We published a circular by Central Board of Excise and Customs, Government of India that came out in April (Coordinates, May 2007).
The circular classifies high technology featured mobile phone including GPS as a secondary feature as mobile phone.
That implies four per cent custom duty rather than 34 per cent as applicable to …

Galileo would be financed entirely by EU budget
The European Parliament adopted a resolution on the financing Galileo, saying all money must come from the European Union (EU) budget for the construction of the system. The parliament asked the European Commission, the executive body of the EU, to present a revised proposal for legislation on the financing of the Galileo program.
The parliament says it will oppose any solution which wouldcombine EU funding with additional inter-governmental funding. The parliament expressed concern at the possibility that the additional financing necessary to fill the gap following the failure of the public-private partnership could be agreed on an inter-governmental basis.
The parliament also believed that if the public sector assumes the complete financing of the project, this factor should be taken into account in a future revised concession contract, especially as regards the reimbursement mechanism for public financial contributions and the prices of services.
Transport ministers from all 27 member states of the EU agreed earlier this month to build Galileo by public funding. But they failed to agree on where the funds should come from. The European Commission had to recommend entire public funding for the construction phase of Galileo in May as infighting in the eight-company consortium, which was picked to both build and manage Galileo, has put the completion date in doubt. http://english.people.com.cn

Real Time Traffic GPS Navigation Singapore
The first “Real Time Traffic GPS Navigation” beta solution is launched by MapKing in Singapore. It runs on Windows Mobile 5/6 Pocket PC phone devices equipped with 3G or GPRS wireless connection. Streamed from the intelligent transport system of Land Transport Authority, Singapore, Its real time traffic server dispatches traffic speed data to each device connected wirelessly on the road. At present, the data is updated every 5 minutes and the first generation covers highways and major roads. www.mapking.com

Use of geographical data promoted in Japan by new law
Having recognized the great contribution of applications derived from data obtained through a combined use of GIS and positioning systems for a lot of valuable uses (cadastre, floods, spatial planning, statistics on old buildings, criminality rates etc.), the Japanese government decided to draft a law for the use of these data and to give guidance for orientation of future needs as well as for financial and human resources required. This will help avoid fragmentation of initiatives efficient use by different Japanese ministries. www.gmes.info

Asus launches PDA GPS phone in India
Asus launched the P535 tri-band PDA phone in India with full wireless functionality, GPS and auto-focus camera. It also offers push email, Internet access, off-site synchronization of calendar and contact information over wireless (802.11b+g) or mobile phone GPRS networks. www.pcworld.in

— Michael Shaw, Director of the National Coordination Office for Space- Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT), on the availability of GPS signals around the world

 
What’s …

Such development will help the LBS industry. There are three aspects of LBS in my mind. One is essential location finding, which is security related to our parents and children. Like I am worried about my child so I would always like to know where my child is. And the mobile industry has manylive solutions for that. The second is corporate and business related location based services. The third is mobile marketing location based services which will give the real lease of activity to this industry. There you will be able to hunt for things which you need and you get special offers on that. So you’re attracted to hunt for them. So I think LBS marketing will be the biggest thing.

Leica Geosystems launches Leica GMX901 GPS antenna
Leica Geosystems has launched Leica GMX901 GPS receiver with an integrated antenna for geodetic monitoring of sensitive structures. It streams single frequency code and phase data up to 1 Hz, providing the basis for position determination and deformation analysis.

Greece has suffered many times from big earthquakes that caused human victims as well as big damage to public and private infrastructure. However, the 1978 earthquake in Thessaloniki (Mw = 6.5) motivated the beginning of a more systematic confrontation of the impact of such phenomena. This happened because it was the first time that a powerful earthquake affected a big modern city of roughly one million of residents. Thessaloniki presented the formal characteristics of Greek urban built environment: buildings with 4 to 8 storeys, large population in numbers and density, mixed land use, traffic problems and lack of effective planning of management of natural catastrophes. After the Thessaloniki earthquake, a situation of chaos was created due to the panic, the destructions, the lack of information and the innumerable calls on help, but also on control of static condition and damage of buildings. By that time, there was no specific procedure for the inspection of buildings and infrastructure. However, after the first period of embarrassment, the state agencies reacted. Inspection forms were designed, printed and distributed during the first days after the earthquake. The buildings were inspected by two-member teams of civil engineers in order to be classified in categories with regard to their damage and usability. These paper inspection forms constitute a valuable database concerning the impact of the earthquake to the buildings of Thessaloniki.

SOME of the earliest known maps were made in Iraq which was drawn during 2400 BC for the purpose of land taxation. A Roman map dating 350 AD showed such topographical features as roads, cities, rivers and mountains. Although the basics of land surveying were known but the large scale maps before 16th century were limited to cities and other small areas. Up to the middle of 16th Century, there was little real knowledge of the geography of the most part of the world.