Adoption of geographic information system (GIS) and its latest methods at the governmental level has thus far been less satisfactory in India. If implemented properly, it would help the country manage water resources efficiently and also predict effects of climate change precisely, said delegates at the India geospatial forum.
Speaking at the three-day industry-academic discussion platform, Shailesh Nayak, secretary - Ministry of Earth Sciences, said it was high time for the country to have a relook at GIS by targeting areas, which it had not addressed so far.
In the process of kickstarting GIS implementation, he said the first step was to discover new areas. “We always tend to think most of things we had achieved were good enough and think we can move forward,” said Nayak in his guest address.
According to him, high-performance computing could make bring a major change for the Indian GIS. “A few years before, we thought petaflop computing was a big distance away. However, we now say it is a reality that can address the computing issues related to GIS, and its implementation will sure make a difference,” he said.
Petaflop is the ability of a computer to do one quadrillion floating point operations per second (FLOPS). It represents an extremely fast computing speed for a single machine.
In his special address, RS Sharma, secretary — department of Electronics and Information Technology, said one of the important components of 'Digital India' initiative was how the country deploys GIS for efficient responsive systems and better planning.
GIS is a system designed to capture, store, analyse, manage and present all types of spatial or geographical data.
“While GIS has become a daily part, unfortunately its use in government had been weak. Some states had gone very far while others lagged far behind. There are many states that were lagging behind, so much so that the basic programme the country had launched two-three decades ago of land records digitisation is still very nascent,” said Sharma. He said the work done so far was not based on proper standards.
“If you have systems based in a loose manner without standards and have little interoperability, they become silos. Such applications do not talk to each other. Therefore, we must have systems that are interoperable, harmonius and allow everyone to use them seamlessly,” he said.
He added the Centre would continue educating states on GIS adoption as it would allow help them in municipal planning, traffic planning, asset registering, better roads and lighting systems.
Speaking at the three-day industry-academic discussion platform, Shailesh Nayak, secretary - Ministry of Earth Sciences, said it was high time for the country to have a relook at GIS by targeting areas, which it had not addressed so far.
In the process of kickstarting GIS implementation, he said the first step was to discover new areas. “We always tend to think most of things we had achieved were good enough and think we can move forward,” said Nayak in his guest address.
According to him, high-performance computing could make bring a major change for the Indian GIS. “A few years before, we thought petaflop computing was a big distance away. However, we now say it is a reality that can address the computing issues related to GIS, and its implementation will sure make a difference,” he said.
Petaflop is the ability of a computer to do one quadrillion floating point operations per second (FLOPS). It represents an extremely fast computing speed for a single machine.
In his special address, RS Sharma, secretary — department of Electronics and Information Technology, said one of the important components of 'Digital India' initiative was how the country deploys GIS for efficient responsive systems and better planning.
GIS is a system designed to capture, store, analyse, manage and present all types of spatial or geographical data.
“While GIS has become a daily part, unfortunately its use in government had been weak. Some states had gone very far while others lagged far behind. There are many states that were lagging behind, so much so that the basic programme the country had launched two-three decades ago of land records digitisation is still very nascent,” said Sharma. He said the work done so far was not based on proper standards.
“If you have systems based in a loose manner without standards and have little interoperability, they become silos. Such applications do not talk to each other. Therefore, we must have systems that are interoperable, harmonius and allow everyone to use them seamlessly,” he said.
He added the Centre would continue educating states on GIS adoption as it would allow help them in municipal planning, traffic planning, asset registering, better roads and lighting systems.