Empowering Rural India

EMPOWERING RURAL INDIA

Technology advancements, coupled with the power of geospatial visualization and near real-time data access, plays a critical role in fostering socio-economic growth and inclusion in the country’s villages

Editor-in-Chief Sanjay

Enabling Grassroot Beneficiaries

10 / India Approves up to 100% FDI in Space Sector

15 / Versatile Applications of Synthetic Aperture Radar

Empowering Odisha’s Tribal Communities

Pradeep Chauhan

Saurabh Srivastava

Circulation

Shweta Singh

Vijay

/ Data Sharing Critical to Develop Early Warning Systems 20 / Building Resilient Rural Communities

Dr. Shailesh Nayak

Director, National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS)

38 / Transforming Food Systems

Shivaprakash Nagaraju Senior Applied Scientist The Nature Conservancy

48 / Enhancing Indian Railways Operational Efficiency

Achal Jain, Chief Project Director of Track Management System Northern Railway

50 / Digital Twin for Community Driven Development

Nagaraja Rao Harshadeep

Global Lead (Disruptive Technology), Lead Environmental Specialist, Environment

Disclaimer

Agendra Kumar MD, Esri India

/ Agri-Finance With Geospatial Touch

Hiren Doshi General Manager, SatSure Sreeramam GV

36 / Cutting-Edge R&D Driving Sustained Growth

Founder & CEO, NeoGeo Info

24 / Tech Mahindra Vouches for Secure and Updated Street Map Data

46 / Digital App for Forest Produce Market Connect

53 / DigitalMaps@Work in Villages: Rural Development through Geospatial

54 / Satellite in Your Hand

Geospatial Artha does not necessarily subscribe to the views expressed in the publication. All views expressed in this issue are those of the contributors. Geospatial World is not responsible for any loss to anyone due to the information provided.

Owner, Publisher & Printer: Sanjay Kumar Printed at All Time Offset Printers, F-406 Sector 63, Noida - 201 301, Noida (UP) India

Prof. Arup Dasgupta arup@geospatialworld.net Managing Editor

Need for Integrated Development

India is in the throes of heat waves. Nothing unusual about that except that it began as early as in late March this year. The Indian Meteorological Department is now predicting more heat waves of longer duration. Climate is changing in spite of what the naysayers may say which brings a need to take action to make the country resilient to the effects of the change. Key to this are two words, adaptation and mitigation. Needless to say geospatial technologies are needed to address these two action areas.

Some of the major causes of global warming are land use changes, deforestation, energy supply, transport, industry and buildings. In the long term these factors are best addressed through sustainable development. The first 17 SDGs not only address energy systems, urban and infrastructure, land systems and industry but also ocean systems and social issues like livelihoods and economies.

The implication of the mitigation and adaptation actions under the SDG goals require a more integrated and consistent use of geospatial at the grassroots level. This can only be achieved if the citizen becomes an active participant in the processes. It would be expecting too much that a common citizen becomes geospatial savvy as it is. Not every citizen is familiar with GIS and GPS running on a smartphone.

This inclusion can happen when the use of geospatial systems becomes commonplace at the citizen level through simple apps in local languages. Geospatial systems, technologies and applications should become a part of the general fabric of solutions available to the citizens. There is a need for greater interactivity where the citizen can contribute to the solution by providing data, feedback and suggestions.

There is a need to break down silos like technology, economics, livelihood and well-being and understand that all human activities are interconnected. In the final analysis what is done in the name of development is to improve the quality of life for present and future citizens. Development cannot be stopped but it can be regulated and made sustainable by keeping the human and environmental aspects in view.

This is the challenge before humankind and in particular India with its burgeoning population and limited resources.

SURVEY OF INDIA

Pan India CORS Network is being established by Survey of India, to achieve centimetre level accuracy position in real time.

Total 1008 Continuously operating stations will be established in entire country, which will be capable of providing better than 3 cm accuracy in Real Time.

CORS Network in state of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Punjab, Karnataka and Maharashtra is operational and services are available on SoI service Portal. CONTINUOUSLY OPERATING REFERENCE STATIONS (CORS) NETWORK:

Real-time and Precision positioning services by SoI’s CORS Network, are being offered on No charge basis for 3 months from 1st June, 2022 to all citizens in the state of U.P., Uttrakhand, Haryana, N.C.R., Maharashtra and Karnataka.

http://cors.surveyofindia.gov.in

Esri, CKS Partner for Large-Scale Geospatial Education Program

Centre for Knowledge Sovereignty (CKS) and Esri India is jointly to train five lakh students in India in the next five years in the Master Mentors Geo-Enabling Indian Scholars (MMGEIS) programme.

Aimed at making India a geospatial technology skilling and innovation hub and to inculcate geospatial thinking and develop a research-

Indian Air Force Pilots Selected for Historic Gaganyaan Mission

oriented mindset amongst students from 8th grade to undergraduate level.

The programme will also work towards fostering a strong IP framework to enable more patents from the country in its journey towards becoming a global geospatial innovation hub.

CKS is a think tank committed to enhancing security, sovereignty and sustainability in India and across the Asian region, and Esri India is an end-to-end Geographic Information System (GIS) solutions provider.

iCreate, Microsoft, MeitY Join Forces to Boost Indian AI Startups

India has revealed the names of four Air Force pilots shortlisted for its historic Gaganyaan mission, targeting a 2025 launch.

This program aims to send a three-person crew on a three-day orbital mission, reaching an altitude of 400 kilometers. The chosen candidates are all highly skilled test pilots from the Indian Air Force: Group Captains Prashanth Nair, Ajit Krishnan, Angad Pratap, and Wing Commander Shubanshu Shukla. Gaganyaan represents India's first foray into human spaceflight.

With an estimated budget of 90 billion rupees, the project signifies a substantial commitment to space exploration. ISRO has been rigorously testing various aspects of the mission, prioritizing crew safety.

A crucial test successfully demonstrated safety measures, paving the way for further development. Before the 2025 crewed mission, ISRO plans an unmanned test flight in 2024, carrying a robotic occupant. This preliminary mission will be a critical step towards ensuring a successful human spaceflight.

The International Centre for Entrepreneurship and Technology (iCreate) and Microsoft signed an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), facilitated by the Ministry of Electronics & IT (MeitY), to boost AI startups in India. This aligns with Prime Minister Modi's vision for AI collaboration.

The iMPEL-AI program will identify and support 1100 AI in India into AI Most Valuable Players (MVPs), with a focus on key areas such as Healthcare, Financial Inclusion, Sustainability, Education, Agriculture, and Smart Cities. Participants will receive Microsoft training and certifications. This initiative aims to bridge the AI skill gap and empower India's AI leadership.

During its second phase, this initiative aims to identify and expand 100 Indian startups, offering them the opportunity to innovate using Azure OpenAI. The leading 25 of these startups will benefit from Microsoft’s Global Network, receiving support to launch advanced products on a global scale.

Furthermore, the program plans to equip 11,000 Indian innovators, startups, and youth with AI skills through Microsoft’s Learning Management System.

Department of Telecommunications Launches New Digital Twin Initiative

The Indian Department of Telecommunications (DoT) unveiled a Digital Twin initiative called Sangam, as well as inviting Expressions of Interest (EoI) from industry pioneers, startups, MSMEs, and Academia.

Digital Twin technology offers valuable insights and solutions by virtually replicating physical assets, allowing for real-time

monitoring, simulation and analysis for experimental iterations and feedback loop to adapt to the changes for achieving the best outcomes.

Sagnam: Digital Twin will offer a Proof of Concept (PoC) which will be distributed in two stages to interested personnel or corporations and will be implemented in one of the major cities in India.

The first stage will focus on further clarity of its potential before implementation, while the second stage will look to demonstrate its specific use cases and generating

a future blueprint. This process will later serve as the roadmap for scaling and replicating successful strategies in the domain.

India Develops New Tool for Agroforestry

A collaborative effort led by NITI Ayog and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) with five national as well as international institutions has developed a Bhuvan-based tool to assess Agroforest Suitability in India.

Bhuvan is a geoportal platform of ISRO that hosts a wide-ranging services from satellite data visualisation to thematic maps

India, Nigeria to Collaborate for Greater Geospatial Applications

The Nigerian Federal Government will collaborate with India on technical expertise in the realm of geospatial technologies.

The Indian High Commissioner to Nigeria G. Balasubramanian visited the Surveyor General Surv. Abuduganiyu Adeyemi Adebomehin to seek collaboration in remote sensing, carbon mapping, auto

and its analysis. The platform also enables free data downloads and products near real-time disaster services, apps for crowdsourcing, and diverse geospatial applications.

An analysis revealed that about 6.18% and 4.91% of India's land are highly and moderately suitable for agroforestry, respectively. Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Telangana emerged as the top

imagery, and mapping techniques, amongst others.

This partnership with Nigeria was sought after the introduction of the geospatial policy enacted by the government of India to establish global collaboration with major countries.

The Ambassador reiterated the use of Artificial Intelligence to provide auto imagery as India has a high resolution of images. Furthermore, he highlighted India’s strength in remote sensing and space capabilities while emphasising on key areas such as Hydrography, Remote Sensing, Surveying training, and technical expertise

large-sized states for agroforestry suitability, while Jammu and Kashmir, Manipur, and Nagaland ranked highest among the mediumsized states.

in which both countries can work together.

Surveyor General said that Nigeria can take advantage of India’s satellite infrastructure to capture carbon emissions, agriculture, food production and security.

Tata Advanced Systems, Satellogic ink strategic contract to build LEO satellites in India

Tata Advanced Systems Limited, aerospace and defence solutions, and Satellogic, a sub-meter resolution Earth Observation Data collection company announced their collaboration for establishing and developing local space technology capabilities in India.

This collaboration is a first step in TASL’s satellite strategy and a significant milestone for Satellogic as it enters the fast-growing Indian Defence and commercial market. The project will commence with comprehensive training, knowledge transfer, and local assembly of optical sub-meter resolution EO satellites, the first of which is planned to be launched as TSAT-1A.

The focus will be on manufacturing satellites and developing imagery in India for national defence and commercial applications, toward which TASL is commissioning a satellite AIT plant at its Vemagal facility in Karnataka.

TASL and Satellogic will collaborate on the development of a new satellite design and work together to integrate multiple payloads on a single satellite that will generate a diverse range of data over India.

Genesys

Wins Contract

Genesys International, an Indian digital mapping company, secured a contract worth INR 155 crore with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to develop a 3D city model and map stack for Mumbai.

Under this agreement, Genesys will provide the development, implementation, and upkeep of a highly accurate 3D city model and map stack for Mumbai and also update the same for three years.

The project aims to provide an elaborate and comprehensive

Dhruva Space and Swedish Space Corporation

to

Expand Ground Station Network Synergies

Dhruva Space and Swedish Space Corporation are expanding their partnership to improve satellite ground station networks, accelerating the growth of Swedish and Indian new space industries initiatives.

Dhruva Space will be leveraging the SSC network of Ground Stations for LEAP-1, an upcoming hosted payload satellite mission, slated for launch later in 2024.

This engagement builds on Dhruva Space’s expertise in full-stack space solutions, including satellite manufacturing, launch services, and mission operations, augmented by SSC’s decades-long experience in establishment and operations of Ground Station operations and satellite communication services.

A network of ground stations for the Launch Early Orbit Phase (LEOP) is essential for ensuring the success, safety, and operational integrity of satellite missions. These stations play a critical role in facilitating communication, data transfer, tracking, and control during the crucial early stages of a satellite’s journey to orbit.

for Mumbai’s Digital Twin

overview of the city’s landscape to enable precise planning and collaboration among various stakeholders.

The project entails the creation of a unified mapping platform, incorporating various layers such as the 3D reality mesh model, base map with advanced features and street imaging, Digital Surface Model (DSM), Digital Terrain Model (DTM) along a change detection map.

These tools will empower municipal departments, government agencies, and citizens to make informed decisions that contribute to the city’s growth. The project aligns with the Mumbai’s vision of becoming a ‘smart city’ with advanced technologies.

Survey of India and Space Application Centre signs MoU for Earth Observation

Survey of India (SOI) and Space Application Centre (SAC), Ahmedabad, have signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), to leverage their respective capabilities in the operation and maintenance of the National Infrastructure for Earth observation.

Under the terms of the MoU,

SOI will play a pivotal role in supporting ISRO’s NISAR mission by extending its positioning services, including CORS and other ground reference point data. This collaboration will facilitate necessary calibration and validation work for the NISAR mission.

SOI’s extensive network of Continuously Operating Reference System (CORS) stations, covering the entire country, is equipped to observe Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) satellite data 24×7, providing essential positioning services.

NHAI sign MoU with Geological Survey of India for Robust Highways

National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Geological Survey of India (GSI) to provide services to NHAI for site specific geotechnical consultancy and assist in vetting of Detailed Project Reports (DPR) from geotechnical point of view.

As per the agreement, Geological Survey of India will provide site specific geotechnical consultancy services related to preparation of geological map of the area. It will also give detailed geological features, preparation of slope stability study of the road and providing necessary recommendations, identification of geologically weak zones, suggest site specific remedial measures, 3D geological logging of tunnels in the project and suggest necessary & relevant stabilization measures.

In addition, GSI will also undertake detailed analysis of DPRs prepared by NHAI consultants. The collaboration will not only help in easier operations and maintenance of the highways but will also provide smooth and seamless travel experience to the National Highway users.

Concurrently, SAC is actively engaged in developing a Space Borne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) space mission in collaboration with NASA, focusing on measuring Earth’s surface dynamics.

NICDC and IIT Delhi to Collaborate for National Industrial Corridor

National Industrial Corridor Development Corporation Limited (NICDC) under Department for Promotion of Industry & Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India and the Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (FITT-IITD) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to evaluate optimality of locations for development of Greenfield Industrial Smart Cities in India leveraging the principles and framework of PM GatiShakti.

The collaboration marks an important move towards using advanced technology and research to strengthen India's industrial infrastructure. This will also help both the organizations leverage each other’s strength in their respective domains.

Under the MoU, FITT-IITD will leverage its technological prowess & research capabilities to analyse various factors influencing location optimality, including ease of business, living/logistic costs, multi-modal connectivity, ease of living index, living costs, potential of particular industry(s), raw-material availability and sustainability.

INDIA APPROVES UP TO 100% FDI IN SPACE SECTOR

India’s Space Program is entering a new era with a ground-breaking change in foreign investment rules (FDI) paving the way for an increase in international involvement. This opens the door for global investors leading to a future filled with innovation, new jobs, and a booming economy. It also opens the door for unparalleled collaboration between nations, accelerating the growth of the space sector.

The new policy divides the satellite industry into three distinct areas, with varying levels of foreign investment allowed in each. This strategic move ensures a well-organized approach to attracting international partners. The Indian Space Policy 2023 serves as a comprehensive guide for this new direction.

The move will catalyse the entire space industry by enabling a larger and global pool of investment capital as well as strategic capital to come into India. It is much needed to not only scale existing companies to becoming globally competitive but also helps more startups get started in the first place.

AWAIS AHMED

FOUNDER & CEO, PIXXEL

This historic decision paves the way for unprecedented growth and innovation, fostering a new era of space exploration and commercialization in India.

With 74-100% FDI, we anticipate faster developments & accelerating our journey of exploration and discovery. I think heavens are open for business from India.

SUYASH SINGH CEO & CO-FOUNDER, GALAXEYE

Narendra Modi, PM, India: Charting new orbits for growth and innovation! Our government has updated the FDI policy in the space sector, paving the way for a galaxy of opportunities.

This move will help to attract global investors, foster innovation, create jobs, and drive substantial economic growth. It will also help existing companies to scale up and make startups more competitive globally”.

ANKIT BHATEJA

FOUNDER & DIRECTOR

XOVIAN AEROSPACE

SHRI NARENDRA MODI PRIME MINISTER OF INDIA

The new FDI policy simplifies the investment process, removes previous obstacles, and broadcasts a powerful message to global investors about India’s welcoming stance and preparedness for substantial investments in the space domain.

Sector/Activity

Satellites-

Manufacturing & Operation

Satellite Data Products

Ground Segment & User Segment

Launch Vehicles and associated systems or subsystems

Creation of Spaceports for launching and receiving Spacecraft

Manufacturing of components and systems/ sub-systems for satellites, ground segment and user segment

Sectoral Cap Entry Route

Up to 74%:  Automatic

100%

100%

Beyond 74%:  Government route

Up to 49%:  Automatic

Beyond 49%:  Government route

ANIRUDH SHARMA FOUNDER & CEO, DIGANTARA

The liberal FDI limits by automatic route for end-to-end satellite manufacturing & operation, components and systems/ sub-systems for satellites, satellite data products and ground segment & user segment, launch vehicles, creation of spaceports will boost the confidence of all space industry members, including the biggest global players in the space and satellite domain.

LT. GEN. AK BHATT (RETD.)

DIRECTOR GENERAL, INDIAN SPACE ASSOCIATION(ISPA)

100%

Up to 100%:  Automatic

After the pioneering initiative to administratively allocate satellite spectrum, today’s decision to allow a liberal FDI policy for space is yet another significant move forward”. “Startups will now have excellent funding opportunities and can make the best use of it towards innovation and developing new technologies.

AJEY LELE

SENIOR FELLOW, MANOHAR PARRIKAR INSTITUTE FOR DEFENCE STUDIES & ANALYSIS

The Indian Newspace story is a very interesting one, as it leverages the great local talent pool and lower costs of innovating. However, the global space sector investors had been left out mostly because FDI in the sector was not via automatic route. With the recent reform, there is an opportunity for them to participate in the Indian space ecosystem and amplify our innovations worldwide. This will enable cross-border innovation and investment and contribute to the growth of the Indian space sector”.

PRATEEP BASU CEO & CO-FOUNDER SATSURE

It’s a good move but the devil is in the details. The reason for such bifurcation is not clear. It will increase the paperwork. The area that requires massive FDI, launch vehicles, is restricted to 49%. Components and subsystems get 100% possibly with an eye on the export market.

ARUP DASGUPTA

Managing Editor, Geospatial World and Former Deputy Director ISRO

Data Sharing Critical to Develop Early Warning Systems

Dr. Shailesh Nayak was recently awarded the prestigious Padma Shree for his contribution to oceanography, which includes developing India's first automated Tsunami Warning System that has saved countless lives since the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami.

The UNDP (United Nations Development Program) has

What were the challenges that you faced while developing India's first tsunami warning system?

At that time, there was not much knowledge about tsunami and what could be the components of

hailed India’s Early Warning Systems as a model for disaster management and community empowerment. His contribution also includes fishing system for fishermen as well as setting up AQI (Air Quality Index).

Currently, Dr. Nayak is the Director at the National Institute of Advanced Studies

the tsunami warning system.

The other major issue was the technology, how to put all other things together to detect the earthquake, because 90% of the tsunami are generated by the

in Bangalore, and Chancellor of TERI School of Advanced Studies in New Delhi.

In an exclusive interview with Geospatial Artha, Dr. Nayak, the man behind India’s first Tsunami Early Warning System shares his journey as an oceanographer and the challenges he faced while developing the tsunami early warning system.

earthquake. Whatever system we had to detect, the Cisco Grafters, were within India and the tsunami genic zones were Indonesia and the Andaman coast, which are outside Indian mainland. In order to detect, you need to pinpoint

correctly, for which you need a system on both the sides of the earthquake.

Also, at that time, data was not available because we were not sharing our suspect data with anybody else and nobody was sharing with us. Then we did some hybrid discussion with the global system to provide the data.

Even then the issue was that it used to take almost one hour to detect the earthquake and about 2-2.5 hours for the data to reach mainland coast and by that time tsunami would've come.

So we needed to develop a system which provides data in real-time. The second is that we needed to confirm the rate of the earthquake in Richter scale.

So you need the tidal data where the tides would've changed along the coast, not only India but Indonesia and Pakistan and then in the ocean, if it has changed, you need whether sea level has changed, there is very sensitive instrument output, which is called bottom pressure.

It measures the pressure of tsunami, which is very accurate. It can even detect changes in millimeters, but the problem is that the sensor is sending signals from 3000-4000 meters below the surface, and it takes time to reach to the surface. In case a single signal is missed, it can turn out to be a huge disaster.

After that, all these information should come in real-time to a center and this has to be processed in real time.

models also will take long time to learn to run.

Today there is a lot of things like IoT, AI and ML but we did it without these technologies in 2007.

For which we need the related geophysical instruments, communication, computing, and most importantly decision support system, which is based on GIS.

We also need to be sure before giving warning because if there is false alarm, people will stop believing us. So, we set up a tidal power station and a water pressure recorder, which informed us about the changes in sea level. We can confirm about the tsunami through this.

Our model details the tsunami wave’s height and travel time every 50 kms. In the entire Indian Ocean, we are forecasting on around 1800 points.

The communication system should also be strong in this process, which we have made.

It took 13-14 minutes in this process in the beginning. The time decreased by 6-7 minutes after six months. Also, there is no false warning.

Now that we have all the data and technology available with us, what are the ongoing challenges? The major challenge which is yet to be overcome is very large earthquake, like what happened in Fukushima, which was estimated 7.9, but turned out to be 9.1.

Now the difference between seven and nine is 30 times. Now we are trying to work on realtime models due to access to high computing power and many GPS stations.

If there is any rupture, the GPS can also pick up because there will be changes in either horizontally or lateral vertically, once you know the rupture, you go to the magnitude, which is possible in principle, but the amount of data to be processed is little high.

So they have been working on it and I'm sure that another

The third is that since you can't have the signal, similarly the Travel time Directivity map for the September 12, 2007, 8.4 earthquake

Photo Credit: INCOIS

INTERVIEW

With the help of geospatial, we can map the sources of plastic pollution online and look at where they are getting transfered.

couple of years we should be able to overcome that.

The second challenge is, that all this is based on earthquake, but tsunami can occur due to landslides, and submarine landslides.

For that we have to further improve our system. That means we need to put more bottom pressure record so that we can identify landslide prone areas.

The coastal zones have always been affected by natural disasters and now with the growing plastic pollution in the ocean, the habitats are further deteriorating, how can geospatial help foster ocean sustainability?

There are two main sources of plastic, land-based and terrestrial-based, which if not properly disposed gradually degrade and become smaller particles, what we call as a microplastic or microfibers, which can travel through streams, rivers and oceans.

Fishing nets are also one of the largest cause of microplastics. We can't do much here other than creating consciousness among fishermen.

With the help of geospatial, we can map the sources of plastic pollution online and look at where

they are getting transfered.

Most fish now have microplastics in their gut but it is still not at a very alarming level. For which there are campaigns going on to connect the marine leaders.

The most important thing in my view is the consciousness among the people.

Climate change has become a pressing issue, escalating the frequency of droughts and flash floods, tropical cyclones, landslides, earthquakes etc. How can the disaster response system be strengthened to tackle the effects of climate change?

Accurate cyclone prediction has saved a lot of lives over the last 15 years. Back in 1998-1999, the cyclone in Odisha killed over a thousand people.

Now the response of the state and national government and the local bodies is extremely good.

They have successfully moved almost 2 million people from the coastal areas in case of any warning, but moving them to a safe space is not enough, you have to provide them food, water, shelter for at least a week or so, which is a herculean task.

Earlier, people were reluctant to move when the government asked them to, which has changed because now both people and government trust the forecast.

Similarly, for floods also the system is in place but it is not as effective as cyclone, however now the system has been put in place in Chennai and Bombay.

Traditionally it was believed that floods are a plains problem, not a hills problem, but we have been seeing that the several floods in Uttarakhand, and in Kashmir.

Now for that the system is not ready, there are not sufficient observation points to read from.

We need to focus on certain areas now, especially the urban and the hills to address the issues of floods.

In the urban areas a lot of encroachment is happening on water bodies. And many urban areas have very high rise building. So the foundation goes very deep, hindering groundwater movement.

At the same time, many lakes and ponds have been filled up. So there is not sufficient place for water to move. While constructing roads, they put one meter high dividers, which act as dam and hinder the flow.

Also, when they relay the road, the hydrology is not taken into account so many times the road is laid on the higher surface and the surrounding remains at lower side.

Similarly now with ocean also there are marine heat waves, which is also for that the system is in place to predict marine heat fields.

So I'm sure that as the impacts of climate change increases the better system both for early warning and it's response by the government will be in place.

Interviewed by Nibedita Mohanta

Versatile Applications of Synthetic Aperture Radar

With the indigenous development of Radar Imaging Satellites – RISAT-1 and 2 – as well as the upcoming Indo-US joint venture of NASA-ISRO SAR (NISAR), Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) has become very popular in the Indian scientific community, as a powerful remote sensing technology to observe and understand the Earth's surface.

By Raj Kumar

The recent advancements in Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) technology have significantly enhanced its capabilities and expanded its applications. Advances in technology have led to the development of systems capable of capturing images with unprecedented detail.

High-resolution SAR images can now be used for various appli-

cations, including urban planning, infrastructure monitoring, and environmental assessment.

Advancements in SAR technology have led to the development of compact and lightweight systems that can be deployed on small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or satellites.

The technology is being increasingly integrated with other remote sensing technolo-

gies, such as optical and thermal imaging, to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the Earth's surface.

This integration allows for the generation of multi-sensor data products that can be used for a wide range of applications. As technology continues to evolve, we can expect further enhancements in SAR capabilities, further expanding its potential applications and impact.

IN-DEPTH

Charting the Way

The debut SAR mission was commenced by NASA in 1973 after launching SEASAT, along with a few other payloads. Thereafter, many airborne and space-borne SAR missions have been launched by various space agencies. One of the major game changers in the applications has been the open-access data products of Sentinel-1.

ISRO at Space Applications

Centre developed its first SAR Radar Imaging satellite (RISAT-1) which was launched in 2012. As a follow-on mission to RISAT-1, RISAT-1A, also known as Earth Observation Satellite (EOS-04) launched in 2022, has an indigenously developed, C-band, active array SAR with several features and improvements over its predecessor to meet the user requirements.

With the new geospatial policy announced by Govt of India, Indian Remote Sensing Satellite data of spatial resolution 5m and above has also been made available openly without any cost by the National Remote Sensing Centre, ISRO through its Bhoonidhi portal.

Aiding Agriculture

Ministry of Agriculture requires multiple pre-harvest acreage and production estimates of major kharif and rabi crops at various spatial scales, which has been done since the late 80s using remote sensing and ancillary data.

SAR technology has emerged as a powerful tool in agriculture, offering unique capabilities for monitoring crops and improving agricultural practices.

SAR, with its ability to penetrate clouds and operate day and night, provides valuable information that complements traditional optical remote sensing techniques. The reflection (backscatter in SAR) is highly sensitive to the moisture content as well as surface and canopy structure due to changes in dielectric constant and roughness.

One of the key applications of SAR in agriculture is crop monitoring and management. SAR can provide detailed information about crop growth, health, and stress levels. By analyzing that data, farmers can make informed decisions about irrigation, fertilization, and pest control, leading to improved crop yields and resource efficiency.

Another important application of SAR in agriculture is crop mapping and classification. Its data can be used to identify different crop types and monitor their spatial distribution. This information is invaluable for crop inventory, land use planning, and crop yield forecasting. The technology can also be used to monitor land degradation, such as soil erosion and desertification.

By analyzing this data over time, scientists and policymakers

can assess the extent of land degradation and implement measures to mitigate its effects.

One of the major game changers in the applications has been the open-access data products of Sentinel-1. As SAR technology continues to evolve, its applications in agriculture are expected to grow, providing farmers with the tools they need to improve crop yields, reduce resource consumption, and adapt to a changing climate.

Forests

and Climate   Forests play a very significant role in the global climate. Regular monitoring of forest areas and Above Ground Biomass is useful to manage forest degradation as well as in tracking total carbon storage.

Render of Radar Imaging Satellite RISAT-1 in deployed configuration

From environmental monitoring to disaster management, urban planning to agriculture, SAR plays a crucial role in our understanding of the Earth's surface and its changes over time.

SAR is revolutionizing forestry management by offering a wealth of information that is invaluable for monitoring forests, estimating biomass, detecting deforestation and illegal logging, monitoring forest fires, and assessing forest health.

Its data can provide detailed information about the extent and distribution of forests, allowing forestry agencies to monitor deforestation, degradation, and land use changes over time.

This information is crucial for sustainable forest management and conservation efforts. The technology is also used for estimating forest biomass, which is essential for assessing carbon stocks and monitoring forest health. It can also be used to detect deforestation and illegal logging activities in forests.

When it comes to managing wildlife disasters, SAR is instrumental in detecting and monitoring forest fires, allowing for

the detection of heat sources associated with wildfires. This information is crucial for early detection and rapid response to forest fires, helping to minimize their impact on forest ecosystems and nearby communities.

By monitoring these changes over time, one can assess the health of forests and implement measures to mitigate the impact of forest pests and diseases.

Monitoring Earth’s Ice

The cryosphere, comprising of ice and snow, plays a crucial role in Earth's climate system, affecting global sea levels, weather patterns, and ocean currents. Monitoring the cryosphere is essential for understanding and predicting climate change impacts.

SAR offers unique capabilities for studying ice and snow dynamics with unprecedented detail. The Himalayas, home to some of the world's highest peaks and most extensive glaciers are a

region of immense geological and ecological significance.

Monitoring this region is crucial for understanding climate change impacts, water resource management, and natural hazard mitigation. Glacier mass balance, used as a climate change indicator, requires regular monitoring.

However, due to the tough terrain, quality data collection through ground truth is limited, hence optical as well as SAR-based remote sensing is one of the best options for regular and long-term data collection for the analysis.

SAR has emerged as a vital tool for studying the Himalayas, offering unique capabilities for monitoring its glaciers, landforms, and environmental changes. The technology can provide detailed information about glacier flow rates, ice thickness changes, and glacier terminus positions.

This information is crucial for understanding glacier dynamics and predicting their response to climate change. The Himalayas are also prone to landslides and avalanches, which pose significant risks to human settlements and infrastructure.

It can detect and monitor landslides and avalanches in near real-time, providing early warning systems and valuable information for disaster management and risk assessment.

Disaster Management

SAR plays a crucial role in disaster

IN-DEPTH

management, providing valuable information for monitoring, assessing, and responding to various types of disasters worldwide like floods, earthquakes, subsidence, landslides, volcanic activity, oil spills, and cyclones.

Floods are one of the most frequent and vulnerable natural phenomena that occur due to both natural and anthropogenic changes.

Space-borne SAR can provide synoptic coverage and the capability to monitor flood-affected regions repeatedly, their progressions/recessions as well as damage assessment, making it an indispensable tool for the management and mitigation of such disasters.

During the floods, the technology provides detailed information about the extent of flooding, allowing authorities to assess the affected areas and plan evacuation and relief efforts accordingly. Its data is also used to monitor flood dynamics in real time, providing crucial information for flood forecasting and early warning systems.

Disasters like earthquakes are difficult to predict, however, SAR data is extremely useful in monitoring the seismic activities

in the earthquake-prone zones by regular observations over those areas and computing the minute deformation through interferometric techniques. SAR technology is also used for earthquake damage assessment by comparing satellite images before and after an earthquake.

Oil Supervision

Oil spill is one of the major threats to the marine environment and the timely detection, monitoring, and mitigation of the threats using the easily scalable system, is one of the most important tasks for the ocean community.

With the increase in largescale developmental activities in the offshore and coastal regions, the chances of oil spills are also becoming very frequent.

Even though they originated in the deeper regions, they spread rapidly with the wind, waves, and currents. The development of sensors as well as techniques in recent times has increased the feasibility of detecting oil spills in real-time and computing their area as well as the direction of spread.

Due to its all-weather and day-night observation capability, SAR has become one of the extremely suitable instruments for oil spill detection tasks.

Oceanic Challenges

Ocean and coastal monitoring are of great scientific interest as well as economic interest. SAR applications for the ocean range from the ocean surface and internal waves, oil spills, currents, high-resolution surface winds, ships and pollutants detection, oil spill detection, underwater topography, coastline and inter-tidal zone classification, etc.

Many coastal and deep ocean activities such as coastal and offshore structure design, ship navigation, and the dissipation of marine pollution have substantial dependencies on ocean waves and wind information. SAR data can be used for all these problems.

Characteristics of the ocean surface and internal waves from SAR data are estimated using spectral analysis with various corrections during the estimation because of the modulation in the SAR image due to the ocean motion as well as imaging phenomena.

Similar to internal waves, other ocean phenomena revealed by SAR include the detection of ocean surface current patterns, eddies, and gyres, by their influence on surface waves.

NISAR has been conceptualized to provide a detailed view of the Earth to observe and measure some of the planet's most complex processes, including ecosystem disturbances, glaciers, and ice-sheet dynamics, land deformations induced by tectonic and non-tectonic processes.

Monitoring of underwater topography in coastal regions is vital for the exploration and exploitation of non-living and living resources such as operations on engineering structures, ship navigation, dredging, fishing, and laying pipelines/cables.

In addition to these activities, bathymetry plays a vital role in simulating storm surges, ocean currents, and waves in numerical models. The conventional techniques using ships and buoys over the vast stretches of coastal waters though provide data at higher spatial resolution and high accuracy, are found to be expensive and inadequate in terms of coverage.

NISAR’s Outreach

A dual-frequency NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) is also planned to be in orbit in the very near future. NISAR, a dual-frequency (L and S band) SAR with an innovative SweepSAR technology with a high repeat cycle of 12 days, will

be providing high resolution (2-30 m resolution) with a wide swath (>240 km) with the capability of acquiring full-polarimetric and repeat-pass interferometry.

NISAR has been conceptualized to provide a detailed view of the Earth to observe and measure some of the planet's most complex processes, including ecosystem disturbances, glaciers, and ice-sheet dynamics, land deformations induced by tectonic and non-tectonic processes, coastal process dynamics and natural hazards.

This powerful and unique mission will produce a wealth of data over the global landmass, ice-covered regions, and oceans around India with enormous application potential.

The huge high-quality data of more than 40Tbits/day data will be transferred to ISRO and NASA ground stations for processing and will be provided to the research as well as user commu-

nities for science problems and numerous applications.

One of the major uniqueness of NISAR is the free and open data policy, in which all data will be provided freely to global users. From the Indian perspective, in addition to the science activities, NISAR data will be utilized for various SAR-based applications with free data for several operational project accomplishments.

For the initial as well as routine calibration, it has a comprehensive plan that involves setting up a network of corner reflectors, establishing corner reflectors around Indian research stations in Antarctica, and leveraging SAR calibration sites in the USA in addition to the homogeneously distributed targets.

Synthetic Aperture Radar is a versatile and powerful remote sensing technology with a wide range of applications. From environmental monitoring to disaster management, and urban planning to agriculture, SAR plays a crucial role in our understanding of the Earth's surface and its changes over time. As SAR technology continues to advance, its applications are likely to expand, further enhancing its importance in modern remote sensing.

Raj Kumar

Former Director National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC)

Building Resilient

Rural Communities

Food producers and agriculturists need GIS to understand the dynamics of agro-climatic features, evaluate risks, and work towards adopting sustainable agricultural practices and strengthening resilience,” says Agendra Kumar, MD, Esri India in an exclusive interview with Geospatial World.

Government of India has made geospatial technology penetrate into the rural fabric of the nation with its flagship schemes like SVAMITVA, Har Ghar Jal, Digital India to name a few. How is Esri India contributing in empowering rural India with its geospatial technologies? Rural communities face unique challenges. Poverty, social inequalities, and lack of education make them disproportionately vulnerable to disruptions including natural disasters and health-related hazards. By bringing together all the rural subjects together on a unified platform, GIS aids in strengthening rural resilience and empowerment of the rural communities.

evaluate risks, and work towards adopting sustainable agricultural practices and strengthening resilience.

By integrating location intelligent IoT based devices, and farm infrastructure, geo-enabled precision agriculture offers transformative economic potential for sustainable climate-smart-agriculture.

Integrating location-intelligent supply chain infrastructure with financing and farming activities on a GIS platform strengthens the market linkages and reduces losses.

Esri India’s home-grown solution product, Indo ArcGIS offers unique solutions and data products that can effectively address the challenges in rural areas and lead to informed decision-making. These solutions are supported by 900+ layers of Indian data sets through the Indian edition of ArcGIS Living Atlas.

Food producers and agriculturists need GIS to understand the dynamics of agro-climatic features,

Indo ArcGIS includes data and solutions products specially curated for addressing the challenges related to land administration, disaster management, natural resource management, water resource management, agriculture, and more, in India.

These solutions can play a crucial role in rural development by providing valuable tools and insights for planning, disaster

Land Records Management

resilience, decision-making, and resource management.

What efforts are being made by Esri India towards creating conducive geospatial knowledge infra to spark innovation?

ArcGIS, which includes readyto-use, data hosting, and content management services, owing to its platform approach, plays a crucial role in setting up the Geospatial Knowledge Infrastructure.

It is a geospatial system of engagement that connects maps, apps, data, and people in ways that help organizations make more informed and faster decisions.

ArcGIS accomplishes this by making it easy for everyone in an organization to discover, use, make, and share maps from any device, anywhere, anytime. As a System of Systems, ArcGIS enables the creation of a sound geospatial knowledge infrastructure that facilitates innovation.

We are also working with 800+ colleges and universities to create a geospatially skilled workforce that adeptly meets the demands of industries.

The learning programs provide the students with

real-world industry experience in using GIS software and learning best practices. Recently, we also partnered with the leading Indian Public Policy Think Tank Centre for Knowledge Sovereignty (CKS) to launch the ‘Master Mentors Geo-Enabling Indian Scholars’ (MMGEIS) program in the country.

MMGEIS is designed to set the stage for next-generation geospatial research and innovation by mentoring promising students under the guidance of leading scientists and innovators in the country.

As the geospatial industry shifts from services to solutions how do you think Esri India empowers Indian start-ups?

Esri India actively works with start-ups to provide them with early-stage technology support. We want to make location intelligence technology available to every start-up in India and pave the way for its large-scale adoption.

Indo ArcGIS packaged solutions make data products and Indian datasets readily available to start-ups, helping them to create innovative solutions for solving the most pressing social and business challenges.

Esri India has consistently ranked among the best places to work. Tell us more about your organizational ethos.

Esri India has always shown a strong commitment to creating a collaborative, transparent, and growth-oriented work culture.

We give a lot of emphasis on gender diversity; currently, women form over 37% of the workforce. Many women are occupying key positions and making valuable contributions to the success of Esri India and its customers.

“Trust, Transparency, and Teamwork” are intrinsic to Esri India’s DNA. We empower our employees and provide them with opportunities for learning and growth. Our values form the basis of our initiatives to foster a diverse, inclusive, and sustainable workplace.

The GPTW certifications reiterate our commitment to providing equal opportunities to all employees while building a people-centric & purpose-driven work culture, where everyone feels respected and valued.

What will be the impact of generative AI in the Indian geospatial landscape?

IN-CONVERSATION

The need of the hour in India is to create an integrated geospatial infrastructure that can help integrate social, environmental, and economic information in a way that enables people to gain greater insight into complex situations, make data-driven decisions.

The year 2023 saw Generative AI gaining momentum and increased effort towards multimodal AI systems capable of comprehending and processing diverse information in the form of text, images, 3D, audio, video, and even brain activity.

It is anticipated that in 2024, there will be an increasing emphasis on real-time finetuning, empowering AI models to dynamically adapt and comprehend current data. This evolution will propel advancements in AI applications.

In the realm of geospatial, the application of AI fused with geospatial data, science, and technology is already accelerating real-world understanding of business opportunities, environmental impacts, and operational risks. We call this Geospatial Artificial Intelligence (GeoAI).

GeoAI is transforming the speed at which we extract meaning from complex datasets, thereby aiding us in addressing the earth’s most pressing challenges.

Organizations leveraging GeoAI are revolutionizing how they transform data into information, with models that adapt even as data evolves. This trend will continue to gain momentum in 2024.

What do you think is the role of geospatial in making India a resilient society and economy?

Geospatial thinking plays a critical role in building resilience and sustainability.

GIS provides unmatched capabilities to discover insights from data and transform how organizations and nations see, think, and act. GIS-based resilience frameworks are powerful for communicating, analyzing, and sharing information for solving complex problems.

GIS powers the nation’s resilience infrastructures with risk information and analytics, hyperlocal hazard detection and early warning systems, scalable data analytics (national, state, district, and community level), and tools for decision support and action on the ground which enable timely interventions towards strengthening resilience and adaptability.

As an intelligent nervous system with enhanced situational awareness, through its datadriven insights, GIS aids in sensing the health of ecosystems to plan and prepare and provides tools to respond and recover.

Be it economic (Energy, Infrastructure, Agriculture), Social (Urban, Rural, Health, Transportation, Public Safety), or

Environmental (Climate) components, GIS empowers all the stakeholders equally with data insights and tools.

Most of these being dynamic in nature and intertwined with multiple factors, GIS plays a key role in facilitating planning, managing, and monitoring these subjects efficiently and effectively.

Governments across the world are turning to GIS technology to create usable information from the data they collect, and then analyze that information to understand and develop better strategies to solve problems and subsequently become more resilient.

The need of the hour, in India, is to create an integrated geospatial infrastructure that can help integrate social, environmental, and economic information in a way that enables them to gain greater insight into complex situations, make datadriven decisions on where to act, and apply resources and collaborate across organizations and around the world.

With its simplification and deployment on the web and in cloud computing as well as the integration with real-time information (the Internet of Things), GIS promises to be a robust platform for building a nation’s resilience framework.

As a community, we need to apply all our GIS knowledge and learnings from the past to develop a better understanding of the risks and vulnerabilities that are specific to our nation and then, build solutions for a more resilient future.

Interviewed by Nibedita Mohanta

11-12 June 2024 | Vivanta, Dwarka, New Delhi

Theme: Resilient Multi-Domain Regional Security Land + Sea + Air + Space + Cyberspace

Indo Pacific region is a very populated region through which large proportion of maritime trade passes. Security of this region is of vital importance to all the stakeholder’s involved.

Indo Pacific Geointelligence Forum, hosted by Geospatial world is its defense flagship conference which encapsulates the core of safeguarding security and stability with the interconnected nature and interdependence across crucial domains (Land, Sea, Air, Space and Cyberspace) within the Region.

KEY HIGHLIGHTS

Tech Mahindra Vouches for Secure and Updated Street Map Data

With the release of geospatial guidelines and the subsequent policy formation by the Department of Science and Technology, the Indian market was introduced to mobile mapping as a new domain. This technology has been widely adopted in other countries, and by experts in the geospatial domain. Tech Mahindra was quick to recognize its potential benefits and adopt it in a timely manner.

Market studies have shown that there is an increasing demand for mobile mapping services and applications across various sectors, including government and public sector, infrastructure, telecommunication, mining, transportation, and logistics.

Objective

Data is considered to be the starting stage for any technology change because it forms the foundation on which new technologies are built. To develop and improve technologies, it is essential to have accurate and relevant data that can be used in a wide range of applications across various industries to improve decision-making and optimize business processes.

In order to drive change through new technology and innovation for its customers, Tech Mahindra decided to leverage its

existing geospatial capabilities and expand into mobile data collection to pursue new business opportunities in India through Street View data collection project.

In a strategic partnership with Google, Tech Mahindra is offering street-level imagery to Google Maps' street view feature. In the partnership Tech Mahindra is responsible for geographic information system (GIS) processes from data creation, resourcing, insights generation, and the collection of street-level imagery.

Challenges

● Mobile mapping poses various challenges, including technical, regulatory, data management, cost-related, and people challenges.

● Technical challenges arose due to the need for skilled personnel, specialized equipment, and regular maintenance.

● The new geospatial policy provides some relaxation for basic digital maps but developing detailed maps with a spatial accuracy of one meter horizontal and three meters vertical elevation face restrictions, especially for international customers, was

another challenge.

● Another challenge is managing and storing large volumes of geospatial data, which require substantial computing resources and storage capacity. The cost of acquiring and maintaining geospatial technologies, personnel, and equipment makes mobile mapping an expensive endeavor.

Tech Mahindra addressed these challenges by partnering with global experts for knowledge sharing and collaborating with equipment providers for customization, training, and maintenance. They used their expertise in handling large volumes of data, dedicated data center capacity, and skilled resources. In order to overcome the cost related challenges Tech Mahindra established partnership networks with equipment providers, logistics companies, and data center companies, and subcontracting partners.

Technology Solution

Advanced cameras equipped with integrated IMU and GPS sensors, capable of capturing 60.5 MP resolution and up to 7 frames per second, were used for data collection with a customized configu-

Benefits

New job opportunities from engineers to groundlevel staff were created for over 600+ individuals across diverse regions of India, which has the potential to expand over time.

ration. Data management is done using cloud storage, and internally developed tools are used for data processing based on specific requirements. We have used the Google Street View mobile application and the internal management system.

Tech Mahindra has been able to collect data covering approximately 900,000 kilometers across 20 states from 2022, focusing on urban areas, interconnecting roads, and highways. The data has been stored in a domestic cloud and is processed based on the specific customer requirements, including data extraction, street views, and other use cases.

Safeguarding Individuals’ Privacy

Tech Mahindra prioritizes the safeguarding of individuals’ privacy throughout the entirety of its process, employing essential measures at every stage. The protection of privacy begins with data collection with stateof-the-art camera technologies to encrypt the data at the point of origin. Once encrypted, the collected data is securely transferred and stored in an encrypted format on the cloud. To ensure cloud security, access to authorized personnel is restricted.

There are two potential business models that are applicable for the collection of street image data: one involves licensing raw imagery,

while the other involves providing processed imagery that meets the customer’s specific requirements.

Tech Mahindra obligates customers who want to license raw imagery to ensure that the data is anonymized before being made public. For customers who wish to purchase processed imagery products, we also take steps to anonymize the data by removing or obscuring personal identifiers.

Tech Mahindra has implemented rigorous safety measures to ensure the secure collection, handling, and delivery of data. The data is captured, transmitted, and stored in an encrypted format, and the encryption keys are restricted to authorized personnel who are not involved in day-to-day operations. To prevent unauthorized access, Tech Mahindra maintains strict access control measures. Additionally, secure data transfer protocols are used to transmit data to the cloud .

Conclusion

In the landscape of geospatial technology, Tech Mahindra's innovative strides in mobile mapping not only signify a remarkable shift in India's technological landscape but also underscore the transformative potential of such advancements across industries. By capitalizing on partnerships, strategic alliances, and leveraging cutting-edge technology, Tech Mahindra navigated the challenges inherent in mobile mapping.

The company's commitment to addressing technical, regulatory, and cost-related hurdles while expanding its geographic information system (GIS) processes exemplifies its dedication to progress. The initiative not only facilitated job creation but also championed privacy

To ensure understanding among our field staff, we created training modules in English and other eight primary local languages. We also introduced a flexible training system to accommodate the quick turnaround time for training field staff.

Dhananjay Deshmukh GIS practice Head Tech Mahindra

Imagery by partners such as Tech Mahindra has been helping us build more helpful and updated maps, enabling users across the country to navigate and explore in a more visual and accurate way on Google Maps. This has also enabled us to make the Street View API available to local developer.

Amit Morya Sr. Program Manager Google Street View

safeguards, ensuring secure data handling at every stage.

Through the integration of advanced cameras, cloud-based data management, and stringent privacy measures, Tech Mahindra has not only enhanced Google Maps' functionality but has also laid a foundation for a more interconnected, navigable, and privacy-centric geospatial future.

This pioneering endeavor not only enriches mapping experiences but also underscores the potential of technology, highlighting Tech Mahindra's pivotal role in propelling the geospatial industry forward.

Artha Summit 2024: Unifying Geospatial Data

The Artha Summit 2024, held in Goa, became a melting pot of innovative ideas and strategic discussions of the transformative power of geospatial technologies. With a theme of 'Simplifying Complexities, Amplifying Impact,' the summit showcased the crucial role of policy synergy, digital public goods, and the integration of frontier technologies in reshaping industries and enhancing societal welfare.

A central theme of the summit was the call for a unified geospatial interface to revolutionize various sectors, reminiscent of the transformative impact of UPI on digital payments. "India leads the way in the world in digital payments.

This has been possible due to UPI, a digital public good," noted Srikant Shastri, Chairperson of the

Geospatial Data Promotion and Development Committee. He advocated for the creation of geospatial technologies as a digital public good, highlighting its potential to benefit agriculture, logistics, and last mile delivery.

Policy Synergy for Holistic Development

The summit brought to light the interconnection between geospatial and space policies, underlining the importance of conducive policy environments. The discussions emphasized the role of forward-looking policies in nurturing ecosystems that support innovation and economic growth, particularly in the geospatial sector.

AS Kiran Kumar, a prominent Space Commission member and former ISRO Chairman, emphasized the importance of aligning

geospatial policy with space policy, stating, "The Space policy aims that India should get a significant pie of the space economy...space economy doesn’t only mean space assets and infra but spatial information, insights, and data."

Geospatial Intelligence

Enhancing Productivity

A notable discussion centred on optimizing last-mile delivery, with exploring how geospatial intelligence could resolve inefficiencies. Prashant Parashar, Senior Vice President at Delhivery, highlighted the role of deep learning in improving delivery systems, emphasizing the need for "accessible public data through APIs" to enhance optimization strategies.

The session underscored the importance of accessible public data and the integration

of augmented reality to enhance delivery efficiency and accuracy. The agriculture sector's discussion spotlighted the potential of geospatial technology in improving farm productivity.

Through initiatives like Project Green Light, leveraging AI and Google Maps, stakeholders aim to model traffic patterns and optimize traffic flow, demonstrating the wide-ranging applications of geospatial insights.

Addressing Challenges

The summit called attention to the challenges of data access and interoperability. "Data access and availability has been one of the challenges... There is a need for more data-sharing and collaboration," acknowledged Rajesh C Mathur, Advisor at Esri India, underscoring the imperative for shared efforts in overcoming these obstacles.

The need for indigenous R&D and local capacity building was emphasized as crucial for India's innovation landscape. The sessions also highlighted the strategic importance of public-private partnerships in creating a robust national geospatial infrastructure.

"We can ‘Make in India’ for the world as well... geospatial needs to follow the same trajectory," declared Rajan Aiyer, Managing Director of Trimble India, highlighting the urgency of localization in the geospatial domain.

Geospatial Infrastructure

The success of geospatial initiatives is increasingly seen to rely on collaborative efforts across government, private sectors,

EVENT ROUND-UP

and academia. This multifaceted partnership approach is deemed essential for leveraging strengths, achieving common goals, and fostering innovation and also in developing a robust geospatial infrastructure.

Dr. K Sreenivas from the National Remote Sensing Centre highlighted academia's role, asserting, "The integration of educational institutions with industry players is not just beneficial but necessary."

Connected Construction

Discussions on connected construction underscored the

sector's evolving nature, highlighting digital technologies' role in reducing costs and improving quality. The summit illuminated the importance of digital workflows, modular construction, and real-time data sharing in redefining infrastructure development.

“Connected construction requires a common data environment. Large construction projects have multiple stakeholders, so they all require information in a near real-time manner with minimal lags and delays”, stated Abhay Kimmatkar, Managing Director, Ceinsys.

Enabling Grassroot Beneficiaries

Geospatial information plays a critical role in rural development plans, improving sustainability, mitigating disasters and building overall resilience.

By Dr Shirish Ravan

With the digital gap between rural and urban areas narrowing due to the regular use of mobile apps and internet-based services, now is the opportune moment to provide user-friendly geospatial tools to stakeholders driving development at this level.

These stakeholders include elected leaders in the Panchayat Raj system, NGOs, social workers, teachers, students, and others. Geospatial thinking and access

to geospatial information should not be confined to government departments alone.

The EarthSight Foundation, Geospatial World, and the National Remote Sensing Centre of ISRO organized a series of programs for grassroots stakeholders at the village level.

During these sessions, participants were introduced to the potential of digital maps and expressed their enthusiasm for utilizing them. They challenged geospatial service providers by requesting solutions for specific

actionable purposes, some of which are outlined below:

Developing the Gram Panchayat (Village) Development Plan (GPDP)

The requirement is to utilize the most recent village data to craft an effective GPDP, aligning development strategies with the sustainable development goals, current needs and requirements of the community.

Knowing the area under cultivation

This requires using earth observation images from satellites or drones to assess the extent of

land under specific crop cultivation in the village, providing insights for informed agricultural planning to deal with market dynamics and demand-supply chains.

Surface and groundwater status

This involves examining the current status of surface and groundwater for the ongoing season to determine its sufficiency for irrigating existing crops, projecting the availability of water for the upcoming cultivation season, and ensuring proactive planning for sustainable agricultural practices.

Critical issues in translating geospatial policy into action at the State level

1 Resource Disparities:

Recognizing varying resource levels across states, some facing financial and human resource constraints, it's essential to address these disparities to facilitate effective adoption and implementation of the NGP. Failure to do so may result in delayed or inadequate execution of critical policy initiatives.

2

Tailored Policy Implementation: Considering each state's distinct challenges, priorities, and opportunities, NGP implementation should be adapted to their specific circumstances. However, this adaptation process may require interventions from the central government to ensure successful implementation.

3

Public Awareness and Engagement: Grassroots development relies heavily on public awareness and engagement.

States should invest adequately in implementing the NGP by actively involving local communities. This proactive approach ensures a positive impact on the ground.

Political Commitment:

4

Securing political will is essential for effectively enforcing and implementing the NGP. Continuous efforts in political lobbying are required to ensure the necessary commitment for its implementation.

5 Monitoring and Evaluation Framework

A robust monitoring and evaluation system is crucial for accurately assessing the progress and impact of the NGP at the state level. Clear feedback on effective measures and areas requiring improvement is essential for making necessary adjustments.

6

Roadmap for Geospatial Intervention in Panchayat Raj System:

Developing a comprehensive roadmap is critical to addressing

strategic challenges faced by providers of geospatial information. This roadmap should focus on providing open data and ensuring its timely distribution in userfriendly formats.

The objective is to harness the power of geospatial data across all sectors of development at every level of the three-tier Panchayat Raj system.

7

Enhanced Coordination: Successful NGP implementation necessitates close coordination among government departments, local authorities, and non-governmental organizations for efficient data sharing and to avoid redundant data development.

The absence of effective coordination mechanisms hampers the translation of the NGP into actionable initiatives, emphasizing the need for resolution in this area.

ON GROUND

Improving Rivers and Water Sources

In order to protect the lifeline of the village, analyzing changes in the river over the years and planning actions to transform it into a perennial water source is critical for villages, especially in dry and arid regions.

Greening Strategy and Enhancing Local Biodiversity

This calls for establishing the baseline by conducting an inventory of existing trees and ecosystems in the village and planning activities such as tree planting and ecosystem protection to improve the environment and enhance biodiversity.

Drought Early Warning to Mitigate its Impact

Mitigating drought involves a combination of water conservation, sustainable land management, and implementing policies such as groundwater use to address water scarcity. However, such mitigation measures need early warning on the likelihood of drought in the region to plan strategic preparedness measures.

Disaster Resilience and Climate Change

To build a resilient community, it is important to know the disaster risks and address these risks through proactive and timely interventions.

Geospatial information is needed to develop plans to safeguard villages from floods, droughts, landslides, and other disasters.

Soil Quality

Accessing the data on soil quality in farms would facilitate experimentation with new cropping techniques and enhance agricultural practices.

Integrated Watershed Development

Micro watersheds are basic for managing natural resources and planning sustainable development. Having access to geospatial data of micro-watersheds is critical for designing tailored development projects.

Coping with Human-wildlife Conflict

This intends to serve with the information to mitigate human-wildlife conflicts, protecting farmers and their crops while promoting

coexistence between communities and wildlife.

Conclusion

Several government organisations have prepared the geospatial portals and demonstrated the potential of geospatial information. These portals have made a great stride in providing geospatial data to the end users and serve specific purposes.

However, most concerns mentioned above ask for dynamic data needed for grassroots development, which is time-sensitive and needs to be granular to cater to the needs at the grassroots level.

Without easy access and availability to such data, the soil, water, vegetation, and other resources vital to the village economy are invariably mismanaged.

Hence, the majority of villages in India are facing grave challenges of sustainability. Founder EarthSight Foundation

Dr Shirish Ravan

AGRI-FINANCE WITH GEOSPATIAL TOUCH

India is a global agriculture powerhouse, whose food security depends on the production of cereal crops. With climate change, and unpredictable weather events, farmers and rural households remain at the receiving end of it all.

Almost one third of India's families depend on agricultural incomes, thus to protect them the government of India has laid out various schemes to help them financially. In an interview with Geospatial World, Hiren Doshi, General Manager, SatSure, discusses the nitty-gritties of agriculture finance and how geospatial technology plays a significant role in this.

What is your vision with SatSure Sage?

Today, India has about 140 million farmers, and still agriculture lending is seen as a burden.

The vision for SatSure Sage is to make the agri lending business for the financial services industry as profitable as any other line of business.

What’s happening right now is that most banks are trying to minimize their losses while achieving the PSL targets instead of looking at this as a profitable business.

If we can move the needle in this industry by helping banks as well as farmers, leverage the power of satellite data or alternate data and make this business much more intelligent for both, that would be our aspiration for the long term.

So far, we have touched the lives of about a couple of million

farmers since our inception and we aim to grow that number to 20 million in the next 10 years.

How is SatSure leveraging a technology like satellite remote sensing to enable financial inclusion?

Financial inclusion has multiple definitions. The definition used most often by the government is basically to make financial services available to the underserved.

Today, that's exactly what we are out to solve – enabling financial services and, more specifically, credit availability to farmers who are left out from the formal lending ecosystem.

These underserved Farmers are forced to access credit from unorganized or informal sources at exorbitant rates, which basically eats into their income and livelihood. This is something which we are very passionate to solve.

Today, for any bank, the mandate given by the Government of India about achieving the priority sector lending (PSL) targets states that a significant portion of credit should go to small and marginal farmers.

Often the lenders find it difficult to meet these PSL targets because of the high risk involved in agriculture credit. Agriculture in India is heavily dependent on monsoons.

The volatility in weather conditions and its impact on production makes it very difficult to assess the farmer’s ability to repay loan merely based on a credit history.

The two criteria that banks use for credit evaluation are the intention to pay and the ability to pay. The intention to pay typically

IN-CONVERSATION

comes from bureau report, which basically analyzes the borrower’s historic repayment behavior for past and current loans. Whereas, the ability to pay is assessed through income generation potential for the borrower.

Unfortunately, a lot of farmers in our country are still first time borrowers. So they don't have a bureau score at all! In fact, more than a third of farmers in our country are New to credit (NTC) and hence have no credit score.

Without that information, it's very difficult for the banks to assess risk and credit worthiness of farmers only through self declaration or field visit.

We are trying to change this, by providing them accurate information about the farmer’s income potential for the last three years or six months, which is a very good indicator about not only the income which the farmer is generating, but also additional 22 parameters including crop type,

crop yield and how has the farmer performed with respect to to the average district performance.

This enables them to assess not only the income but also the consistency of income over the past six seasons. Through our SatSource report, banks are able to translate this rich information into decision support tool for underwriting.

This also helps banks drive operational efficiency, reducing time for underwriting loans from weeks into minutes.

How is geospatial technology used by SatSure Sage to enable better credit lending decisions?

Satellite imageries have been around for many decades, and Earth observation (EO) is not a new science. One of the earliest use cases of EO or satellite data has been to analyze agriculture - from production estimates to what crops are being grown, what is the stress condition, what

climate impact is expected on the crop performance, etc.

Agricultural land covers a large percentage of our country, and it is physically impossible for any company or even the government to try and get intelligence about the entire agricultural land by deploying manpower on the field.

We help the banks in the entire lending journey right from sourcing, underwriting, monitoring to collections.

For Sourcing, we help lenders identify high potential areas or high potential villages they should be sourcing farmers based on strong agriculture performance in the last few years, long-term trend of rainfall and groundwater in those locations so that they understand the risk profile or climate changes impacting those villages.

We also provide various data sets to gauge socio economic prosperity of those villages. This

Climate impact is not going to change anytime. We need to help farmers take corrective actions with a much higher frequency of intelligence.

allows banks to then identify villages where they should be expanding their business and also the villages which have seen declining trends where they should exit.

We have seen when banks have used such a scientific approach to find the right villages to expand their business they have been able to improve their approval rate to 60-70%, thereby reducing their cost of sourcing significantly.

Besides sourcing, we also help banks to underwrite Farmers and actively monitor their Agri portfolio through in-season analytics which helps in formulating the right collection strategy.

For a village ranking report, what kind of data did you collect and how did you procure the data?

Most of the datasets we provide are developed using EO satellite data and applying our proprietary AI, ML technology.

We also use data sets from public sources to build a complete solution required by banks in their decision making.

Please tell us a bit about the recent TransUnion development and what it means for SatSure and the partnership outcomes?

TransUnion (TU) CIBIL is a leader when it comes to bureau reports across the country.

They have close to 70% market share in the retail lending business, which also includes agriculture lending.

We have launched a joint product with TU CIBIL - the CIBIL Credit & Farm Report (CCFR), where a lender gets access to both the bureau score as well as SatSource farm report together.

The combined report gives lenders access to credit history as well as agriculture and cropping history for the borrower.

TransUnion, which is present in more than 30 countries across five continents, recently took a minority stake in SatSure, which is a testimony and a belief in our solutions and our intent to solve for financial inclusion using technology. HDFC, ICICI bank and Kotak Mahindra bank are also our client turned investors.

Climate change has made the weather predictions very uncertain, and farmers are at the receiving end of it. How does this entire process help in equipping them to face the climate related events?

Tackling climate change requires building sustainable and resilient farming practices. And to enable this, access to credit plays an important role for farmers.

Easier access to credit for Farmers and better risk assessment for banks helps building a better and robust lending

ecosystem which is very important to tackle climate change through technology.

Additionally, there are two approaches that will benefit the farmers. Agritech startups are bringing innovative methods to support the farmers practicing sustainable agriculture practices.

To enable better monitoring of outcomes from implementing such initiatives, technology providers like SatSure will help in monitoring the outcomes and build better incentive structures for farmers, thereby enabling them to secure higher loan ticket size at a reasonable cost.

What are SatSure’s plans for the future?

SatSure’s subsidiary, KaleidEO, recently tested its payload in a maiden flight. KaleidEO plans to launch a fleet of 4 satellites by 2026 and this test which was done after the edge processing testing in space, makes KaleidEO the first private sector company from India to design and develop a high resolution, optical, multispectral EO payload.

This will help SatSure with its own source of satellite data moving forward further allowing better control on the data supply chain and overall solutions price.

This will help us in launching more innovative product and solutions for the Agri eco-system. One other initiative very close to our hearts is to directly enable Farmers with data about their own Farms that will empower them to secure credit from any lenders of choice.

Interviewed by Geospatial World

Athree-day DefSat Conference & Expo was convened in Delhi, exploring the various facets of space and defence technologies aiding a safer and secure world.

Starting from India’s space journey – that started as a civilian application program – bloomed its way into defence and internal security, and has now become an imperative part of keeping the country’s borders safe.

“India started its space journey with civilian applications contrasting to all the other

space-faring nations that developed space military capabilities first”, said Padma Shri Dr. Shailesh Nayak, Director, the National Institute of Advanced Studies

As global trends merge towards a more private outlook in the space sector, its collaboration with defence systems – an intrinsically sensitive and highly controlled department –are yet to unfold.

“There has been an increased involvement of private sector, the early models where agencies like

NASA, China airspace ISRO where the developers and service provides have undergone a major shift due to emergence of private players such as SpaceX, Blue Origin and countless more”, said General Anil Chauhan, Chief of Defence Staff.

Nations like the US have already started exploring satellite communication services from private players to augment military requirements at a much lower cost. This was unforeseen a couple of years back.

General Chauhan added, “The reforms unfolded by India in the sector, are creating a level playing field for the Indian startups which have the potential to become household names like SpaceX.

Space aiding Defence

The convergence of Earth Observation, PNT, and Satellite Communication are uncovering the critical role of technologies in tactical decision-making on the battlefield.

Satellites are providing a comprehensive understanding of how precision and deep battles are orchestrated through cuttingedge C5I2STAR2 strategies.

However, space technologies are not alient to drawbacks, as Dr Rituraj Kumar, Director, CAIR, DRDO explained, “There is a trade-off between spatial, spectral and temporal resolution. You cannot maximise all three of these simultaneously and get optimum results. So there is a dependence with respect to data that is relevant for military at the practical and strategic level.”

“Therefore, the appropriate spectral spatial and temporal data has to be captured from a space based asset,” he added.

PNT, Remote Sensing, Early Warning, Cyber operation, threat capability, post-strike battle assessments, coverage of denied areas are some of the military areas that provide incentives to give due weightage for space segment in the military operations.

Need of the hour

Interoperability is the pathway towards innovation and the space sector is no different, as emphasized by Lt. Gen Gurmit Singh, PVSM, UYSM, AVSM, VSM (Retd), Hon. Governor of Uttarakhand in his inaugural speech on the second day of the DefSat 2024.

“We need to integrate, share, and increase collaboration. That’s

EVENT ROUND-UP

where the real changes happen. We have to collaborate in data, communication, information, and other technologies,” explained Lt. Gen Gurmit Singh.

“This path of AI, semiconductors, 5G, and space communication is definitely reshaping our mission, vision, and the roadmap. Looking at food security, clean energy, health, education, and infrastructure, I think space is going to balance all these areas only if we integrate it,” he added.

Safeguarding Critical Infra

Cyber and space domains have been susceptible to unauthorised breaches and attacks to hinder security roadmaps as well as gather sensitive data.

Dr Samir V Kamat, Secretary DDR&D and Chairman DRDO said, “We need to get prepared not only to become capable of using the cyber and space domains but to help our warfare in our conventional domains, but also to protect our critical infrastructure in space.”

He noted the dual challenge; “the importance of space for communication as network centric warfare is becoming increasingly common for navigation, providing ISR which is required especially in hypersonic and ballistic missiles, but it would be very critical to have significant space based surveillance capability to ensure you get early warning.”

He explained how the New Space policy has been introduced by the government, there has been a spurt of startups in the domain. We have to leverage this startup ecosystem to work on defense technologies.

Cutting-Edge R&D Driving Sustained Growth

“There are certain areas where NeoGeo is pushing the boundaries. One of them is continuously investing in research and development to stay at the forefront of emerging technologies such as AI, ML, Blockchain, and edge computing”, says Sreeramam GV, Founder & CEO, NeoGeo Info in an interview with Geospatial World.

The NewSpace sector in India is growing at a rapid pace. How do you see the role of geospatial service providers evolving in this emerging ecosystem?

NewSpace sector in India is indeed growing at a rapid pace, driven by advancements in technology, government initiatives, funding, and the increasing involvement of private players, including a thriving start up ecosystem.

Geospatial service providers play a crucial role in this emerging ecosystem. Being the downstream value providers for space technologies, our role is expected to evolve in several ways, from enhancing mapping

and surveying to increasing the use of SAR data in new application areas.

NeoGeo would actively participate and create value for different sectors, via our innovative solutions.

What would be the impact of Artificial intelligence, Machine Learning and other frontier technologies on the geospatial marketplace in India?

Artificial intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and other frontier technologies (IoT and blockchain specifically) are set to have a profound impact on the geospatial marketplace in India.

These emerging technologies grant various benefits such as enhanced decision-making, precision, and efficiency in operations. This helps in developing precise scientific models, gaining better intelligence, and system driven results for reliable outcomes.

From urban planning and smart city point of view, the AI-powered geospatial analytics system has the capability to support urban planners in designing and managing smart and resilient cities. It can also help optimize infrastructure, traffic flow, waste management, and energy consumption for sustainable and resilient urban areas.

Challenges and Business Paradigms

The satellite imagery industry is experiencing rapid growth and transformation, but it also faces several challenges. Here are some of the key challenges along with emerging business paradigms that are likely to shape the industry in the coming years.

COST OF SATELLITE DEPLOYMENT:

Building and launching satellites is an expensive affair, which poses a financial challenge for industry players. This includes the development of advanced imaging technology and satellite infrastructure to use a variety of sensors and capture various data points.

DATA PROCESSING AND STORAGE:

The vast amount of data generated by satellites requires sophisticated processing and storage solutions. While AI/ ML addresses portions of processing, competitive pricing of storage costs help a bit, these areas remain as a significant challenge.

Traditionally, AI and ML has generated a lot of value in enhancing the interpretation of remotely sensed data, improving accuracy and efficiency in applications such as land cover classification, climate monitoring, and disaster assessment.

Emerging technologies are also spurring economic growth and innovation. This can lead to the development of new applications, services, and business models, attracting investments and fostering entrepreneurship.

What is the long-term vision of NeoGeo in the Indian market?

DATA PRIVACY AND SECURITY:

While achieving high-resolution imagery is essential for various applications, such satellite imagery often captures sensitive information, raising concerns about privacy and security. Unauthorized access or misuse of imagery can have significant consequences.

There are certain areas where NeoGeo is pushing the boundaries. One of them is continuously investing in research and development to stay at the forefront of emerging technologies like AI, ML, blockchain, and edge computing. We are also seamlessly integrating these technologies to provide innovative geospatial solutions.

REGULATORY COMPLIANCE:

Orbital Congestion, Space Debris Concerns and the consequential environmental impact are the challenges that International Regulations are grappling with and adhering to such ever-changing compliance requirements is tricky. Also ensuring responsible use of satellite technology is becoming increasingly difficult.

In order to understand the unique requirements of key sectors in India, NeoGeo is offering customized solutions for different stakeholders (e.g., cross country infrastructure, urban planning, transportation, disaster management) and tailor-made offerings (products and platforms) to address their specific challenges.

We are also looking to expand geographically and explore collaborations with international players to tap into global markets and gain exposure to diverse geospatial applications and best practices.

Fostering a culture of adaptability within NeoGeo is a crucial aspect of our long-term vision. We want to have the capability to quickly respond to market changes, technological advancements, and emerging opportunities.

Interviewed by Sachin Awana

INTERVIEW

Transforming Food Systems

In an exclusive interview with Shivaprakash Nagaraju, Senior Applied Scientist, The Nature Conservancy talks about the immediate need for conserving wetlands, using AI and green infrastructure to tackle climate change, and making sustainable food systems for a better future.

Conserving freshwater ecosystems has become paramount as water scarcity hits key cities such as Bangalore. With increasing demand and pollution hitting the ecosystem, what can be done for conserving country’s wetlands and freshwater reserves?

India has 4% of world’s freshwater resources, however this resource has come under increasing demographic stress since India is home to about 18% of world population.

As per recent estimates, freshwater wetlands in India cover 58.2 million hectares, of which at least 15.98 million ha of wetlands in India at least 2.25 ha in size.

As per Global Wetland Outlook by the Ramsar Convention, wetlands - one of the world’s most economically valuable ecosystems and regulators of the global climate, are disappearing three times faster than terrestrial ecosystems. The main threat is climate change and anthropogenic activities.

The change in rainfall pattern and increasing temperature and sunny days threatening India’s wetlands and freshwater bodies exposing them to frequent and long period of dry up.

Increasing urbanization leading to encroachment of wetlands in Urban areas for commercial development.

For example, water bodies in Bangalore shrunk from 207 in 1993 to 93 in 2010…that 72% of the lakes have lost their catchment areas, 66% are now sewage fed and 14% are hemmed in by slums.

The loss of wetlands leading to frequent floods and water security issues in large cities like Chennai, Bangalore, Delhi, and other cities across India.

The unregulated extraction of ground water for residential and commercial purpose and agriculture further leading to water security issues across India. Fourteen out of 20 river basins in India will be water-stressed by 2030 and over 600 million people will face severe water stress.

How can green and renewable infrastructure address the key challenges of heat islands, air pollution, and water scarcity?

Globally 73% of GHGs emissions are caused by using fossil fuelbased energy. When fossil fuels are burned, they release partic-

ulate matter (PM 2.5), produces oxides of nitrogen and sulphur and GHGs such as CO2 to atmosphere contributing to air pollution.

Across the globe, burning fossil fuels is the major source of air pollution. Air pollution and higher particulate matter 2.5 concentrations in ambient air originating from fossil fuel combustion cause 2.5 million deaths (30% of deaths) annually in India. Fossil fuel linked air pollution responsible for 1 in 5 deaths globally. RE based energy known for zero or low emissions of particulate matter and GHGs. Thus, moving away from fossil fuels and transition to renewable energy is a key solution to address air pollution.

There is mixed evidence for the role of renewable infrastructure to address heat island effect. A 2016 study (Barron-Gafford et al. 2016) findings demonstrated that temperatures around a solar power plant were 3-4 °C warmer than nearby built environment and natural desert ecosystem.

This result demonstrates that renewable infrastructure (solar) can create local heat island effect although the added heat dissipates quickly and can't be

Strategies to Conserve India’s Wetlands and Freshwater Reserves

SPATIAL DECISION SUPPORT TOOLS

Spatial map and tools of wetlands and freshwater reserves of India along with threat factors, also called prioritization of freshwater ecosystems. This can help in identifying critical wetlands and freshwater systems to implement effective conservation measures for conserving country’s wetlands and freshwater reserves.

INTEGRATED ECOSYSTEM CONSERVATION

Governments need to reconsider how they include freshwater conservation in the international community’s larger 30×30 initiative, a plan to conserve 30% of the planet’s land and marine habitats by 2030. This could include improving data collection on wetlands and freshwater systems that leads to better decision-making, improving maintenance of groundwater — including usage and contamination prevention — and investing in the protection of natural water resources like rivers and lakes that are used for storage.

INNOVATIVE FINANCIAL MECHANISMS

There is a need to develop innovative financial mechanisms that attract both private and public investment in conservation and restoration of wetlands and freshwater ecosystems. For example, The Nature Conservancy has established fund called “water fund” that help in design and enhance financial and governance mechanisms that unite public, private, and civil society stakeholders around a common goal to contribute to water security through nature-based solutions and sustainable watershed management.

SUBSIDIES AND FINANCIAL INCENTIVES

Indian agriculture use 80% of freshwater resource. It is known that our agriculture practices do not efficiently use water resources. The harmful subsidies such as free electricity for ground water irrigation known to encourage farmers to overharvest ground water. Thus, such subsidies should be removed and best practices that promote efficient use of water and its conservation in agriculture should be promoted.

ASSESSMENT AND RISK MONITORING

The private sector needs to develop better and more transparent water risk assessments that eliminate pollution from their supply chains. Further, both private sector and public should consider how they contribute to water scarcity — such as by becoming more efficient with water use.

INTERVIEW

measured 100 feet away from the power plants.

In contrast, another study (Masson et al. 2014) suggested that renewable infrastructure (solar) reduce urban heat island effect. Thus, it is difficult to conclude role of renewable infrastructure to address heat island effect.

However, integrating green cover (vegetation) in urban areas known to negate urban heat island effect by reducing surface air temperature. Therefore, Urban Green Infrastructure (UGI) can partially reduce UHI intensity, promoting a resilient urban environment and contributing to climate change adaptation and mitigation.

Mapping and analysing food systems reveal the transitions needed on the ground to meet this century’s most pressing challenge, climate change. Can you talk more about these food systems and its role in climate change?

The way we produce and consume food is inextricably connected to the earth's changing climate. The agriculture sector, together with forestry and other land uses, contributes nearly a quarter of all anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs).

Half of this share comes from direct agricultural emissions, mainly from livestock, with most of the rest from deforestation of which agriculture is the main driver. Therefore, GHG emissions from food systems are a major contributor to climate change.

Emission reductions from food production have so far received less attention in GHG mitigation policies than those from energy, transport and other industrial sectors; consequently, emissions from agriculture and food systems could become the dominant source of global emissions by mid-century.

Therefore, meeting the Paris Agreement’s targets to combat climate change and achieving

multiple SDG goals will be impossible without the agriculture sector doing its part.

Food systems transformation is now being recognized as a significant part of the solution to the climate crisis and biodiversity loss. In climate, the latest IPCC Report (AR6) highlights that “land, water and food” adaptation and mitigation options offer the greatest potential in responding to the climate crisis.

At COP28 in the United Arab Emirates, the Food Systems and Agriculture Agenda has been a priority as never before at a climate COP. For the first time, Heads of State and Government attending COP28 committed to a Leaders’ Declaration on Food Systems, Agriculture and Climate Action.

Over 130 countries signed the Declaration – covering over 5.7 billion people, nearly 500 million farmers and 76 percent of the total emissions from the global food system. More than US$2.5 billion has been mobilized to

support the food-climate agenda, including a $200 million partnership between UAE and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

It is critical now to transform our food systems or change the way we produce and consume the food. We need to transform our food systems in a way that, it is carbon-neutral and nature-positive agriculture and food sector.

In this direction, The Nature Conservancy using geospatial analysis has identified priority foodscapes across the globe including India to transform food systems in away that it would reduce emissions from the food sector, use less water and conserve freshwater reserves, store carbon in plants and soil, and make farmers more resilient by adapting food systems to changing climate conditions.

What would be the role of geospatial in the future roadmap for The Nature Conservancy?

The mission of The Nature Conservancy is to conserve the lands and waters on which all life depends. Our vision is a world where the diversity of life thrives, and people act to conserve nature for its own sake and its ability to fulfil our needs and enrich our lives.

We work toward our vision by focusing on these key areas of conservation (tackle climate change, protect land and water, provide Food & Water Sustainably, and build healthy cities) each of which is advanced through the Conservancy's use of geospatial science and technology.

GIS and remote sensing have informed TNC’s conservation

Steps for Curb Agro Pollution

 Promote conservation agricultural technology such as Happy seeder and other technologies that does away with paddy residue burning and feed residue back to the soil.

 Eliminating burning of one million hectares of cropland.

 Getting at least 250,000 farmers to adopt a no-burn cropping system.

 Preventing at least six million tonnes of CO2e from entering the atmosphere.

 Saving 500 billion litres of water from enhanced soil health and agronomy

 Piloting financial instruments that incentivize farmers to adopt no-burn practices.

science approaches for decades. At least one in every three Conservancy staff uses maps and geospatial analysis, whether to monitor preserves, negotiate land and water transactions, or develop ecosystem services analyses, mapping threat to ecosystems, spatial conservation action planning etc.

Integrating Artificial Intelligence with advanced geospatial technologies marks a new era in biodiversity conservation and natural resource management. TNC’s future roadmap is to make use of this integrated technologies to solve conservation and climate change issues.

Crop burning is a recurring issue that is bringing about plethora of problems with it. The Nature Conservancy is addressing this concern with Project HARIT. Can you please talk more about it?

About 80 percent of agriculture in Northwest India uses a paddywheat crop rotation and traditionally been burning paddy residue for clearing field between the paddy harvest and wheat planting.

Due to the short window to prepare the land for planting

wheat (about three to four weeks) –of all the options available, many farmers see burning the paddy stubble as the most viable solution for preparing their fields.

About two million farmers in Punjab and Haryana burn 12 million tonnes of paddy residue in the month of October and November every year.

This results in blanket of haze in the Northern region and the nation’s capital Delhi contributing to severe air pollution.

The residue burning also contribute to over 20 million tonnes of CO2e emission annually apart from health hazards due to severe pollution.

The Nature Conservancy in collaboration with other organization launched two multiyear projects called “Harnessing the power of Agricultural Residues through Innovative Technologies (HARIT) and Promoting Regenerative And No-burn Agriculture (PRANA)” with ultimate objective to eliminate crop residue burning in two northwestern states of India-Punjab and Haryana.

Interviewed by Sachin Awana

Empowering Odisha’s Tribal Communities

To uplift the status of the indigenous population in society, many policies and schemes were implemented by the government of India. While many failed because they could not establish the right connection with the tribes, some have successfully struck the right chord thanks to a holistic approach. By Nibedita

Mohanta

According to the Census of 2011, India's Scheduled Tribes constitute 8.6% of the total population, inhabiting in about 15% of the geographical area, in various ecological and Geo-climatic conditions, mainly in forests, hills, and border areas.

The eastern state of Odisha alone is home to 62 varieties of culturally vibrant tribal commu-

nities including the 13 particularly vulnerable tribal groups (PVTGs).

These indigenous groups or Adivasis live in tightly-knit clusters around other communities, which constitute 22.01% of the state's total population and 8% of the nation's total tribal population.

Challenges faced

The Indian Forest Act of 1927constituted by the British Colo-

nial Government – banned the Adivasis from practicing agriculture. Due to this, they lost access to their land rights, and could not farm for a living, hence depending majorly on non-timber forest produce (NTFP).

Now, the problems faced by the tribal communities include land alienation, indebtedness, identity crisis, poor literacy, unemployment, displacement and rehabilitation, and zero awareness about health, nutrition, and hygiene.

These factors have made the communities heavily reliant on forest produce, while also limiting their presence to the forest areas

Government Welfare Schemes

To uplift the status of the indigenous population in society, many policies and schemes were

implemented by the government of India. While many failed because they could not establish the right connection with the tribes, some have successfully struck the right chord thanks to a holistic approach.

“Grassroots development relies heavily on public awareness and engagement. States should invest adequately in implementing the NGP by actively involving local communities. This proactive approach ensures a positive impact on the ground,” states Dr. Shirish Ravan, Founder, EarthSight Foundation

In order to empower the downtrodden tribal community, the former Ministry of Welfare established the Tribal Co-operative Marketing Development Federation of India (TRIFED) in 1984. TRIFED is a national level cooperative body that now falls under the administrative control of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.

TRIFED supports retail marketing for livelihood development among tribal communities of India. A provision of INR 288 crores has also been made in the annual budget estimate for the fiscal year 2023-24 to be implemented through TRIFED, specifically through the formation of Self-Help Groups and producer enterprises.

To promote the use of tribal handicrafts and natural products, TRIFED also launched its retail outlet in New Delhi in 1999, called TRIBES INDIA, which has now grown to 130 outlets spread across the country.

Apart from the schemes that are administered by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, the focus is given to tribal welfare by initiatives under other ministries of

Areas Where NGOs Help

 Facilitating rights and entitlements over natural resources

 Creating a strong community awareness for development programmes and facilitate formation

 Strengthen necessary institutional architecture at the community and panchayat level

 Ensuring effective implementation of existing progressive policies to ensure greater livelihood returns to the tribal and advocate for a conducive policy environment to address structural issues of poverty and vulnerability.

the Government, cutting across sectors and domains.

From housing and road connectivity under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana and Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, respectively, to financial empowerment through Jan Dhan accounts, formation of Self-Help Groups and MUDRA Yojana,

various Government programs have greatly benefitted the tribal communities.

Vital Role of Geospatial

“By bringing together all the rural subjects together on a unified platform, GIS aids in strengthening rural resilience and empowerment of the rural communities,” says Agendra Kumar, MD, Esri India.

ON GROUND

The Integration of location-intelligent supply chain infrastructure with financing and farming activities on a GIS platform strengthens the market linkages and reduces losses.

“Food producers and agriculturists need GIS to understand the dynamics of agro-climatic features, evaluate risks, and work towards adopting sustainable agricultural practices and strengthening resilience,” he adds.

Geospatial data is also crucial for sustainable climate-smart-agriculture and transforming rural economies.

The Integration of location-intelligent supply chain infrastructure with financing and farming activities on a GIS platform strengthens the market linkages and reduces losses.

NGOs at Work

To develop trust between the state government and tribal communities, many non-profit organizations are working for the government to map the areas where the tribal communities live and spread awareness about the government schemes that are

made in their favour.

For this, they needed to build capacity, which is why they chose volunteers from the communities to help spread the message loud and clear, as well as to provide employment opportunities to the youth.

One such NGO is the Centre for Youth and Social Development (CYSD), established in 1982, which is empowering communities on their rights and entitlements.

Another NGO that is spreading awareness about the management of natural resources in Odisha is the Foundation for Ecological Security, which works to protect natural resources across 14 states in the country.

“We do that by basically supporting communities in taking better decisions on how to govern their natural resources, how to restore it. They work with the

communities to build their capacities in managing the natural resources,” says Subrata Singh, Executive Director, Foundation for Ecological Security.

“We collect both spatial and non-spatial data and the big data to analyse and develop tools at the community level to help them understand science in a better way.”

Another NGO is PRADAN, short for Professional Assistance for Development Action helps marginalized people like forest dwellers, especially rural women to take charge of their own lives and earn a decent living. PRADAN promotes sustainable livelihoods which are integrated with work on issues of gender, governance, forest rights, and climate action.

Cadasta, the world’s leading global land technology and services platform has partnered with PRADAN and developed a technology tool to map, document, and demarcate forest land for Individual forest rights (IFR) and Community Forest Rights (CFR). It makes it convenient for the local community and their cadres to map forest land and protect the forest from further depletion and conserve it for livelihood, biodiversity, and climate benefits.

Cadasta uses Survey123, Dashboard and Story Maps to empower vulnerable / forestdwelling communities to affordably and easily document, map, and secure inclusive land and resource rights at scale for a more sustain-

able and equitable planet.

“Cadasta's geospatial tools and training are key enablers to collect and manage vast amounts of data on forests, people, and land use in order to secure forest rights. But the heart of the work is our partners' community outreach that helps people understand and exercise these rights for livelihoods and food security,” says Amy Coughenour, President & CEO, Cadasta Foundation.

PRADAN works with forest dwelling communities in the Central India Tribal Belt and facilitates them to claim their rights on forest land and forest resources as Individual forest Rights (IFR), Community Rights (CR), and Community forest resources rights (CFRR) through Forest Rights Act (FRA) 2006.

Forest dwellers need to know how much forest area they are claiming and for how much area rights are recognized under FRA -2006. Manual mapping using chains takes a much longer time and is difficult in undulating forest topographies.

“Cadasta Foundation, in partnership with PRADAN, has developed a technology-based tool called CLMDT that is helping communities to identify the exact area for their claim, with proper documentation. This makes the process easy, transparent, and fast, not only in filing the claim but also in claim verification and rights recognition,” says Saroj Kumar Mahapatra, Executive Director, PRADAN.

PRADAN with the support of local communities identifies local youth and trains them as Jami Sathi to support indigenous

communities in land mapping, documentation, and demarcation. The tool also features an offline settings which can be used in the remotest forest areas without any hindrances.

In partnership with Cadasta, PRADAN has digitally mapped and documented 70,323 hectares of forest land. Out of which 25,268 hectares of forest land are mapped and documented under Cadasta’s Land for Climate project, funded by the United Kingdom’s Foreign Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO).

Improving Community Engagement

When Geospatial Artha interacted with the Community Resource Persons (CRPs) or Jami Sathis, it came to light that the usage of smartphones has significantly improved in the tribal areas, even though people are still not educated enough and internet connection fluctuates in their neighbourhood, people are eager to learn.

They had started with offline usage of the application on pilot mode and now they have successfully transitioned to online usage.

"We are thrilled that low literate village youths (Jami Sathis) and women self-help group (SHGs) members are confidently using the mobile application to map parcels for claim submission under IFR and CFR. Community volunteers are now able to instantly show a display of the area and edit parcel boundaries on satellite imagery,” states, Gumel Saraka, Jami Sathi (community link worker on Land Rights)

When the Government of India is aggressively promoting the “Digital India” Mission, improving digital connectivity to reach these tribal communities should be the first task. And through the digital literacy program, the youth of the community can be empowered furthermore.

Nibedita Mohanta

Sr. Assistant Editor Geospatial World Nibedita@geospatialmedia.net

Digital App for Forest Produce Market Connect

Koraput, the third largest district in Odisha provides habitat to tribal communities which constitute more than 50% of its population.

83% of the Koraput's population lives are supported by indigenous agriculture, which has placed Koraput Valley on the UN map with the prestigious GIAHS award. Indigenous knowledge and farming practices of the region’s tribal people are recognised for promoting food security and conserving biodiversity.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations has accorded the status of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS) to the traditional agricultural system being practiced in the Koraput region of Odisha.

Under the guidance of TRIFED, CYSD launched a mobile application, Banashree which is an educational app for the rural tribal for entering their daily collection data of natural resources. This app will also help them learn new concepts and theories of forest produce and its marketability.

Banashree App helps tribal communities digitalize the buying and selling of non-timber forest produce. They use satellite imagery by ORSAC to map the communities that reside deep in the forest and reach out to them to spread awareness and educate them. The app, they have provided an equal playing field for the tribal communities to sell their produce and become financially independent. Their work also comprises providing the tribal communities with training and using digital payment applications.

“Banashree is conceptualized to let the tribal women ride the wave of digital boon and leverage the combination of geospatial and digital technology for their economic well-being. The tribal women have been enabled to know the potential of their NTFP harvest, and subsequently they are able to bargain the price for their harvest collectively,” states Ashish Jalli Banasree: Name: Ashish Kumar Jalli, Sr. Program Manager, Centre for Youth and Social Development

The Ministry of Tribal Affairs has developed an androidbased mobile application called Tribal Diaries for internal monitoring and also connecting with officers/officials concerned with the implementation of schemes/ programs for tribal development. The application is for accredited users. This application provides an opportunity for visual feedback in terms of photographs, and videos, uploading reports

Banashree App helps tribal communities digitalize the buying and selling of non-timber forest produce. They use satellite imagery to map the communities that reside deep in the forest.

of official tours/inspections, and sharing of best practices, etc.

Volunteers Taking Lead Community Resource Persons (CRPs) work under the LIC-HFL project in which they have been assigned to ensure zero-interest loans to the tribal women who are active members of the self-help group (SHG) for Poultry farming for 3 months.

They are involved in Banashree (Van Dhan Yojana) to encouraging and create awareness towards the importance of NTFP products to the marginal and landless farmers.

They provide the basic information about the minimum support price (MSP) of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) to the beneficiaries so that they can get the actual cost for their products, elim -

inating the middlemen from exploiting them.

“We select young women from the community and train them as Digital champions to assist the NTFP gatherers in accessing digital resources and use the Banashree App for NTFP marketing.

Those Digital Champions are the ones, who have ensured sustainability of the program,” adds Jalli.

Most importantly they are helping the farmers to get links in Banashree application through the Android mobile for easy selling of their collected products to the wider customers or traders.

Impact of Digitalisation

Under the non-timber forest produce category that the tribal

communities in Odisha sell are tamarind, deseeded tamarind, tamarind seeds, Sal seeds, Sal leaves, gums and resins, tendu leaves, and mahua flowers among others.

Earlier the tamarind tree was sold at INR 1500-2000 at the flowering stage and after the tree bears the fruit, the average yield would come around 100kgs. The seeded tamarind was sold at INR 10 per kg with an additional labour charge of INR 6 per hour. Later, when it was sold at the market, the price was as high as INR 70 per kg.

Now that the selling price has been fixed by the government, which is INR 36, so the tree gets sold at INR 3600, which is 80% additional profit from the tree.

The selling price of the tree depends on the flowering quantity of the tree. Sal seed is being sold through collective marketing and last year 626 quintals of Sal seed were sold by 380 women at INR 20 per Kg they are selling maize, at MSP of INR 20.90 per Kg, which was earlier either bartered for basic needs like oil, and clothes at the local market or sold at INR 5 per kg.

Until now the Banashree app is being used by more than 7000 registered primary gatherers from Koraput, which are being trained by the CRPs.

Now the tribal communities have sold a total of 1224 quintals to TDCC (Tribal Development Cooperative Corporation of Odisha Limited) Koraput across all the blocks. They harvest Tamarind in the month of April to May first week. The TDCC procured tamarind at the end of May 2023.

Enhancing Indian Railways Operational Efficiency

“Railway projects often traverse remote areas. With Drone and LiDAR technology, combined with satellite imagery we have access to these areas, allowing for more accurate planning and overcoming geographical challenges improving our project planning capabilities significantly.” says Achal Jain, Chief Project Director of Track Management System at Northern Railway in an exclusive interview with Geospatial World.

In the integration of geospatial data with the Indian Railway's vast network and information systems, how does the Ministry envision enhancing operational efficiency and improving safety, particularly at rural level crossings, through this integration?

The integration of geospatial data into our systems is aimed at significantly enhancing operational efficiency and safety.

Our GIS portal, with over 99 data layers, empowers various functionalities like Train Tracking and Patrol Monitoring where IoT sensors on trains enable realtime tracking, while a patrolman tracking app integrated with GIS improves monitoring of track inspections.

By developing an app integrated with GIS, we can monitor patrolmen in real-time, ensuring they cover their designated areas thoroughly. For example, we have implemented night patrolling to monitor track integrity, which is crucial during winter when tracks are prone to cracking due to contraction.

This system not only improves safety but also operational efficiency by providing detailed insights into patrol activities.

And how does this technology contribute to improving last-mile connectivity in rural areas? Last-mile connectivity is vital, and with our GIS network, we can overlay it onto various

imagery sources like Google or ESRI. This helps in identifying missing links and planning connections accordingly.

The IR Geo portal allows visualization of railway land boundaries overlaid on various base maps. Land plans were converted into GIS-compatible shapefiles and geo-referenced for this purpose. Data is continuously verified and corrected through various methods, including user feedback via an editor app.

The Gati Shakti Portal, which integrates layers from various departments, is a great example of how we can pinpoint where infrastructure is needed and plan development to bridge these gaps.

Can you elaborate on how the Gati Shakti initiative integrates geospatial technologies in planning and monitoring?

Gati Shakti is revolutionary in that it compiles layers of data from all asset holders - railways, highways, ports, and so on - to identify and plan for missing links.

With GIS-based systems, we can estimate the length and cost of these links quite accurately, facilitating more efficient planning and budgeting.

Although actual costs require field surveys, preliminary estimates can be significantly streamlined through this technology.

While we're not directly linked with the Gati Shakti portal, we've shared some layers of our GIS with it. Other ministries are leveraging these capabilities for various projects, indicating the broad applicability of this technology.

Turning to rural development, what geographical, social, or economic barriers exist, and how are you overcoming these with innovative solutions?

Railway projects often traverse remote areas. Previously, only toposheets were available for planning. Now, with drone and

LiDAR technology, we have comprehensive access to these areas, allowing for more accurate planning and overcoming geographical challenges.

This, combined with satellite and ESRI imagery, improves our project planning capabilities significantly.

The IR Geo Portal could be helpful in disaster management too. In case of a disaster, a Geo Portal could provide real-time information on the location of trains, allowing officials to track their status and ensure passenger safety.

The portal could be used to identify areas prone to landslides, floods, or other disasters, allowing for pre-emptive measures like increased patrols or speed restrictions. Disaster response teams could use the Geo Portal to locate critical resources like emergency medical services, relief supplies, and available personnel.

Land acquisition and resettlement are critical in railway projects. How does geospatial technology streamline these processes? For railways, which are linear projects, resettlement isn't as critical compared to other infrastructure projects. However,

geospatial technology, including drone surveys, helps us plan our alignments to minimize disruption to habitats or communities.

This technology also supports transparency in land acquisition, as we've digitized and made accessible all our land plan data on our GIS system.

Our GIS system encompasses various layers, including route details, electrification status, bridges, level crossings, and station information. This comprehensive asset mapping enables efficient management and planning of railway assets.

How has this technology improved efficiency in the railway system?

Efficiency improves as we utilize the technology more. For example, by identifying vacant land or monitoring encroachments, we can better manage our resources and respond to issues.

Time series analysis of satellite imagery helps identify potential land encroachment or unauthorized activities near railway stations. However, real-time updates depend on the type of imagery used, indicating ongoing opportunities for enhancing these systems.

Interviewed by Jeffy Jacob

Digital Twin for CommunityDevelopmentDriven

In conversation with Nagaraja Rao Harshadeep, Global Lead (Disruptive Technology), Lead Environmental Specialist, talks about how World Bank is developing new mechanisms for geospatial AI and spatial chatbots to make information easily accessible to everyone around the world.

How GIS data can be better used with disruptive technologies like AI/ML and IoT etc?

A lot of different technologies can be leveraged such as new sensors, be it sensors on the ground in terms of being able to generate data relating to the flow of water, its quality, or soil moisture, all the way to sensors

in satellites, or drones for aerial surveys of large areas to get a synoptic view of the world.

At World Bank, we have been trying to explore how GIS can be better used with disruptive tech.

Now, big breakthroughs are coming in the way how data is managed, processed, made

accessible, and again, packaged to make new kinds of systems to get insights into what the data means and use it for development. And that's where the use of AI/ML has a major role to play.

At the bank we have been trying to develop new mechanisms to do geospatial AI, trying spatial chatbots to see how we

There should be a Digital Twin of every city and every project activity that's happening. We are trying to see if we can help make this a standard approach to make Digital Twins of every investment that we make.

can make these systems easily accessible to everyone, including the poorest around the world.

It's now no longer just about poverty, but also about alleviating poverty on a livable planet, which means dealing with issues of pollution, biodiversity, climate mitigation, adaptation, and a whole range of these global issues which are all spatial.

And that's why I think this combination of technologies would be the paradigm shift to accelerate development and make a change.

How can the national geospatial agencies help? National or state level geospatial agencies need to make data easily accessible to enable the development of public data infrastructure in an interoperable manner.

So that the data can be used for modeling based on Earth observation data to get better insights, and accurate forecasts in terms of not just the weather, but also estimating the occurrence of disaster events like floods, river flows, also development of early warning systems or digital Monitoring Reporting and Evaluation (MRE) systems.

The problem is that a lot of the data-based applications and services are developed for and leveraged by people who can afford them.

This is where it would be

really useful to make sure that the poorest shareholder like the farmer can also be able to be access data for their plot of land, in terms of soil moisture, vegetation growth, and crop yield compared to somebody else's yield around them or being able to leverage a lot of extension services which are automated.

Based on the data, there the grassroots level people will be able to learn how to use a lot of these new technologies for every aspect of the work that they're doing.

Or to be warned about a new flood that's on its way or a coastal storm or being able to find out whether they're eligible for drought relief based on what's happened because we have a slightly more impartial eye in the sky that can do a lot of these analytics quickly and help with a lot of these systems put in place.

We have been supporting three generations of hydrology programs to see the data put in the public domain a bit better and a lot of progress has been made. This is something that can help transform a lot of areas by making data more easily accessible within a year or two.

India has been at the forefront of a lot of these digital systems that are out there. By making a lot of the core basic data related to natural resources and other aspects, especially the in-situ data that

are measured painstakingly by many people in different government agencies.

It'll be useful to see if that data can be unleashed so that the data can be used for better training and modeling based on EO data to get better insights.

There is a lot of talk about Digital Twin and HD maps acting as the fuel of digital transformation. What do you think needs to be done to foster a comprehensive and innovative geospatial ecosystem?

New ways of data visualization, new kinds of dashboards, new kinds of interactive charts, maps, graphs, and thematic in different ways are the core of the transformation that has started happening because it's not just clever things that can be done with a lot of the analytics fueled by different types of technologies, but the ability to then have people interact with those better.

A lot of this data visualization has now spilled over into other universes like a lot in the aspects of AR/VR, especially in the Metaverse, which has the potential to be used in amazing new ways to be able to visualize a lot of things and interact with them in new ways.

Today a lot of the Digital Twin concepts are applied mainly for really big projects, but there should be a Digital Twin for even a small community-driven devel-

INTERVIEW

opment project like agricultural demonstrations or of a small forest patch, etc.

There should be a Digital Twin of every city, every watershed, and every project activity that's happening.

We are trying to see if we can help make this a standard approach to make Digital Twins of every investment that we make so that it can be started in not only using it for planning but monitoring, being able to share information to all stakeholders, doesn't matter which part of the world, teams or clients are in.

So that other people can learn from these Digital Twins before they embark on activities in different parts of the world.

It is still something that isn't at scale right now because everyone is doing their own little thing and interoperable systems are not quite there yet at scale.

But it's getting there because a lot of the underlying systems and data and other things are becoming more easily accessible either as free

open services or as subscription services that are reasonable costs.

With this, we'll see a growth in the next few years of basically the proliferation of Digital Twins everywhere.

One challenge will be that there will probably be many different versions of Digital Twins for the same location, and there'll be a call to try and see if we can do a more unified Digital Twin for a particular city watershed or system.

There will be calls to try and make these interoperable and more global. And that's why I think a lot of this new revolution is also helping us think a little bit differently in the sense the activity has to be relevant at different scales, be it at the level of a village or even a household or to global scale.

What is the World Bank's vision for bridging divides and forging collaborative transformation?

The biggest challenge in the world and also at the World Bank is that technology is

moving at a disease speed, including on the geospatial side and all related technologies.

The challenge is that most people in organizations like the bank or in our counterpart organizations or other supporting organizations all have a headless chicken routine in terms of being able to focus on particular activities.

And then you don't have any time to be able to pause sometimes to learn about all of these new things that are happening around you. So we need better ways in terms of helping folks to be able to learn from what's happening around us and to be able to leverage a lot of these new changes that are happening.

So we are trying to find mechanisms for that both in the bank as well as working with different governments and helping them set up such mechanisms.

The challenge here is to make sure that everyone can crosslearn quickly so that we can accelerate the whole development process and develop even bigger and better systems that can help more people in this regard.

As Rumi said in the 13th century when he was describing the elephant in the dark room, everyone sees a different thing when they look at different parts of the elephant in the dark room.

But to appreciate the whole beast, we need to look more multi-sectorally and expansively, building on each others observations.

Interviewed by Nibedita Mohanta

Using Satellites to Monitor Progress toward the SDGs

Photo Credit: World Bank

DigitalMaps@Work in Villages

Rural Development through Geospatial

Partnering with the Geospatial World and National Remote Sensing Centre of IRSO, the EarthSight Foundation supported a special segmentDigitalMaps@Work in Villages.

This segment addressed the concern that geospatial information and services are grossly underutilized in making grassroots-level interventions for protecting livelihood, ensuring food and water security, and facilitating resilience and sustainability for village/ town development.

The grassroots level stakeholders, viz. gram panchayat (village institutions) members, social leaders, social workers, officials in the Panchayat Raj system, NGOs and CBOs, were made aware of the enormous

potential of the wealth of information created by the geospatial technology providers and imparted the training on the use of the portals developed by ISRO.

‘DigitalMaps@Work in Villages’ showcased the capabilities of Geospatial technologies to grassroots-level stakeholders and addressed their major challenges.

It reiterated the commitment of the geospatial industry to become a more ‘socially relevant’ and demand-driven service industry to address demands emerging from stakeholders at the grassroots level. These interventions aim to steer the geospatial and space industry to align with the stakeholders' needs in sustainable rural development.

Satellite in Your Hand:

Enabling geospatial and space technology for grassroots development

EarthSight Foundation has launched a series of events named “Satellite in Your Hand” aimed at generating curiosity among the non-geospatial communities to come together and learn about the value of Earth observation and geospatial information.

Several such programmes are conducted for grassroots village and urban development stakeholders.

Through these events, several organisations are now inclined to use geospatial information to enhance the effectiveness and impact of their work.

In 2023, the EarthSight Foundation conducted a massive outreach event in Pune (India) in collaboration with the NRSC/ ISRO on the sidelines of the Annual Symposium of the Indian

Society of Geomatics and the Indian Society of Remote Sensing.

DeepStambh Charitable Trust, actively working in over 100 villages, contributed to the programme as an outreach partner.

The event brought together participants comprising village leaders (sarpanch), progressive farmers, rural development organisations, government officials, representatives of corporate social responsibility (CSR), NGOs, educational institutes, school principals and teachers, researchers, students and industries involved in diverse fields, including financial institutes.

The participants came from several districts of Maharashtra, including the farthest district like Chandrapur. The workshop is conducted in the local language

to take on board non-science audiences.

It triggered several ideas and partnerships to enhance the value of geographic information and space-based technologies to the last-mile stakeholder and promote geospatial thinking at all levels.

In December 2023, the “Satellites in Your Hand” programme was also presented to the 500 women leaders in the ‘Parliament House’ of India as a part of the programme “She is the Change Maker – Panchayat se Parliament tak”, which is a pan-India initiative of the National Commission for Women (NCW) to improve leadership skills of grassroots women political leaders all levels, gram panchayats (village level) to parliament members and political workers including office bearers of National/State political parties.

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