NEWSBRIEFS – GIS

China’s GI industry to exceed $10 billion by 2010

The geographic information industry is a burgeoning and fast-growing industry. Statistics from overseas authoritative institutions show that since 2000, the annual growth rate of the geographic information industry has exceeded 25 percent. More and more large international enterprises, such as Microsoft and Google.com, have begun to enter into this field. According to a recent report published in the China Economic Net website China has proposed in the Outline of the 11th Five-Year Plan for National Economy and Social Development “to intensify the construction of infrastructures and facilities for surveying and mapping, enrich, develop and utilize the fundamental geographic information resources, and develop the geographic information industry”. The report further says that the total output value (based on incomplete statistics) of China’s geographic information industry reached RMB 26 billion Yuan (more than 3 billion USD) in 2005 and the industry is becoming a rapidly rising burgeoning industry among modern service industries and a new growth point for the economy. The annual total production value of China’s geographic information industry is expected to exceed RMB 80 billion Yuan (more than 10 billion USD) by 2010. http://en.ce.cn

Natural disaster info on mobiles in India

A natural disaster information dissemination system to alert people withinseconds on mobile phones, claimed to be the first in the world, is in place in India.”India is the first country in the world which has introduced an easy-to-use, bilingual disaster warning dissemination system. Through this alert system the common man would come to know about natural disaster in 30 seconds,” the Union Science and Technology Minister Mr. Kapil Sibal told reporters in New Delhi.
www.hindustantimes.com

South Korea to construct national digital map database

Recently, the Korean administration began overhauling its national mapping system. Its largest scale open source mapping system GIS project will use digital street maps and addresses meet international standards. The Korean address system uses land based numbering system. In other words, it combines a land lot number with an address. The past and inferior, outdated system, created traffic congestions and added extra expenses. This situation led Korean government to focus on upgrading its national map and address system to new one that can meet the current global trend. www.zdnet.co.kr/etc/eyeon/

Indian government sanctions major project under NUIS

The Union Ministry for Urban Development, Government of India, has sanctioned a major project under the National Urban Information System (NUIS) for eight cities in the State of Gujarat. The cities to be covered under the project are Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot, Vadodara, Jamnagar, Bhavnagar, Junagadh and Nadiad. The Chief Town Planner of the State office has been appointed as the nodal agency for the project. Under the project, aerial photography and GIS would be used to gather special information to prepare urban development plans for these cities. Basic information like population, employment, economic development, and infrastructure development would be gathered and used to prepare maps for the cities. According to the officials of the urban development department, the total cost of the project is around Rs. 8 crore of which 75 per cent funds would come from the Central Government while remaining 25 per cent would be contributed by the State Government. http://cities.expressindia.com

Dr B.K Gairola new Director General of NIC

With Dr N.Vijayaditya superannuating on October 31st’ 06 after an illustrious tenure as Director General, National Informatics Centre (NIC), Dr.B.K Gairola took over the reins of NIC as its new Director General on November 1st’06. Dr B.K Gairola, the new Director General has had a long stint till now as the Deputy Director General, in charge of many key areas and projects being implemented by NIC. He has always been regarded as a dynamic visionary known for his penchant for emphasizing the adoption of ICT at the very ground level itself. http://home.nic.in

New SDI project in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

The envisioned urban SDI within the city of Riyadh should allow public and private agencies to share mapping data and to distribute data changes and updates in near real-time. The objective of this project is to enable users of the system to significantly reduce data redundancy cost and increase productivity through access to timely data. Agencies such as Saudi Post, Riyadh Water & Sewage, Arriyadh Development Authority, Riyadh City Hall and Saudi Telecom will share in real time the data that is of interest to specific participants to enhance their decision-making processes. www.galdosinc.com/archives/267