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

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