The UI Dev

Telecom News:             The National Informatics Centre (NIC) will carry out the GIS mapping of the existing Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) network of the telecom operators such BSNL, Rail Tel, Power Grid, etc. The mapping of the existing OFC will enable to calculate the incremental length of the cable required for connecting all the 2.5 lakh panchayats with OFC. The cost of initial phase of the NOFN scheme is likely to be in the region of Rs 20,000 crore.             The government of India has approved the creation of National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) for providing broadband connectivity of all panchayats. The plan is to extend the existing optical fibre network initially upto panchayats by utilizing the Universal Services Obligation Fund (USOF) and creating an institutional mechanism for management and operation of the NOFN for ensuring non discriminatory access to all se...

          India is mapping out its newest national asset, a state-of-the art online information bank, which promises to transform governance, aid planning and make life easier for the man on the street. Called National GIS, this geographical information system powered service would be the first one-stop database of India's natural and physical assets, providing information and services about government schemes and businesses -- right from locating malls, hospitals or ATMs to lodging complaints.           The locational data service, expected to be fully operational in 3 years, would be accorded the status of a national asset and can accessed through desktops or mobiles. National GIS, which is expected to help boost productivity and keep a check on wasteful expenditure, will have a "citizen layer" that will make it possible for individuals to geographically tag complaints and grievances...

            Have you seen the Google+ Demo Website ? It is making use of the Google Maps API as a presentation canvas. Now, that's pretty cool!            Check it out!

            The Punjab government is all set to implement ultra modern GIS systems in 6 big cities of Punjab namely Amritsar, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Patiala, Batinda and Pathakot to facilitate future planning, expansion and maintenance of civic infrastructure in these cities. The GIS will be implemented in these cities by October 31, 2011, which would be further implemented in other districts of the state.             Complete information of these cities will be available on the GIS which should prove beneficial and helpful during the preparation of "Master Plans" of these cities in the future. The satellite images of these cities will be taken which would later on be developed to form a large database. The maps that will be generated would provide detailed information on roads and rail networking along with exact locations of bus stops and railway stations. The maps will also s...

           A bunch of Twitter users have come together to gather information about power cuts in India and make an infographic map to map the geographical spread of power cuts across the country.            It all started when Shefaly Yogendra, a London-based investment consultant, saw a discussion on power cuts on her Twitter timeline and suggested to her friends, "May be you guys should tweet #powercut with location. The infographic will highlight the need for investment. To many people." The idea caught on. Users had begun writing about the time and location of the power cuts in their respective areas with the hashtag #powercutindia. Ajay Kumar, a software engineer, put up a web page that had started mapping power cuts in the country on the basis of the tagged tweets. Now the page can be accessed at http://powercuts.in . A Twitter account by the name of @PowerCutsIn has also been employed to co...

                The North American Cartographic Information Society (NACIS) is sponsoring the 13th Annual Student Dynamic Map Competition to promote cartographic excellence and innovation in this versatile medium. This competition aims to award student achievement in dynamic mapping in two categories: A narrative map presents information in a way that communicates a story, cause or message . An interactive map provides tools that may be used for navigation, location-based services, or exploratory geovisualization.             The rules for the competition are simple: There is no entry fee and your map must be publicly accessible online through October 31, 2011.   Students may enter as many times as they wish, but may only win one prize. Up to four students may enter the same project.   Judges reserve the right to change an entry's category if they ...

             Think these pieces were made from pencil, pen or paint? Think again. Artist Matthew Cusick cuts away pieces on maps, atlases, encyclopedias and school textbooks, to create crazy collages that look like drawings or paintings. "I like to catalog, archive, and arrange information and then dismantle, manipulate, and reconfigure it," he says.             Cusick flips around road, river and transit lines, piecing them together to form everything from portraits to landscapes. While Cusick sometimes adds paint (like acrylic) to these pieces, by and large, the colors are taken from the maps' topography. Cusick explains how he got started with working with maps: About nine years ago, frustrated with paint and brushes, I just started experimenting with some maps I had laying around the studio. I found that maps have all the properties of a brushstroke: nuanc...

         London will be hosting the London Mapping Festival which is slated to start from June 2011 and will run through December, 2012. The purpose of this festival is to highlight and create a greater awareness of how maps and geographic data is being used within the city. Such a festival will help demonstrate the vast extent to which mapping underpins our daily lives and will encourage people from all backgrounds to find out more about mapping, engage with industry professionals, explore the latest technologies and develop new skills.          I personally think that such festivals should be organised in all cities and each city should celebrate maps! The spread of mapping knowledge is a must for several reasons. Many graduating students do not know anything about GIS and mapping on the whole. Students do not know of the career options available in mapping. People do not understand the benefits of m...

          The Uttar Pradesh State Water and Sanitation Mission (SWSM) will soon be documenting the drinking water resources across six zones of the state. These zones are Allahabad, Ghaziabad, Gorakhpur, Lucknow, Varanasi and Moradabad. The documentation - to be done through Geographical Information System (GIS) and Global Positioning System (GPS) mapping - will take note of ponds (manmade and natural), wells and handpumps. This exercise which is a part of the National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP) will help the officials to create a proper database of these resources, which will be used for their management.          Through the mapping, all the details of all the resources will be compiled, complete with their longitude and latitude dimensions. The department plans to start off the exercise by April 1, 2011 and should end by March 31, 2012. The focus will initially be on villages where the ...

         How about keeping a digital watch on the chopping of trees in the narrow lanes of Ahmedabad? Great for sure, would say tree-lovers and environmentalists. And the great idea might soon turn into reality as the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), Gujarat University (GU) and the state forest department have geared up to establish an electronic database after the first ever tree census in Ahmedabad.          The initial idea is to get a concrete figure on the tree population in Ahmedabad as presently there are only some estimations and random surveys with speculative figures of the number of trees. The proposed tree census is supposed to start from the first week of May this year.          While the census would be carried out manually, Global Positioning Sysytem (GPS) and Geographic Information System (GIS) would be put in place to get an electronic databa...

         The Delhi Metro's showcase Airport Express Corridor, connecting the Indira Gandhi International Airport to the heart of the Delhi, was rolled out for the public on the 23rd of February, 2011.          This is the first line in India to be mapped on GIS to enhance safety, maintenance and traffic regulation. Mapping the corridor on GIS will help in mobilising emergency services in case of a blast or fire on the train. Delhi Airport Metro Express Private Limited, the company operating the line, has mapped all the emergency services, including fire stations, police stations, hospitals, etc. along the alignment.

          Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Karnataka, has embarked upon an ambitious project of mapping nearly 74,000 educational institutions, including junior colleges, in the State using the geographical information system (GIS) to bolster education by making best use of school infrastructure and to facilitate planning and development.           Karnataka is the fourth State after Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh to go for electronic mapping of schools, including aided and unaided schools. There are about 46,000 primary schools, 12,000 primary aided schools and 16,000 high schools and junior colleges in the State.           The GIS mapping of schools in the State may be taken up on the model developed in Andhra Pradesh. The GIS software developed in Andhra Pradesh is being customised by the National Informatics Centre for storing, ...

         Google now offers you a simple application that informs you by email each time we update the satellite and aerial imagery in your area of interest. Follow Your World is a free service that allows you to enter the lat/long of a location along with your email address. Whenever any imagery is updated for that location, an email alert will be sent.          Our surroundings are constantly changing, so it's no surprise that Google Earth and Google Maps users often request the most up-to-date satellite and aerial imagery. While Google can't necessarily update the world's imagery in real-time, they can let you know when they do update this imagery.          In just three easy steps, you can add points such as your hometown, your college, or just about any place on the Earth. Step 1. Find a location. Search for the area by entering the name of a country, state, ...

          Mumbai's Metro rail system, which is scheduled to take off by next year, will have a Geographic Information System (GIS) for mapping the entire rail tracks and nearby areas to enhance safety, maintenance and traffic regulation. Mumbai Metro One Pvt. Ltd. (MMOPL) - the special purpose vehicle promoted by Reliance Infrastructure, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) and French multinational firm Veolia - is implementing the GIS along the Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar (VAG) corridor in Phase-I of the project. This is a first-of-its-kind initiative in the country for Metro rail management.           The GIS system will map the exact location of the trains and all emergency services, including fire stations, police stations and hospitals along the alignment. In case there is a fire incident or other emergencies, the exact location of the nearest fire station or po...

         In a bid to check the rising incidents of poaching and keep an eye on the flora and fauna of the two sanctuaries in Madhya Pradesh, the government has decided to use satellite to monitor the Chambal and Palpur Kuno region.          The basic field technique, which is used currently, to maintain a log of the region’s vegetation, wildlife does not give the real time data. Therefore, the government has decided to use the Geographical Information System (GIS) Global Positioning System (GPS) for the purpose.          Madhya Pradesh’s leading animal scientist Dr. RJ Rao, who has received training in such satellite monitoring of national reserves from California, said the program ‘ARC Q-9’ is proving to be of great use in protection of the wildlife. They have used the program to prepare a database of the whole Chambal and Kuno region, said Rao. Sourc...

         Upwardly mobile Bihar is now set to become the first state in India to use the latest cell phones for centralised monitoring of road construction. In an earlier post we saw how the Bihar police were using the GIS technology to track down the criminals.          Bihar State Road Development Corporation (BSRDC), under the Road Construction Department (RCD), will deploy Android phones to help executive engineers keep an eye on road construction from district headquarters, while the RCD Secretary will do so from the Patna office.          Earlier, Bihar State Bridge Construction Corporation had successfully used GPS-enabled phones to help mobile inspectors track engineers on duty. The latest mobile operation system supports all Google applications in 3G mobile phones.          Using the latest Android technology, ...

          The Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik dedicated ‘Odisha Sampad’ a Web-based Block GIS Atlas developed by the Orissa Space Application Centre (ORSAC) to the people of the state on 4 January.           The objective of ‘Odisha Sampad’ is to provide datasets of all the 314 blocks (village-wise) of the state relating to natural resources, environment, infrastructure, socio-economic and demography. The information content has been built on the basis of satellite image interpretation, survey at the block level and maps of other departments and agencies. The web atlas contains information on natural resources like land, utilization distribution of wastelands, forest lands, agriculture area, plantation, settlement, waterbodies etc.           It also contains information on soil, slope, lithology, drainage, geomorphology, ground water potenti...

          An archaeological team, led by T M Keshava from Bangalore, discovered maps that date back to 1500-2000 BC. The place is located around Tungabhadra River near Hampi in Karnataka, India. Unlike modern maps that rely on technology, ancient men banked on their eyesight and memory.           The map was depicted on the roof of caves of Chikramapura village. What was once thought to be a megalithic burial site with just paintings of animals and humans; is proof of the prehistoric man’s cartographic skill. Keshava’s finding is believed to be the first-ever aerial map of a region drawn by a prehistoric man. While paintings of animals such as cows, hunting scenes and human figurines are common across pre-historic settlements, only the Chikramapura village caves, also called Kadebagilu rock shelters, feature maps.           “A previous stu...

          The Asia Pacific region is in the midst of rapid change. This change depends on information. Much of this information is concerned with questions that are fundamentally geographic in orientation -- such as the spatial patterns of households or businesses, and proposed infrastructure facilities within a community. The role of geographic information in economic development dominated the proceedings of the second ESRI Asia Pacific user group meeting earlier this year. The meeting was hosted by NIIT Technologies. It drew more than 1100 delegates from across the region to New Delhi for two days of discussion.                        The meeting was held at the right time. Historically, India has enjoyed a reputation for capable data conversion. But now, Indians are creating centres of excellence for GIS projec...

            Share a message of holiday cheer with custom online cards from Google Maps this New Year! Think Green, Go Green this New Year. Save paper and that too with a difference! This new year you can send your friends, family and loved ones an e-card which is out of the box!             You can choose from 10 different online holiday cards and add your personal message. Now, after reading this you will think what's so different here! The surprise is yet to unfold...You can include specific directions, a Street view image or your favorite place on the inside of the card!             So now planning your New Year party will become easier. You can send an e-card with directions from your friend's place to the place where you are hosting your New Year party! Won't that be fun!       ...