Your Forum

National task force on Geospatial education was formed in August 2013. Latst on this is not available on website. Some extracts are given below. Any reader may enlighten us on the latest on this - Editor, GIS India Extracts REPORT OF NATIONAL TASK FORCE ON GEOSPATIAL EDUCATION MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT Government of India New Delhi August 2013 Today, the global geospatial industry worldwide is around 40 billion USD as against an anticipated USD of 5 billion a decade ago. The Indian geospatial industry consists of two distinct but mutually supporting segments. i. The domestic segment, which provides geospatial capabilities to the Indian data providers/users. This segment is funded, managed and controlled largely by the national and state governments. A number of Indian firms are contracted to provide services for government initiatives. ii. The international segment is geared to provide geospatial data and software development services for international organisations, primarily in North America and Western Europe. Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx The Indian geospatial industry growth rate is significantly higher than worldwide geospatial industry growth owing to the fact that India’s macroeconomic parameters are fragile and volatile but nevertheless positive. Another significant factor contributing to the growth of geospatial industry is that the Government of India has budgeted a wide range of initiatives that have a significant geospatial component. These initiatives, along with state and local level initiatives, have the potential to motivate a much stronger internal capacity for geospatial technology in India. The current plans and initiatives of Government of India call for geospatial capabilities that are larger than what the geospatial industry can currently provide. The government and the geospatial industry will have to consider ways/means to improve the educational system for geospatial workers at skilled and semi-skilled * Geospatial skilled workforce – a category of large number of human resources required to form the “pyramid-base” and who will be the large workforce for survey/mapping/GIS operators etc. · Technical Geospatial Professionals – are a large number of geospatial professionals who have specific training and knowledge for specific tasks – these form the “pyramid middle”. These are graduates with a specific 9-12 months training in geospatial technology (GPS Surveying; Data Capture from Images; Geodatabase creation; QA/QC processes and so on). · Geospatial experts who have a graduate/masters degree in geospatial technology form the “pyramid top” of the workforce. These would be the project managers who are capable of handling geospatial projects independently. The following are the major recommendations: 1. Four projects are recommended:  School Geospatial Education Project (SGEP) – led by the Department of School Education, MHRD;  Geospatial University Networking Project (GUNP) – led by the Department of Higher Education, MHRD;  Geospatial Training and Outreach Project (GTOP) – led by DST; and  National Institute of Geospatial Knowledge, Engineering and Management (NIGKEM), NIGKEM project – led by MHRD and DST. 2. A number of reform actions, namely, CBSE and NCERT to include geospatial technology in middle and high-school curricula, coordination with state school boards for a similar inclusion, School teachers’ orientation for geospatial technologies, develop prototypes of school geospatial kits, encouraging Universities to standardise curricula and undertake faculty orientation , wide usage of low-cost, public-domain software and hardware resources, Industries to come out with such education products that can be used at university levels, Geospatial technology and applications to form a part of civil-services academies and re-orientation programmes, coordination with Central Ministries to ensure that training pools are dedicated to train government employees. 3. Other strategies are Self-Learning and Igniting Approach at School Level, Geospatial Research and Education Capacity at University Level and Training and Outreach for Enabling Geospatial Capability Amongst Existing Professionals. 4. A high-level management council is also recommended with Minister, MHRD as Chair and Member (Science), Planning Commission as Co-Chair, with various Secretaries as Members and experts as Members, for guiding and supervising the implementation of recommendations.

Dear reader, GIS applications are growing. Announcements are being made for GIS adoption. But updates are not available in many cases. One example is quoted here about announcement made in 2015 about LiDAR survey. No update is available on the website. Readers are invited to report about such cases. We may consider pursuing such cases to build pressure for authentic GIS applications. Readers are invited to raise issues related to GIS applications in this forum. LiDAR survey on Godavari basin projects B. CHANDRASHEKHAR 2 September 2015, The Hindu The Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) survey proposed by the Government of Telangana for re-designing of several ongoing and new irrigation projects in the Godavari basin in the State would begin soon , provided the weather conditions are favourable. Highly placed official sources told The Hindu that Telangana would be the first State in the country to avail the modern technology for designing irrigation projects. The aerial survey be conducted through a helicopter is likely to continue for 8 to 15 days. Officials stated that LiDAR is a remote sensing technology that measures distance by illuminating a target with a laserand analysing the reflected light. The sophisticated technology is mostly used to make high-resolution maps with applications in archaeology, geography, geomorphology, seismology, forestry, remote sensing,atmospheric physics, air-borne laser swath mapping, laser altimetry and contour mapping. The State Government has already secured permissions from the Union Ministries of Home, Defence and Civil Aviation for conducting the survey with the help of a private agency. The Defence Ministry authorities have checked the LiDAR equipment and sealed it before it was mounted into the helicopter. “The equipment would be handed over to the Defence Ministry once the survey is completed and recorded information would be its property. Only the information required by the State Government would be given to it through the Home Ministry”, the sources said explaining the process. When contacted, Chief Engineer of Pranahitha-Chevella lift irrigation project Hari Ram Bhookya stated that the survey would be taken up from Dummugudem to Kaleshwaram, Medigadda to Yellampally reservoir and Mid Manair to Basvapur reservoir. The designated helicopter reached Tirupati a bit late as the air traffic control (ATC) authorities did not give clearance for its direct flight to Hyderabad. It would reach Hyderabad and then to Ramagundam before embarking upon the arduous exercise, the official sources said. “Information collected from the survey would be helpful in making optimum utilisation of our share in Godavari waters by planning projects, barrages and canals in scientific manner”, Advisor (Irrigation) to the State Government R. Vidyasagar Rao stated. A similar survey, conducted from the ground, was already in progress in case of the Palamuru-Rangareddy lift irrigation project, the sources said adding that equipment in it was mounted on a truck. The aerial survey is likely to continue for 8 to 15 days

Wix Forum is the perfect tool to connect with your site visitors, build a community & drive more traffic to your site! Have something to say? Click Create New Post to start your own discussion. What else can you do with your forum? Give it a catchy name, create unlimited categories and choose from beautiful layouts like Card or Classic. If your forum has lots of images, then a Card layout is the one for you! A Classic layout is perfect for long text discussions. Plus, both layouts look great on desktop and mobile. After you’ve picked your layout, customize it with stunning design features to make your forum look just right.