'Technology like GIS needs to be part of govt functioning'

State governments should focus on acquiring information technologies that could be used by multiple departments rather than standalone ones, Secretary, Department of Electronics and Information Technology, R S Sharma said.
Addressing a gathering at India Geospatial Forum 2015, held here today, Sharma said though some states are quick to adopt advanced technologies such as geographic information system (GIS), some are yet to catch up.
"When the GIS has become almost part of our life, like map navigators, we are geo-tapped. Unfortunately, use of this technology in the government has not been very great. We have states experimenting with GIS (technology).. Some states have gone very far and some of them are yet to do it," Sharma said.

He said the state governments should focus on adopting IT infrastructure in such way that it can be used by multiple departments.
Referring to use of a single software (or technology) restricted to only one department, Sharma said that a common platform like GIS can enable government to bring together different softwares on a single platform.
"Now these systems or particular applications they do not talk (communicate) with each other. And therefore they cannot be leveraged. So, we should have a platform-based approach on which we could put layers like GIS technology," he said.
Governments needs to be sensitised on the use of the technology because there are large number of areas where technologies such as GPS can be used.