Delhi Police to use GPS & GIS
HCL Infosystems revamped the infrastructure of Delhi Police with ICTdriven tools. The GPS-based solution will facilitate routing of emergency calls directly to PCR vehicle network operators for the scenarios that include traffic congestion, medical assistance and fire, as well as crime-in-progress situations. www.hclinfosystems.com

IFEN to upgrade Galileo open air test bed signals
The German Aerospace Center has contracted with IFEN GmbH for the signal upgrade of the Galileo Test and Development Environment (GATE), per the latest versions of the European Space Agency’s Galileo Signal-in-Space Interface Control Document (ICD) and the GNSS Supervisory Authority Public Galileo Open Service ICD. After completion of the signal upgrade at the end of 2009, the GATE test infrastructure will be capable of transmitting the new CBOC signal structure on the Galileo E1 frequency band and a broader bandwidth of 92.07 MHz on the E5 frequency band, according to IFEN. www.ifen.com

MapMart unveils one-stop portal
IntraSearch Inc. unveiled a new interface on its MapMart online mapping portal where satellite imagery customers can search, preview and order high-resolution data from DigitalGlobe, GeoEye, SPOT and KOMPSAT. www.mapmart.com

Bhubaneswar to have GIS-based holdings’ assessment
Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), Orissa, India is putting in place a GIS-based system which will create maps for the individual properties in the Capital. www.orissa.gov.in/ourbmc/

MetaCarta’s LBS for 2012 Olympics
MetaCarta, Inc., and the British Transport Police (BTP) shall provide location based situational awareness for the 2012 Olympics. BTP will use MetaCarta geographic search and referencing solutions to geo-enable and consolidate information from multiple data sources by geographic location and display it in MapView, BTP’s intranet map-based visualisation tool. www.metacarta.com

Satellite-based sprinkler system
Faced with historic droughts, the governments of Georgia, California and Idaho are turning to GIS maps and satellite-based computerised sprinklers for drought recovery and to prepare for a future of less water. The sprinkler has a satellite that tracks weather patterns and automatically adjusts water schedules based on an environment’s needs. www.governmentnews.com.au

Solutions SiRF Technology Holdings, Inc. has partnered with M/A-COM Technology Solutions, Inc. to help create the networked GPS module that provides location information to vehicle-based communications and entertainment systems. SiRF also introduced the GSC3e/LPa single-chip GPS receiver, which is the fi rst SiRFstarIII architecture product.

Update from the International System Providers Meeting (ICG-3)
At the third meeting of the International Committee on GNSS (ICG-3), a voluntary United Nations–backed association that brings together GNSS and augmentation providers, Paul Verhoef, head of the Galileo unit for the European Commission Directorate-General for Transport and Energy, said that the EU expects to have contracts for building the Galileo FOC system in place by next summer. He noted that the target date for completion is 2013 had been given to prospective vendors in the Galileo invitations to tender (ITTs). The European GNSS Supervisory Agency (GSA), which had been charged with overseeing development and operation of Galileo under the abandoned publicprivate partnership, will be given a different name next year to refl ect its altered responsibilities under the public procurement now led by the EC and the European Space Agency. www.geolinks.org/icg3/

JAXA joins UNESCO World Heritage Initiative
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has joined a partnership with UNESCO, under which it will mobilise the Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) for the study and safeguarding of World Heritage sites. UNESCO member states, mainly in Asia, can now access JAXA technology for activities conducted as part of the Open Initiative on the Use of Space Technologies for World Heritage Sites. www.unesco.org

National Geo Data Regulatory Authority Bill
The 8th National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) meet was held at New Delhi during 22-23 Dec 2008. The meeting was organised by Ministry of Science and Technology in association with FICCI. The meeting was inaugurated by Union Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, Mr Kapil Sibal. In his address, Mr Sibal told the gathering the government was preparing a legislation on sharing of geospatial data amongst different agencies – public and private. A bill in this regard, National Geospatial Data Regulatory Authority Bill, is to be introduced in the next session of Parliament and is likely to be cleared by the Cabinet by February 2009. The inaugural session was also addressed by Dr K Kasturirangan, Member of Parliament and Dr T Ramasamy, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology. During the meet, the Indian Geo-portal was also launched.