Be more competitive in marketing IRS data: PAC to NRSC

The Public Accounts Committee, in a draft report on activities of the NRSC, appeared to brush aside Department of Space (DoS) contention that remote sensing was treated as a "public good service" rather than commercial activity.

"While acknowledging that remote sensing satellites are indeed public good infrastructure with the mission towards sustainable national development, the Committee, however, feels that a balanced segregation can surely be worked out on various data types and needs of various users," it said.

The report was adopted at a meeting of the PAC last week and is expected to be tabled in Parliament soon.

It said that appropriate customised packaging of remote sensing data by way of adequate value addition and making them fit for synergistic and simultaneous applications will definitely enhance the marketability of such data and bring about increase in net returns.

The Committee said it was dismayed to note that while the total capital investment on seven remote sensing satellites between 2003-08 was Rs 1468.59 crore, operational returns ranged from Rs 96.87 crore to Rs 134.27 crore.

On lower pricing of Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) data, the DoS said that it was not comparable with foreign satellite data which is available in finer resolution.

The DoS noted that imagery obtained from Geoeye1 or Worldview2 satellites was of 0.5 meter resolution with multispectral and stereo capability.

"There is no equivalent data from IRS. Hence the prices are not comparable," the DoS said.

The DoS also sought to justify lower revenues contending that 80 per cent of the data generated by IRS satellites was used by government departments and the remaining 20 per cent by private users.

It also said that India made available IRS data at lower prices to BIMSTEC and SAARC member nations.

The Committee recommended bringing in a comprehensive mechanism for promotion of sale of data to private users which would include value addition, customisation and appropriate packaging of data to enhance its utility for multipurpose applications.