National Survey Day is celebrated every year in India to commemorate the measurement of the first Baseline of Great Trigonometric Survey (GTS) on 10th April 1802 near Chennai, Tamilnadu. GeoMap Society (GEMS) started in 1990 & GIS India have been part of National Survey Day (NSD) programmes every year.
This year Centre for Environment, Institute of Science and Technology,JNTU, Hyderabad has agreed to take the lead in organising this event in association with GEMS. The event consists of Seminar on Surveying & Mapping In Geospatial Technologies and Survey Quiz Sponsored by TEQIP-III, IST, JNTUH and supported by Survey of India. Credit goes to Prof Anji Reddy of JNTU and Dr V.Raghav Swamy former Dy.Director, NRSC and key member of GEMS.
The inaugural function began on 10 April 2018, with welcome address by Dr.B.Venkateshwar Rao, Director, IST, JNTUH. While explaining the importance of Surveying, he remarked that Surveying is the mother of all technologies.
Dr.M.Anji Reddy, Prof of EST & Director Research & Development, JNTUH traced out evolution of technology and highlighted importance of hands-on experience from career point of view. He explained the important role of photogrammetry from different platforms.
Mr. GS Kumar, Director, Survey of India (Retd) and president GEMS, informed the audience (nearly 200) predominantly college students, about the growing importance of Surveying in Geospatial Technologies (GST). Like the foundation of a building, he said, surveying is invisible but forms basis for all development activities. He briefly explained that Survey Quiz is meant to enhance the understanding of surveying concepts.
He compared GST with ancient Indian concept – Satyam Sivam Sundaram. Truth (Survey & GST) presented beautifully becomes power.
Prof.B.L.Deekshathulu, (Padmasri) Former Director, NRSC , Hyderabad, in his simple but inimitable style emphasised that surveying with instruments like Total Station provides the foundation for GST. He said there is plenty of scope in AI and Scanning technologies.
Dr.V.Raghavaswamy, Former Deputy Director ( NRSC/ISRO), &
Executive Member, GEMS and GIS India, Hyderabad gave brief details of the seminar and how the speakers are selected representing different aspects of GST, important for students in particular.
Dr. DP Rao, (Padmasri) Former Director, NRSC , Hyderabad appreciated the important roles of various organisations and in particular – NRSC and SoI. He said today’s need is to learn to combine appropriately different technologies for finding solutions.
Prof A.Govardhan, Rector,JNTUH, in his address as chief guest brought out the importance of technology with a cryptic comment “ Wherever you are, I am there”. He quoted example of Google maps. He appreciated the collaborative initiatives of IST in organising this event with focus on importance of surveying.
After the interesting Vote of thanks by Dr.T.Vijay Lakshmi, tea was served.
Technical Sessions began with presentation by Dr. S.Murali Krishnan, Head, Digital Photogrammetry, NRSC . He show-cased a number of projects of RS and photogrammetry – Missions Kakatiya & Bhagiratha, Cadastral, Solid Waste Management
Next was the informative presentation by Mr. TK Sahu, of IISM, SoI on Total Station (TS). He emphasised that the objective of Surveying is beyond mapping. He showed examples of some projects done using TS with high accuracy.
Simple but delicious lunch on the terrace provided a pleasant break for all from the serious technical deliberations .
Then came Prof. Kamal Jain Geomatics Engineering, Dept. Of Civil Eng, IIT, Roorkee to speak on DRONE Technology & Applications. He explained in a simple and clear manner how they managed to get patents for several Drone-based applications. He said tremendous opportunities are opening up as Drone based mapping is being considered for monitoring Ralway lnes and canals by the government. He saied with less than Rs10 lakhs one can enter into Drone-based mapping business. His presentation can be called the best, considering the interests of students in particular.
Dr.M.Anji Reddy; Prof. of EST & Director Research & Development, JNTUH made very informative presentation on Geomatics for Environmental Planning & Management. He exhibited several images in support of a variety of applications. He commented that UAV has emerged as a game changer. Finally he said GIS is today a powerful tool made up of several technologies like RS, GPS, Photogrammetry etc. He raised a query-why GIS persons are paid less than IT personnel
Mr. LingaRaja Sahu, Head Consultant, Infosys, Hyderabad
Spoke on Geo-Enabled Data and GIS Services - A Geospatial Industry Perspective and Career Opportunities. He began with the statement that my position here is spatial and my name is non-spatial. He went to cover cloud GIS, Big data, Internet of Things (IoT), AI, Machine language, driverless cars. He visualises huge employment potential in coming few years. He replied that there may be slump in IT but not in GIS based applications. This answers the point raised by Dr Anji Reddy about IT vs GIS pay packages.
Next was Survey Quiz conducted by Mr. GS Kumar, Former Dir SoI; President, GEMS. He distributed a set of 10 questions and the answers were evaluated by Dr Vamshi Krishna and Dr Vijya lakshmi. Attractive prizes were given to top 8 winning teams. All the questions were aimed at enhancing knowledge about surveyng. One sample objective question:
Height of levelling instrument is essential for
Better accuracy (b) fixing position (c)more heights
List of top 8 Winning Teams in Survey Quiz on 10 April 2018
N.Mohan & E.Sagar MGIT, Hyderabad- First
B.Venkateshwar Reddy & K.Rajender Singh Centre for Environment, IST, JNTUH - Second
Buttry. Anil Kumar & P.Jagdish; Centre for Environment, IST, JNTUH – 3 rd
K.Vamshi Krishna & L.Mani Teja College of Engineering, JNTUH – 4 th
P.Harika Yadav & C.Sreeja MGIT, Hyderabad – 5 th
Y.Rajaseker & P.Harish MGIT, Hyderabad – 6 th
T.Sriharitha & N.Sadhana MGIT, Hyderabad – 7 th
M.Praveen Kumar & V.Sai charan Centre for Spatial Information Technology, IST, JNTUH – 8 th
In the valedictory session, Dr.V.Raghavaswamy briefed on the seminar and expressed the hope that the participants particularly the students must have benefited from the programme.
In his valedictory Dr.B.Venkateshwar Rao, Director, IST, JNTUH expressed happiness about the successful conduct of this event. The programme came to an end with nice vote of thanks by Dr.T.Vijay Lakshmi follow by tea combined with warm samosas.