India

About India OSGeo Chapter
Geographical Information Systems were seen as very special and very complex domain in India. There is a lot of hype attached with it and with that obviously high cost. So far such systems were seen as something to be used for high level planning and complex scientific operations by large corporates and Govt research agencies or departments only. Also the older mapping policy of India prevented virtually anybody except governments to possess any map data. Some people are interested in mapdata as such licenced softwares remain unutilized in various government offices because they require either extensive training or easy availability on multiple locations. All this can be changed by the use of Free/Opensource software tools. There is hardly any proprietary GIS software that can show text in Unicode standard in maps. This is significant since all government data and most educational institutions work in local language media. FOSS GIS has already shown this solution. Thus, Free/Opensource Geospatial softwares which are much more powerful and usable can be used for developing systems where more and more public participation is sought.

The India OSGeo Chapter is formed to fulfill the mission and objectives described in this document. India OSGeo Chapter will earnestly follow the Local Chapter Guidelines stipulated by OSGeo and cooperate closely with OSGeo Board in promoting the use and development of OSGeo projects in India. The India OSGeo Chapter will strive to serve anyone interested in Open Source Geospatial Solutions and related issues, and to cover all the activities associated with the application, development and promotion of Open Source Geospatial solutions in India.

Mission

 * Promoting Free/Opensource GIS tools and publicly available Geodata
 * Advocacy of and promoting Localized GIS
 * Act as a bridge between various groups like Developers, Application Users, NGOs, Government departments
 * mentor various FOSS GIS miniprojects by providing resources such as technical guidance, webspace etc.

Objectives
Development:
 * follow up on Indian language support in various free/opensource GIS tools like GRASS, MapServer etc.
 * initiative for standardisation of publicly available geodata
 * setting up WMS/WFS based geodata servers using publicly available geodata
 * toolkit for localised GIS including with special focus on schools, governments, public causes such as child malnutrition, mass education.

POCs (Proof Of Concept demos):
 * free/opensource based GIS demos
 * localized GIS (interface and maps)
 * Collaborative platforms for participatory governance

Regional Events:
 * Workshops and Training sessions for
 * comp science students/teachers
 * geo-informatics/geology/geography/civil engineering students and teachers
 * others
 * Special Lectures
 * Demonstrations

Communication:
 * Networking Local Communities related to geo-issues
 * Mailing Lists
 * Wiki

Legal status
OSGeo India Chapter is, presently, a voluntary organization, and has not been registered as a legal body. At present, OSGeo legal status is similar to other Open Source related organizations in India such as "Linux India" (http://www.linux-india.org/), "gnomebangalore"(http://www.gnomebangalore.org/) or "KDE India" (http://in.kde.org/). Recently, "Free Software Foundation India" (FSF India) was registered as company and been granted the 80G status under Income Tax Act. India OSGeo Chapter is still a nascent voluntary organization and will consider the modalities to register as a legal body at some stage in the future. The India OSGeo Chapter will consult a certified tax consultant when necessary to ensure compliance with the Indian tax laws.

The activities are managed by the Office located at International Institute of Information Technology Gachibowli, Hyderabad 500032, Andhra Pradesh, India Contact E-mail: rajan at iiit dot ac dot in

India OSGeo Chapter Officers
Chairman Dr Swarna Subbarao Surveyor General Office of the Surveyor General of India Survey of India, Post Box No. 37, Hathibarkala Estate, Dehradun 248001 Uttarakhand

Secretary Mr. V. Ravi Kumar* 12-11-120, Aryapuram,Rajahmundry 533104 Director (Retired*) Centre for Geoinformation Management and Training, Training Inistitute Geological Survey of India, Hyderabad 500068 ravivundavalli at yahoo dot com

Treasurer Dr K.S.Rajan Associate Professor International Institute of Information Technology Gachibowli, Hyderabad-500 032, India rajan at iiit dot ac dot in

Executive Members Dr. S.N. Prasad Open source Geospatial Foundation- India International Institute of Information Technology Gachibowli,Hyderabad 500032 narendra_prasad at yahoo dot com

Dr P.S.Roy University Center for Earth and Space Sciences University of Hyderabad Hyderabad 500032 psroy13 at gmail dot com

Dr R.C.Prasad Assistant Professor International Institute of Information Technology Gachibowli, Hyderabad 500032 rcprasad at iiit dot ac dot in Mr T. P. MALLIK Superintending Surveyor IIS&M, Survey of India Uppal, Hyderabad 500039 tpmallik at yahoo dot co dot in

Advisors Dr. H.S.Rai, hardeep.rai at gmail dot com HS.RaiAndRai.com Dr. S.S. Thigale (spathigale at rediffmail dot com) Dr. Rajendra Jagdale (rajendra dot jagdale at gmail dot com) Dr. Vishwas S.Kale (vskale at unipune dot ernet dot in) Mr. Ashok Saraf (saraf dot ashok at gmail dot com) Dr. Venkatesh Raghavan (venkat at osgeo dot org) Mr. Kiran Chandra (kiranfsf at gmail dot com) Mr. Achuthan Mohan (achuthanmohan at gmail dot com) ..Add more Advisors here

Initial Membership

 * Dr. Gautam Talukdar
 * Dr. Awase Khirni Syed
 * Dr. Tarun P. Singh
 * Amol A. Sale
 * Anand Akmanchi
 * Aneel Kumar.V
 * Anil Kumar.K.V
 * Anivar Aravind
 * Ankur Mehrotra
 * Gangavane
 * Indrajit Patil
 * Jayant Kirtane
 * Kanhaiya K. Kale
 * Mahalakshmi Narayanan
 * Mahesh Jeevane
 * Maneesh Prasad
 * Mohan Patil
 * N.R. Karmarkar
 * Rahul Kaura
 * Sajith
 * Saroj Akiojam
 * Shekhar Krishnan
 * Swapnil K. Hajare
 * Uttam Kumar
 * B.N. Umrikar
 * Vrishali Deosthali
 * A.V.Satya Kumar
 * Praveen Kumar Sinha
 * Santosh Gaikwad
 * C. Pattanaik
 * Hardeep Singh Rai
 * M.Surendranath
 * Ditty Mathew
 * N.Rajendran
 * Srinivasan K
 * Nageswaran B
 * N.R.S.Reddy
 * L.P.Singh
 * A.J.Prakash Naveen
 * S.Ramamurthy
 * B.K. Sahu
 * J.Simhachalam
 * V.Hanumantha Rao
 * S.Ananda Murty
 * K.Seshayya
 * N.Padmayya
 * N.R.Ramesh
 * U.S.N.Reddy
 * R.M.Sundaram
 * Vimal Kumar
 * Narayana Aroori
 * P M Bala Manikavelu
 * RVN Srinivas
 * M Arulraj
 * Satya Prasad Sarilla
 * Suresh Verma
 * Kumar Parakram
 * Pranav Kumar
 * Harish Kumar Solanki

Activity of OSGeo India Chapter
Pl see link http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/User_talk:Ravivundavalli

Communication

 * Through mailing lists
 * Discuss: subscribe at http://lists.osgeo.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/india-discuss
 * Board: subscribe at http://lists.osgeo.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/india-board

You can search these archives through Nabble: http://osgeo-org.1560.n6.nabble.com/OSGeo-India-Local-Chapter-f5000899.html

Links

 * OSGeo India's ongoing project - http://www.mana-rajahmundry.org/
 * National Remote Sensing Agency - http://www.nrsa.gov.in/
 * GIS based Village Information System - Maharashtra (Hosting Courtsey : Media Center, Osaka City) - http://gisws.media.osaka-cu.ac.jp/maha_map.dev/
 * GIS based Village Information System - Maharashtra - http://indictrans.in/demos/maha_map.dev/
 * Human Development Index (Jalna, Maharashtra)- http://www.indictrans.in/?q=projects/gis/ghdi
 * Maharashtra Coverage - Neighbourhood Village - http://indictrans.in/demos/maha_map.coverage/village_search_k.php
 * GIS based Slum Information System (Korba Slum, Mumbai) - http://indictrans.in/demos/chameleon/samples/htdocs/korba.phtml
 * Mumbai Free Map - http://mumbai.freemap.in/ | http://www.crit.org.in/projects/gis
 * Bangalore Free Map - http://bangalore.freemap.in/
 * Vasai Virar Subregion Freemap - http://vvsr.freemap.in/
 * Tamil Nadu Maps Online - http://tnmaps.tn.nic.in/?info1.htm
 * Tamil Nadu Census 2001 - http://www.census.tn.nic.in/
 * Tamil Nadu Animal Disease Infformation - http://www.animaldiseaseinfo.tn.nic.in
 * GRASS GIS mirror India - http://wgbis.ces.iisc.ernet.in/grass/index.php
 * GRDSS (GRASS GUI) - http://wgbis.ces.iisc.ernet.in/foss
 * FOSS at IISc - http://wgbis.ces.iisc.ernet.in/foss
 * Visualisation of resource maps of Cheruvannur Grama Panchayat. Panchayats are 3rd stratum of administration in India. [Bilingual: English and Malayalam] - http://cheruvannur.web4all.in/resources/
 * Free GIS India - http://freegis.gnu.org.in/
 * ENVIS Wetland Ecosystems India - http://www.wetlandsofindia.org:8080/sacon/aboutus.jsp/
 * GIS & Language Technology related Applications - http://indictrans.in/demos/GIS_Presentation_20061004.pdf