need to have practical
experience and understand applicability
of fundamentals and concepts
that the students learn in the
classrooms. The industry assists in
molding budding GIS trainees in
the working ethos and industry culture.
It also helps develop mutual
confidence. This is cost effective
for the industry too, as it saves
them time, efforts and cost of
selection process of fresh raw
recruits as employees and their
subsequent training. |
Q.Why should Geoinformatics
education be seen different
from an education in IT?
GIS is exclusive in its nature of
training, by virtue of its specialized
software, ability to store data and
process it in three dimensions,
enhanced assistance in decision
making support system and its
applicability in multifarious fields.
Certain aspects of IT education do
assist in part of training in GIS;
namely, in programming and application
development. But then a
GIS analyst necessarily need not
study all the nuances of IT education.
In view of this diversity of
nature of GIS education, it should
be seen different from an education
in IT.
|
Q.Any suggestion that you
would like to make to the
industry or the Government?
In our case, the industry is
fairly positive in responding to
institutional needs for active
interface. However, they could still
contribute more by way of propagating
what is GIS and Remote
Sensing, more amongst masses
and student community. There is
scope for more participation by
way of industry-educational institute
participation in social projects
for betterment of social facilities
and public utilities.
At the State and Central Government
levels, the education in GIS
and Remote Sensing can be promoted
by pragmatic and holistic
policies. Some suggestions in this
regard would be, to introduce some
of the elementary GIS and Remote
Sensing subjects at the school level
at middle school level as part of
curricula. Similarly undergraduate
degree courses can be introduced.
The Ministry of Education should
offer incentives to schools and
educational institutions in this
regard. Currently the study material
on GIS related subjects is rather
limited. There is a need to promote
writing of text books which will
help students.
There is a necessity to open
posts in Government jobs with
preference to knowledge of GIS
and this should be given wide
publicity. Knowledge of GIS as an
essential feature may be introduced
in UPSC examinations,
where applicable. |
Q.How often the course is
revised in view of market
requirements?
The academic institutes aim to
impart basic training to make students
sound in their fundamentals,
so that they are in a position to
adapt to any new requirement,
software and application in short
timeframe without much difficulty,
when they join the industry.
However, while reviewing and
revising our course structure every
year, we do take the industry suggestions
into consideration to
incorporate latest trends and
industry requirements to the extent
possible.
|
|
| ‘There is a big gap.’ |
Comments of an industry expert |
"I was a part of the inception of now one of the leading companies in GIS in
India. We at that time had no idea what the GIS was all about. It was in
1991-92. Since then to now, the situation has not changed.
None of the companies is focussing on what our research institutions, like
IITs are working on. As oppsed, in the west, industry adopts academic
researches and carry them forward. The industry is on one line, others are on
different. There is a big gap. Industry has not been able to provide jobs to
people who did their higher studies in GIS. Market is driven by the requirement
of data. Data companies are growing because there is growing demand
for data. It is really sad that PhDs are working on data conversion. There are
very few projects that come on enterprise GIS development.
In the GIS none of the core things are being taken up like the data format,
developing algorithm for processing the data sets. Most of the work is being
done on the application side. There are GIS courses run by engineering faculties
but these have no engineering concepts. Compressing tech, indexing,
database - are few of the things that are not in GIS but still one needs to
know these.
As far as industry is concerned, most of the people at the middle as well as
senior management are Diploma holders. There is also a scenario, where
many who enter with smaller qualifications switch over to software or database
management jobs in the mainstream IT firms in short time. |
It is very difficult to get talents from IITs to work for GIS. It is tough to show
them a growth path. If they come, few years later they switch to software
development companies. Companies end up settling down to second rated
institutions for their campus drives, if at all they go for these. GIS has failed
to attract bright career.
I see GIS career growth in three categories - one is on technical side, where
one becomes very good at data handling. Second is managerial line where
you become GM-Production or hold other similar desigations. Third line is the
Sales and Marketing functions. Most of the companies have now moved their
staff to the third functional area, whereas the same thing can be best done
by a person with MBA as qualification. And that has resulted in companies
picking up people with non-GIS background.
What is not happening is the consolidation of the technical knowledge, and
the industry most needs - development of domain expertise. If u leave aside
the data conversion jobs there is nothing much left in the industry. We are still
at crossroads. This is becoming more and more complex with companies like
Google jumping into it and building data has become the objective.
But I believe this is going to settle down in the years to come. The solution
lies in getting good talent in the industry. Unforunately, there are no standardised
growth in this industry since each company has its own model of functioning." |
|
|
|
