Need more indigenously developed operational software: ISRO chief

Says more institutions could work on several areas for developing software within the country to save costs

Launching the advanced version of IGiS platform developed by Ahmedabad-based Scanpoint Geomatics Ltd. (SGL), Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) chairman AS Kiran Kumar called for more indigenously developed operational software in the country.

Highlighting the predicament users face while using imported software, Kumar said that more institutions could work on several areas for developing software within the country to save costs.

"Users have to pay a lot of money for merely maintaining imported software. Lot of such software is imported and exorbitant costs are paid for them. We need more and more institutions to work on host of areas and build an ecosystem of developing capabilities for software that can solve day-to-day problem of the country. IGiS is such an effort to bring in more and more operational software developed indigenously," Kumar said.

Speaking on the sidelines of the launch, Kumar said that GSLV Mark III is being readied on time. "We are now building our cryogenic technology for GSLV Mark 3. We have completed almost four of the trials and firing tests. We are going quite well. We expect the next version of the GSLV Mark 3 to be up by December 2016," Kumar said.

The latest advanced version of IGiS platform includes capabilities like various image processing and GIS tools has been developed and integrated with IGiS.

According to Chirag Soni, chief technology officer of SGL, when ISRO launched RISAT Satellite then new features are available are taking satellite photos during nighttime, during rainy season, During cloudy weather condition, Scanpoint IGiS version 2.0 has capability to process RISAT images and it will be first such Indian company to have this capability.

The major modules are RISAT-1 SAR, Meteorological GIS (Met GIS) and Resourcesat-2 AWiFs Atmospheric Correction. A module for the support of DGN file is also provided with this version. RISAT-1 SAR module is capable in ingestion and processing of all modes of RISAT-1 data. The MetGIS module supports meteorological satellites data like Kalpana-1, INSAT-3A, INSAT-3D and Proba-V.

"This is a significant enhancement product release that will support digitising crop map and asses the crop damage," said Rajendra Chaudhari, CEO, Scanpoint.

Meanwhile, Ramesh Sojitra, managing director of SGL said that with IGiS Platform version 2.0 launch Scanpoint is going to compete with World Class GIS companies.