BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha Government has decided to chalk out a Data Sharing Policy to bring all geo-spatial information generated by Odisha Space Application Centre (ORSAC), administrative departments and State-run agencies to a common pool.
ORSAC along with a group comprising representatives of Revenue and Disaster Management, IT Departments and National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) will develop the policy which will include protocols on sourcing, sharing, pricing, uploading and alteration of the spatial data.
To devise the formula, the ORSAC along with NSDI held a workshop of stakeholders here on Thursday. The meet was inaugurated by Chief Secretary and chairman of the State-run remote sensing agency, GC Pati.
According to Chief Executive of ORSAC Dr Sandeep Tripathi, the policy is expected to be ready within a month and will be sent for approval to the State Government.
“The Government is in the process of setting up a State Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) as mandated by NSDI. States like Delhi, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal have already done it and we are working out the details but before that, the policy has to be devised,” he told this paper.
While ORSAC is a repository of huge geo-spatial data, all major departments have generated information that has to be pooled together and brought to a common platform. Besides, the State remote sensing agency will have to create software applications required for sourcing and use of the Government agencies, public or private bodies.
To facilitate the process, ORSAC has requested the Government to declare it as State SDI so that it can have authorised access to formulate the whole exercise and maintain the data infrastructure, Tripathi said.
However, the whole process will necessitate massive server space and ORSAC is looking at cloud computing instead of using remote servers for the purpose.
According to P Mishra, scientist with the remote sensing agency, ORSAC has already submitted a `16 crore proposal to NSDI for the State SDI project as it would require procurement of hardware as well as software while developing a technology for common access.
Besides, the data have to be secured and maintained. The volume of data that will be mapped, analysed and calibrated before storage is expected to be huge and ORSAC will conduct an assessment.
The State SDI will also be linked to NSDI for flow of information.