VISAKHAPATNAM: The Central government is developing ‘National Geographical Information System (NGIC)’ with an aim to organise and standardise seamless GIS assets for the entire country and position a national GIS technological platform for GIS-enabled data applications and services, said Bhoop Singh, the head of National Resources Data Management System (NRDMS). He said that efforts were also being made to evolve National Geospatial Policy which would address all possible issues related to sharing of maps, point data to the concerned departments, and individual enquiries to help in the development of a planning mechanism for area-specific problems.
Inaugurating the Winter School on ‘Geospatial Technologies-Application to Science and Engineering Research’, organised by the department of Environmental Studies at GITAM Institute of Science in GITAM University here Saturday, Bhoop Singh said that geospatial technologies were addressing various issues related to rural development, urban planning, health, education and disaster management which also helps the country’s economic growth. “The NRDMS is preparing a National Urban Information System (NUIS) with geospatial information of 152 Indian cities to plan the Smart Cities in a better way. Within a year, public will get the entire India’s geospatial information on web,” he added. Bhoop Singh pointed that 30 per cent of court cases in India were related to land issues and the courts are not getting correct information about the lands. He announced that considering the issue the NRDMS is preparing geo tags to all lands. The Central government is now planning to establish 15 geospatial technology chairs in select universities of the country to train the human resource in this field, he added.
DRDO’s distinguished fellow Iyyanki Murali Krishna said that there was difference between remote sensing and geospatial technology. “We can plan our cities in a better way particularly to plan and monitor the water resources, transportation, electricity, construction of new buildings, urban development projects, and telecom services with geospatial technology,” he added. Andhra University Geology Prof M Jagannadha Rao stressed the need for trained manpower to handle vast area of geospatial data acquisition, integration and applications in the country. He suggested setting up a School of Earth and Geospatial Technologies in GITAM University.
GITAM University pro vice-chancellor D Harinarayana, registrar M Potharaju, Institute of Science principal K Lakshmana Das, UGC Affairs director Ch Ramakrishna, programme coordinator N Srinivas and others participated in the event.