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EDITORIAL NOTE
Prof. Arup Dasgupta
arup@geospatialworld.net Managing Editor
The future for Geospatial systems in India is bright
W
elcome to the India Edition. A sense of deja vu prevails because just 25 years ago ‘GIS@Development’ had debuted as a Geospatial magazine for Indian readers. A mere eight-page magazine grew and became a much sought after magazine for readers in government, industry, academia, NGOs and students. The over time, it spawned many regional editions which finally subsumed into the flagship Geospatial World - a magazine of international repute. Indian news was covered but the need to tell the Indian Geospatial story was always felt. India is a sub-continent. Australia, USA, Russia and China too are spread across continents but India is different in terms of its geography, population and culture. Cartography, a fundamental basis of geospatial systems, had developed in India many centuries ago and was reinforced and developed further as India became a colony of the British Empire. The British knew that governing a country of the size of India called for the best in science and technology. Survey of India, Botanical Survey of India and Geological Survey of India are a few of those early institutions set up by the British that are still going strong. In recent times, India has built many new institutions around advances in technology and applications. However, geospatial applications remained fettered by ancient laws that hindered instead of enabling a developing nation. A year ago, the Government started a move to overcome this limitation by introducing radical changes. Simultaneously, it has created an environment that takes key technologies like Space out of the sole ambit
GEOSPATIAL ARTHA Volume 01 » ISSUE 01
of Government departments and institutions and encourages private industry and young entrepreneurs to take the plunge into these exciting areas through many new policies for Space, Geospatial data, Data acquisition and applications. While the government has so far funded these activities, now funds are coming from private and angel investors as well which flow to industry and entrepreneurs. India has a tradition of applying technology to leap-frog into a modern world. Having studied the experience of other nations in applying technology, India is able to build on this and come up with unique solutions for its unique problems. Thus the technologies of Space applications in communications, broadcasting, position location and timing and remote sensing were adopted in various departments and enterprises to improve their functioning and enter new areas. Advances in digital technologies have also given rise to sea changes in the way institutions and individuals communicate, share and transact business. Digital and Space have become so intertwined that it is difficult to separate the two. SVAMITRA and DLRIMP are typical example of how digital technologies, Location and Remote Sensing are coming to the aid of solutions for the ages old problem of delineating properties. The future for Geospatial systems in India is bright. There are enough and more problems to be solved. The key is to remember that what is needed are solutions and not only technology per se. Geospatial Artha will, every two months, bring stories of ideas that will drive India forward. Stories to energise and enrich our readers.
