Natural Resources Data Management System (NRDMS) which was initiated in 1982, an interdisciplinary research programme has promoted R&D in emerging areas of Geospatial Science, Technology and providing geospatial solutions to area specific problems. Over the years, NRDMS has successfully demonstrated utilities of Geospatial Technologies in decision making and developed capacity for geospatial data and information management at State, District and local levels at pilot scale. Considering the changing requirements of Geospatial Science & Technology in the country, the NRDMS Division has now evolved into National Geospatial Programme (NGP) to catalyse the National Geospatial Ecosystem with the mandate of promoting Geospatial Science and Technology, policy, solution, capacity building, entrepreneurship and international cooperation for sustainable socio-economic development at all levels of governance.

Vision: Catalysing the National Geospatial Ecosystem.

Mission: Promoting Geospatial Science and Technology, Policy, Solution, capacity building, entrepreneurship and International cooperation for sustainable socio-economic development at all levels of Governance.

Objectives:

• Promotion of R&D in emerging areas of Geospatial science and technology.
• Development of geo-spatial solutions for sustainable socio-economic growth in alignment with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and National Developmental Priorities up to panchayat and ward levels.
• Build knowledge and adaptation capacity of geospatial technologies at various levels of governance in collaboration with academia and user agencies.
• Stimulate the growth of Geospatial technology innovation.
• Develop the national capacity for Geospatial science and technology development, acquisition and transfer through International cooperation.

The following programmes and sub-programmesare being supported under the division–

1. Geospatial Science Programme:

The main aim of the programme is to develop the fundamental and applied scientific knowledge underpinning the geospatial sciences to strengthen geospatial science research and education in line with international standards. The details of various sub-programmes are as follows:

• National Programme on Geodesy
• Geospatial Intelligence and Geospatial Analytics
• National Programme on Assessment of Regional Hydrological Systems using Space Borne Gravity Observations

2. Geospatial Technology Programme:

The programme aims at catalysing the development of indigenous geospatial/location specific technologies in the country. The main objectives of this programme are as follows:

• To improve the economic value of the existing Geospatial Technologies in practice
• To promote demand based futuristic Geospatial Technology development

The above programme further divided into following sub-programmes where R&D project proposals in specific areas are being invited/ supported from time to time:

1. Geospatial Data Capture and Gathering Technologies
2. Geospatial Data Management Technologies
3. Geospatial Data Processing Technologies
4. Development and operationalization of National Data Registry (NDR)
5. Up-gradation of the existing proof-of-concept (POC) cloud-based Geo-platform
6. Development of Decision Support Systems (DSS) and Tools

3. Geospatial Solutions Addressing National Priorities and Sustainable Development Goals:

R&D projects and operational scale initiatives for providing Geospatial solutions to the stakeholders addressing the National Developmental Priorities and Sustainable Development Goals viz. Spatial Disaster Risk Reduction (SDRR), Rural Development, Urban Governance; Operationalization and sustenance of NSDI/ State SDI Data Nodes by coverage of all States and UTs and Provision of geospatial data/ products/ services and solutions to potential stakeholders/ beneficiaries of the Ecosystem up to the level of panchayats and wards etc.

a. National Programme on Spatial Disaster Risk Reduction (SDRR): Division has taken the initiative for developing an integrated National Programme on Spatial Disaster Risk Reduction (SDRR) with reference to National Disaster Management Plan (NDMP). In this direction the division has already initiated the following sub-programmes viz. Landslide hazard mitigation and Coastal hazard risk assessment & reduction.

• Landslide Hazard Mitigation (LHM): As part of the integrated landslide programme, efforts were made to develop forewarning system to monitor the critical landslides in different geo-environmental areas. A set of 07 R&D projects has been supported for the development of an early warning system covering areas (States) like Sikkim, Nilgiris (Tamil Nadu), Manikaran, Kotropi, Mandiand  Darmashala (Himachal Pradesh), and Uttarakhand.
• Coastal Hazard, Risk Assessment and Reduction (CHRAR): CHRAR has been initiated to cover the coastal areas of the country with the aim to develop S&T enabled geospatial techniques for coastal disaster studies encompassing disaster genetics, propagation, disaster vulnerability mapping, detection of causative factors, mitigation measures etc. and come out with quantifiable/actionable outputs so that the state governments and the stake holders can readily use them during the disasters for relief, restoration and rehabilitation. R&D projectsare being supported in the areas of land subsidence and sea level rise, tsunamis, cyclones, floods and coastal erosion etc. since the inception of the programme.

b. Geospatial Solutions for Urban Governance: Under this sub-programme proposals are supported in the areas of city governance applications as well as in the core R&D areas focusing on emerging technologies related to city development using Geo-ICT. The various R&D projects are being supported focusing on Smart Parking Management System using sensors;IoT and GIS technologies; Framework for flood mapping and or prepare an early warning system in the occurrence of flood; City GML based 3D models for smart cities; Industrial Indoor Assets Positioning and Navigation System using Geospatial Analysis; Geomagnetism based Indoor Navigation system etc.

4. Capacity Building Programme:This programme aims at the following-

• Training on Geospatial Science, Technologies and Disaster Risk Reductions
• Organising Geo-Innovation Challenges for harnessing the new ideas in Geospatial Science/ Technology
• Strengthening Geospatial Training Institutes and development of Training modules and kits

1. Summer/ Winter School & Training in Geospatial Science and Technology:

The capacity building program has been evolved into a strong program that has over the last ten years conducted more than 166 programs of three weeks duration, incorporating classroom, lab and field sessions with a mini project conducted across the length and breadth of the country benefitting over 5000 participants from academia, Government and research institutes across India.  A structured curriculum and promoting the use of open-source software through a dedicated portal (www.dst-iget.in) as an one stop resource for teaching-learning geospatial science besides networking educators, professionals and scientists has ensured adoption of geospatial technologies contributing to strengthening India’s geospatial ecosystem. In the current cycle, apart from the Level 1 (basic) three week and Level 2 (advanced) Summer/Winter Schools, a new program as Geoinnovation Challenge aimed at harnessing young minds and developing a bank of ideas that the division could use further to develop future research themes was introduced. In the current cycle, 43 capacity building programs were supported against a total of 119 proposals received. Of this there are 25 Level 1 (basic), 10 theme specific advanced and 08 theme specific Geoinnovation programs being conducted across the country.

New Initiative:

• From this year, all Level 2 programs have been aligned to the respective SDG goals and focus on those national indicators where geospatial tools are used. The 2021-23 capacity building cycle was initiated with a workshop to orient the PIs to the objectives of the program as well as implement each program as a pre-event to the United National World Geospatial Information Congress (UNWGIC) to held in October  2022 in Hyderabad.
• For the first time, few 21- days Summer/Winter Schools on “Geospatial Science and Technology” were conducted in online/ hybrid mode including hands on practice coordinated by various Institutions. These Summer/ winter Schools not only aimed to provide the exposure to the number of trainees towards various tools and techniques of the geospatial Science and technology by using open source softwares but also via hands-on sessions contribute ideas on addressing the SDGs in the Indian context with the geospatial technologies.

b. Geospatial Chair Professor:

Under the Geospatial Chair Professorship initiative, currently a set of 04Chair Professorships have been supported.The purpose of creation of the geospatial chairs was to promote Geospatial education and S&T at National and sub-national level in the dynamically evolving geospatial ecosystem in the country.

5. International Collaboration:

This programme aims to develop the national capacity for Geospatial technology development, acquisition and transfer through international partnerships/collaborations namely United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management (UNGGIM), Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), Brazil Russia India China South Africa (BRICS), Indo-Africa collaborations etc.

6. New Initiatives and Major Achievements:

• National Centre for Geodesy (NCG): Geodesy is defined as the discipline that deals with the measurement and representation of the earth, its gravity field and geodynamic phenomena in three-dimensional time varying space. First and only National Centre for Geodesy (NCG) has been established by the division at Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur in India. It is first of its kind in supporting educational and research activities in the field of Geodesy in the country. The center has been established to rejuvenate national-level education on Geodesy and other aligned areas with the primary aim to act as a hub of excellence. It has a vision to support various government agencies in infrastructure development and related areas to facilitate strong industry-academic collaboration in Geodesy. The National Centre for Geodesy has been set up in year 2019 for 05 years.

Regional Centres for Geodesy: The idea of establishing Regional Centres for Geodesy (RCG) has been planned right from the start of the NCG. Six institutions, namely, IIT Bombay, IIST Trivandrum, IRS Anna University, IIT (ISM) Dhanbad, MNNIT Allahabad and MANIT Bhopal have been identified and set up in year 2022 with same objectives of the NCG.

• National Networking Programme on Assessment of Regional Hydrological Systems using Space Borne Gravity Observations: This National Network project was developed involving 03 ministries and many knowledge institutions. This networking programme represents a new opportunity to explore the feasibility of monitoring total water storage variations from space. The grace data enable the researchers to monitor the fluxes of water mass changes and exchange of water masses between the ocean and land ice masses. As a part of this programme, a central facility including a web portal has been established at CSIR-National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI), Hyderabad for this networking project. This Central Facility has been established as a sort of virtual laboratory as well as a knowledge partner (Capacity building, Knowledge Hub & Data Generation) to provide remote support to all the members of the network programme to augment data and data products from various sources.

• A call for proposal (CFP)for Geospatial start-ups and knowledge Institutions of the Country on ‘Geospatial Analytics for Revival and Restoring the Economic Growth in Post COVID-19 Scenario’ was issued. This CFP aimed to strengthen the area specific geospatial analytics capabilities of the country as the COVID-19 outbreak will not have only short-term impact but also many long-term socio-economic effects as well. Out of total 140 R&D proposals received, eleven proposals were supported in the areas of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle in Covid prone high-density areas; Pattern and Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic by Semantics; Geospatial Analytics for Rural Livelihoods in Post-Pandemic Era; Inter-dependency modelling of healthcare; Socio-economic Impact of Migration during COVID-19 Crisis; Social Vulnerability Mapping Impact Assessment; and Modelling geographically varying relationships of COVID-19 outcomes with socioeconomic and environmental factors etc.

• Call for proposal (CFP) in the area of Geospatial Technology Development focusing in the sectors of Geospatial Data Capture Technologies / gathering, Data Management, and Data Processing Geospatial Technologies was issued. Out of total217 proposals received online, 09 proposals are being supported after two level of review process. It was envisaged that supporting this area will strengthen the nation’s technology and innovation ecosystem; in this case, focusing on geospatial technology.

• Geomatics Engineering (GE) Subject included in GATE-2022 and Geospatial Subject Approved by AICTE for GATE and NET Examination: As per one of the major outputs of the Geospatial Chair Professor (GCP) Scheme, Geomatics Engineering – which involves the collection, measuring, monitoring, and archiving geospatial data has been included as one of the subjects to the list in the GATE exam for the Year 2022. 

• The Second United Nations World Geospatial Information Congress (UNWGIC) on the theme "Geo-Enabling the Global Village: No one should be left behind" was held successfully in Hyderabad from 10-14 October 2022.The theme was in line with the vision of the Hon’ble PM SabkaSaathSabkaVikas that forms the main focus of the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN.  The event brought together stakeholders at the highest level from around the world to address and ensure that geospatial information has its widest and fullest utility in the service of social, economic, and environmental development. This event gave an opportunity for India to showcase its Geo-Spatial Initiatives and achievements in recent years. The main highlights of the five days international Congress are as follows:

- Four Side Events and two Special Events on the first day of the Second UNWGIC were held at the HICC on 10^th October, 2022 including the Special Event on “Geo-enabling the Global Village with Generations Z and Alpha” where school children from around the country participated and showcased the localizing of SDGs through spatial thinking. Students from 18 schools across the country presented new ideas on how geospatial technologies can be embedded to address local challenges like protecting the heritage, soil fertility, crop diversity, clean city, water management, women empowerment, waste management, digital India, clean energy, climate change and so on to achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs).

- The official Opening Ceremony of the Second UNWGIC was held on 11^th October 2022 where addresses were given by Dr. Srivari Chandrasekhar, Secretary-DST;Mr. Stefan Schweinfest, Director, United Nations Statistics Department (UNSD); Dr. S. Somanath, Secretary, Department of Space; video address by Secretary-General for ECOSOC- UN; Ms. Ingrid VandenBerghe, Co-chair of UNGGIM; keynote address by Hon’ble Minister of Science and Technology and inaugural address through video message by Hon’ble Prime Minister.

- During the opening session of the Second UNWGIC, amongst other items, a report prepared by the division on “Indian experience in alignment with IGIF (Integrated Geospatial Information Framework)” was unveiled by Union Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, Dr. Jitendra Singh.

- From 11^th to 13^th October, the three-day long Congress was organized comprising of three plenary sessions, two special sessions and several parallel sessions attended by participants from across the globe who discussed, deliberated and shared experiences on Geospatial Information Management and implementation of the Integrated Geospatial Information Framework towards the goal of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

7.0.  Expert Committee for NGP978.75 KB

8.0 List of various R&D projects supported under various sub-schemes of NRDMS125.1 KB

9.0. Format for submitting R&D Project Proposal96.34 KB

Indian Experience in Alignment with United Nations : Integrated Geospatial Information Framework11.61 MB

Second United Nations World Geospatial Information Congress (UNWGIC) on 'Geo-enabling the Global Village' in collaboration with United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), as the UN-GGIM Secretariat, held at the Hyderabad, India, from 10-14 October 2022

List of recommended proposals (2nd Level Screening) for Geospatial Technology Development Sub-schemes of NGP-DST116.07 KB

List of recommended project proposals under Geospatial Capacity Building NGP programme181.6 KB

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