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| Tsunami Warning Centre opens |
Learning lessons from the December 2004 tsunami, India unveiled a state-of-the-art tsunami warning centre at the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) in Hyderabad in October. The system, first of its kind in the world, is capable of sounding an alert in real-time if subduction zone related earthquakes in Andaman-Nicobar-Sumatra island arc and the Makran subduction zone north of the Arabian Sea can trigger tsunami. |
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| This early warning system can help 400 million people living in India’s coastal areas with accurate and timely information. Rs 1.25 billion, 14 different organisations, 150 scientists and dedicated cooperation from the Union government has made this warning system a reality in record time. |
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| Hurdles cleared for NSDI |
Promising to change the way citizens look at their world, the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) crossed all the hurdles to get into ‘business’. At the core of NSDI dream are plans to forge digital links, construct information highways and to make the vaulted data accessible to one and all. With the decks clearing for NSDI, 4,800 Survey of India maps will be released into public domain by March 2008. |
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About 40 major cities will be mapped on a scale of 1:1000 and in later phases the entire country will be covered. The NSDI network will be able to superimpose all manner of data onto a digital map. After getting requisite clearances from the Union government, now the onus is on bringing all the stakeholders – government, industry and professionals onto this platform to share data, develop applications, solutions and services online using spatial information processing models. |
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| Consolidation is in the air |
Globally, geospatial industry is going through a consolidation phase and companies are building alliances leading to mutual synergies. While for some, it’s a way to scale up the operations, for others, partnerships are to gain complimentary core competencies. 2007 saw some of the biggest takeovers so far, the mother of all being Nokia’s bid to take over map-maker Navteq for $ 8.1 billion. |
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This was catapulted by an earlier major acquisition by portable navigation device manufacturer Tom Tom which declared its bid to take over map giant Tele Atlas for $ 2.5 billion, that sent industry analysts and PND makers into a frenzy and stock markets zooming. This fever caught up in India too and Infotech Enterprises’ take over of Geospace Integra and Rolta’s bid for Orion are acquisitions in this direction. |
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| Scaling new heights in space |
2007 has been a landmark year for the Indian space programme. Well orchestrated programmes brought in remarkable successes with indigenous efforts. This is manifest in the successful launch of Cartosat-2 providing sub-metre resolution imagery, GSLV’s successful flight which put INSAT-4CR in to geosynchronous orbit. The successful orbiting and recovery of a space capsule is yet another giant stride in the Indian space programme. |
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Another milestone is the setting up of the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology in Thiruvananthapuram with the objective of offering high quality education in space science and technology to meet the growing demands of Indian space programme. Commercialisation of space services took firm roots this year with ISRO launching a few foreign satellites under commercial contracts. |
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| Better world view in the offing |
The era of high resolution imagery is opening exciting vistas in terms of innovative applications and challenging opportunities. There is a deluge of sub-metre resolution imagery with more and more satellites capable of high-resolution imagery being launched. WorldView-1 is the latest and the most sophisticated hawk eye in the sky. WorldView-1 images allow viewers to see things on the ground as small as 20 inches in diameter. |
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The system captures panchromatic and also multi-spectral imagery across a wide swath, the end product being a 14X14 km snapshot. So, in the coming days, its ‘life-like true colours’ with more and more satellites capable of high resolution imagery being lined up for launch. |
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| IAC in India |
The International Astronautical Congress came to India after a 19-year hiatus. The five-day Congress was a spectacular show which saw about 2000 space specialists from across the world participating in about 140 technical sessions and scores of plenary sessions. Apart from the special dignitaries, top brass of ISRO and former president APJ Abdul Kalam, the highlight of the Congress was the presence of NASA astronaut of Indian origin Sunita Williams |
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and India’s first cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma who answered students and delegates’ questions and narrated their experiences in space. The Congress provided lot of scope for good exchange of business and expertise among the nations. |
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| Booming infrastructure |
Infrastructure is an important element of economic development and economic growth is fuelling the infrastructure growth in the country. In either case, infrastructure sector is on its crest and this growth calls for an integrated solution – ideally Geographical Information Systems (GIS). Understanding the implications of this growth and to give a fillip to the information gap in this sector, Geospatial |
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Today’s Spatial India conference dwelt on ‘IT and GIS Strategy for Infrastructure’. About 200 delegates from industry, academia and the government participated in the two-day conference and deliberated upon the need and importance of GIS in infrastructure sector. |
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| The Galileo conundrum |
Europe’s answer to USA’s Global Positioning System – Galileo - continues to get embroiled in problems - in terms of funds and the viability of the much-delayed project. After losing confidence of the industry earlier this year, Galileo faced rough weather with UK’s Transport Committee slamming the European Union sleep-walking into a multi-billion pound commitment without proper debate. |
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On the other hand, a section of experts are gaga over the technology marvel that Galileo is. As of now, Galileo is back on rails and it needs to be seen if this technology marvel will ever get operational and see the light of the day. |
