India

Find more information on the India Chapter of OSGeo web site.

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 guidence, 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

India OSGeo Representative
Dr P.S.Roy
Director
Indian Institute of Remote Sensing
Indian Space Research Organisation,
Department of Space, Government of India
4 Kalidas Road, Post Box No. 135
Dehradun, Uttarakhand, Pin - 248001
Telephone :+91-135-2744583 Fax: +91-135-2741987
E-Mail: psr at iirs dot gov dot in
website: http://iirs.gov.in

India OSGeo Chapter Coordinator
Dr. Yashodhan Joshi
CEO Relatioware
Pune, India
yyj at relationware dot in

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

OSGeo Software Development Committee
Chairpersons
(Prototyping, Localization, Proof of Concepts etc.)
Prof. Jitendra Shah
VJTI Mumbai, India
jituviju at gmail dot com

Dr. T.V. Ramachandra
Indian Institute of Science
Bangalore, India
cestvr at ces dot iisc dot ernet dot in

Regional Events Committee
Chairpersons
Mr. V. Ravi Kumar*
Joint Secretory of the OSGeo India registered body and
Director (Retired*)
Centre for Geoinformation Management and Training
Training Inistitute
Geological Survey of India
Bandalaguda, Hyderabad 500068
India
ravivundavalli at yahoo dot com

Mr. Neeraj Dixit
Product Manager Autodesk India Pvt. Ltd.
Infrastructure Solutions Division (ISD)
Neeraj dot Dixit at autodesk dot com

Education and Training Committee
Chairpersons
Dr. N.J. Pawar
Department of Geology, Pune University
Ganeshkhind Road
Pune 411007, India
njpawar at unipune dot ernet dot in

Dr. S.N. Prasad
Sàlim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON)
Deccan Regional Station, Secunderabad - 500 017, India
Email: narendra_prasad at yahoo dot com

Dr. H.S.Rai
Professor of Civil Engineering
Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College
Ludhiana - 141006
India
Email: hardeep.rai at gmail dot com
Web: HS.RaiAndRai.com

Advisors

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

Meetings of India OSGeo Chapter

• 4th Oct 2006, Hyderabad Meeting Minutes

• 24th Jan 2006, Hyderabad
  

We are Happy to ANNOUNCE that we had a very successful OSGeo Workshop at Map World Forum 2007 today, and thank all the participants for the same. We are also very grateful to our Sponsors OSGeo.org and our Donors thru GNOME Foundation for the financial support in hosting this event.
Later in the day, the first meeting of the newly constituted Executive Council (Board) of OSGeo-India was held.

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

• India OSGeo Chapter - http://osgeo.in/
• 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 http://www.hayda.net/
• 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