October - 2006

AHP MCDM in biodiversity conservation

Mr. K.R.Sridhara Murthi is currently Managing Director of Antrix Corporation Limited, which is marketing arm of Department of Space of Government of India. He served in various capacities in Indian national space programme for over two decades. Prior to his current position, he was the Scientific Secretary of Indian Space Research Organisation in which capacity, he was responsible for overall direction and guidance for international cooperation, budget and human resources development, space policy and public outreach of Indian Space Program.

Joining Indian Space Research Organisation in 1975, Mr. Murthi handled responsibilities in satellite programme planning at ISRO Satellite Centre until 1985, held key role in the Technology Transfer and Industry Cooperation programme at ISRO Headquarters during 1986-1990, and was Counsellor (Space) at Embassy of India, Paris, promoting cooperation between ISRO and European Organisations, during 1990-94.

Mr. Murthi holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering with post-graduate qualification in Business Administration from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

He was the Vice President of International Astronautical Federation, responsible for external relations with international organizations, during 1998-2002. He had been Indian delegate to United Nations Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space and also a member of International Institute of Space Law (IISL) and a Corresponding Member of International Academy of Astronautics (IAA).

He has several publications in national and international journals and co-author of the book “Perspectives in Communications” published by World Scientific Publishing Company, Singapore.

Dr. Nagaraja Ravoori, Group Head, NRSA Data Centre, Department of Space, (Govt. of India), Hyderabad joined NRSA in 1982 after obtaining M.Sc. (Geography).He obtained Ph.D. from Osmania University. Dr. Nagaraja is responsible for devising procedures/methods to use the GIS for Wasteland Development, Tourism Development and Land Use Change analysis under pilot/operational projects. He has used microwave and optical data to study land use dynamic and its impact on environment. Presently he is involved in the use of multi-stage data for multi-purpose cadastral mapping under INDO-FRG project. He was consultant to International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Rome of United Nations body for analysing trends in shifting cultivation in NE India using Remote Sensed Data. His candidature was nominated by Secretary DOS for UN-ESA fellowship on merit for in depth training on Remote Sensing Information System. Member ‘Data Compression Evaluation Task Team’ for evaluation of Data Compression techniques and algorithms for inclusion in future satellite mission such as cartosat. Member for Project Monitoring Committee for NWIP and Project Manager/Principal Investigator for Wasteland Mapping Project at NRSA.

Dr. Nagaraja received INRS award in 1999 by ISRS, Dehradun and Best Scientist/Engineer Award for 1977-1998 by FAPCCI. Elected as fellow of AP Academy of Sciences in 2000. He was invited for FAO - UNEP expert consultation on strategies for land cover at Florence, Italy during 2002. He was the Organising Secretary, International Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Technical Commission VII on Resource and Environmental Monitoring and Secretary ISPRS WG Vll/3 for the period 2000-2004.

He has about 33 research publications to credit and involved in about 19 major projects in Remote Sensing are which includes five national projects. Coauthor for preparation of Five Manuals/Guidelines for use of remote sensing for different applications. As associate editor he has published a book on “Space Technology and Geography” published by NRSA.

Dr. P. S. Roy, is the Dean of the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS), a premier educational and training institute in the Asia Pacific region organising programmes on Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System techniques and applications in the area of various disciplines of Natural Resource Management. IIRS is also a host institution for organising Post Graduate Course for Centre for Space Science and Technology Education in Asia and the Pacific (Affiliated to the United Nations) (CSSTEAP). He is working in the field of Remote Sensing since 1977 with National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA). He is Project Director of a National project on “Biodiversity Characterisation at landscape level using Remote Sensing and GIS” being executed jointly by Department of Space and Department of Biotechnology.

Dr. P.S. Roy has scientifically contributed on the use of Geoinformation science for forest mapping, monitoring and degradation of tropical forest. He has also made research contribution for forest fire and risk mapping. He has been instrumental on starting educational progranmies on Geoinformatics for Environmental Assessment & Disaster Management for different target groups with the participation of International agencies namely., International Institute for Geoinformation Science & Earth Observation (ITC), International Institute for Infrastructural, Hydraulic and Environmental Engineering (IHE) and Wageningen University (WU).

He is Fellow of National Academy of Sciences, India; Academy of Agriculture Sciences; Indian Geophysical Union and National Institute of Ecology. He has been a member of various major national committees related to Forest/Vegetation Resource Mapping and Monitoring. He has been awarded for his scientific contributions viz., Indian national Remote Sensing Award-1991, Shri Han Om Ashram Prerit Vikram Sarabhai Memorial Research Award (in Space Applications)- 1993, B.P. Pal National Environmental Fellow Award- 1996 and Recognition Award 2002 by National Academy of Agricultural Sciences for his scientific contributions in the area of National Resource Management. He has made most significant research contributions proven with international research publications on geospatial modeling for landscape analysis, wildlife habitat analysis and wasteland development planning. He has also developed analytical tools for microwave remote sensing data for extracting information on forest canopy, type discrimination and digital approach in contextual classification. He has published more than hundred papers/articles in international and national journals.

Mr. Rajesh C. Mathur is the President and Member of the Board of NIIT GIS Ltd., a joint venture between NIIT Ltd. and ESRI, Inc., the World’s largest provider of GIS software.

An alumnus of IIT Delhi, Mr. Mathur has been associated with the IT industry both in India and overseas for more than 25 years. He has handled assignments in General Management, Marketing, Corporate Planning and International Operations. Prior to his current assignment he has worked with Wipro, IDM and DCM Data Systems in India and USA.

As the head of ESRI India, India’s premier GIS products and services company, Mr. Mathur is spearheading the growth of GIS deployment in India. He is actively involved with various professional bodies associated with the Indian GIS industry. He is a Vice President of Indian Society of Geomatics. He is also a member of various committees formed by Govt. of India, CII and FICCI.

Brig. R Siva Kumar graduated in Production Engineering with a First Rank from Sri Venkateswra University and obtained his Post Graduate Diploma in computer Methods and Programming with a Gold Medal. He was commissioned into Corps of Engineers of the Indian Army in June 1977 and later seconded to Survey of India in Oct 1979.

He has varied experience in all aspects of surveying and mapping though his specialization is Photogrammetry. He obtained his PG Diploma in Production Photogrammetry with Distinction from ITC, the Netherlands. His thesis A multi-source digital topographic data base for India’ earned him the Ph.D from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.

He served in Army HQ as Director Military Survey and has been involved in framing and implementation of policies. Currently he is CEO, NSDI Divisions of Department of Science & Technology spearheading NSDI movement.

He travelled abroad widely and had opportunities to study various national mapping organizations and Spatial Data Infrastructure in advanced countries. He served as a member of many expert groups and is currently Member Secretary of the Task Force on NSDI.

He has been recipient of a number of honours and awards. He was awarded Dolezal Prize of the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS) in the congress at Held in Vienna, Austria in 1996.

He was awarded the Tat Scholarships for Study Abroad and the Netherlands Government Fellowship. Papers presented by him have won prizes from the National Research and Development Corporation. He takes active interest in the professional organizations and is a fellow of Institution of Engineers and Institution of Surveyor s besides being a senior member of Computer Society of India, INCA and IME.

Dr. (Mrs) P. Venkatachalam received her Master’s and doctoral degrees in Mathematics from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. She received Institute Silver Medal for securing first rank in M.Sc. Mathematics at IIT, Bombay. Since 1978, she has been working at the Centre of Studies in Resources Engineering, IIT, Bombay carrying out research in the areas of GIS and image processing and has over 80 research publications to her credit. She has guided a number of under graduate and graduate students in their research projects.

Dr.Venkatachalam took the initiative to develop an indigenous GIS package GRAM with the support of Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India. Recently GRAM has been updated and a new version GRAM++ working on Windows platform has been released. She has visited a number of research institutions and universities in India and abroad and delivered lectures. Her keen interest is to see that GIS technology gets penetrated across the country through college curriculum, in-house training and the potential usage by the planners and decision makers. She feels that a strong initiative must be taken by the research organizations and academic institutes in the research and development of spatial information theory.

Dr. Shailesh Nayak is currently working as a Director, Indian National Centre for Oceanic Information Services (INCOIS), Hyderabad. He has earlier worked as Group Director, Marine and Water Resources, at the Space Applications Centre ISRO, Ahmedabad. He has obtained Ph.D degree in Geology from the M. S. University of Baroda in 1980. He has joined the Space Applications Centre in 1978.

He has been mainly involved in conceptualising, formulating and executing many national level projects related application of satellite data related coastal and marine environment. Currently, he is leading a project on ocean colour and integrated coastal zone management and water resources.

He has been member of many national committees related to coastal protection, coastal zone management formulated by the Ministry of Water Resources and Ministry of Environment and Forests, respectively.

He was awarded the Indian National Remote Sensing Award for the Year 1994 by the Indian Society of Remote Sensing, Dehradun. He is recognised as Ph.D guide by six universities and currently six students are carrying out research under his guidance. He is member of the editorial board of the Indian Journal of Marine Science.

He is Secretary, International Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Technical Commission VII on Resource and Environmental Monitoring and Chairman ISPRS WG Vll/3 for the period 2000-2004. He is representing ISRO at the International Ocean Colour Coordinating Group. He has published about 60 papers in International and National journals and atlases.

In his last assignment at ISRO, he worked as the Deputy Director (Technology & Systems), Earth Observations System Programme Office in ISRO Headquarters, Bangalore. Mr Mukund Rao is also involved in the Systems and Technology assessment/coordination for the Indian EO programme and is working for the development of a 25 year strategy for the Indian EO and also for repositioning National Natural Resources Management System (NNRMS). He is well versed with national and international policies in EO and spatial data and has been associated with defining the framework of EO and Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) policies. He coordinates the NSDI activities and has been involved in the development of a Metadata Standard for NSDI in India. He coordinates the international interface of India s EO programme and represents ISRO in many international fora.

His research and work experience is in the field of Spatial Information Systems. He has been working on systems analysis and design and implementation of Decision-Support Systems based on the use of Earth Observation images and of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) tools. He has been the key person in the design and definition of the Natural Resources Management System (NRIS) programme of ISRO/DOS and has completed a number of NRIS projects in support of district planning, urban planning, wasteland development, etc. As Programme Manager of NRIS, he has been involved in furthering the scope and concept of NRIS as a natural resources information repository. Presently, he is the key design person for the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) and is associated in its strategy development, action plan development and implementation.
Mr Mukund Rao is the President (Elect) of the Global Spatial Data Infrastructure; Vice President of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF); Vice Chair of IAFs EO Committee; Member of IAFs Education Committee; Member of IAFs CLIODN Committee; Member-Secretary of the Centre for Space Science and Technology Education in Asia And the Pacific (CSSTEAP) Advisory Committee and participates in many other international fora. He has also earlier Chaired the CEOS Working Group on Education and Training. He is the recipient of the Hari-Om Ashrams Vikram Sarabhai Young Scientists Award for 2002.