• The 3rd NSDI Executive Committee (NSDI-EC) meeting was held on 9th November, 2009 at NRSC, Hyderabad at 10:30 AM. Dr T Ramasami, Secretary, DST & Chairman, NSDI-EC was in the Chair. The following members/invitees were present:-
  1. Dr. V. Jayaraman, Director, NRSC, Co-Chairman
  2. Dr. P. S. Roy, NRSC
  3. Maj Gen (Retd) V C Tyagi, NDMA
  4. Maj Gen Manoj Tayal, SOI
  5. Shri. A. Damodar Rao, CGWB
  6. Shri. .K. Sinha, Scientist-F, CGWB
  7. Dr. H. R. Hatwar, IMD
  8. Dr. N. Chattopadhyay, IMD
  9. Dr. Dipak Sarkar, NBSS&LUP
  10. Shri V. N. Wakpanjar, CWC
  11. Shri S. Ramamurthy, GSI
  12. Shri S.R. Sengupta, Director, GSI
  13. Shri P.S. Acharya, Scientist-F, DST
  14. Dr. S. K. Pathan, SAC, ISRO
  15. Shri Subhash Ashutosh, DDG, FSI
  16. Dr. P. Nag, Director, NATMO
  17. Prof N. L. Sarda, IIT Bombay
  18. Lt. Col A.K. Bhandari, OSD, NSDI
  19. Maj Gen (Dr.) R. Siva Kumar, CEO, NSDI – Member Secretary
• Dr. T. Ramasami, while welcoming the members of the EC gave a brief background about efforts of Department of Science & Technology, Department of Space and other agencies in furthering the activities of NSDI in India. Chairman mentioned that standardization is the need of the hour since multi-agencies are involved we must bring more homogeneity into the system. He hoped that NSDI will become one of the world class agencies. Chairman felt that NSDI belongs to all agencies and not to a particular organization/agency. Dr. V. Jayaraman, Director, NRSC and Co-Chairman, NSDI-EC also appreciated the efforts made till date by NSDI in bringing up its visibility in the country.
• CEO, NSDI and Member Secretary, EC gave a detailed presentation on the decisions taken during 2nd NSDI-EC meet and the progress made so far on all the points. He also briefly touched upon the progress made so far by NSDI on various activities given as under:-
  1. India GeoPortal is now operational in 24x7 mode.
  2. Status of metadata provision of all nodal agencies for India GeoPortal.
  3. Progress made so far on India GeoPortal and its content enrichment.
  4. Provision of tool for conversion from NSDI metadata standard version 1.0 to 2.0 on India GeoPortal.
  5. Linkage of NSDI GeoPortal with state SDIs.
  6. Likely inclusion of WMTS services shortly.
  7. NSDI is maintaining active relationship with OGC, GSDI, UNSDI and other SDI’s in various countries. CEO also attended the OGC Board meeting in July, 2009.
  8. Various meetings held like Nodal officers of all data providing departments/ministries, Working Groups and meeting with delegations from other countries.
• CEO, NSDI also mentioned NSDI is organizing annual event providing a platform for exchange of ideas on Spatial Data Infrastructure amongst the professionals, Government organizations, Research and Academic communities. This year NSDI – 9 is scheduled to be held under the aegis of IMD at Pune on 22-24 December, 2009.

Release of NSDI Metadata Standard Version 2.0

• NSDI Metadata Version 2.0 was released by the chairman and it was informed that the same is also available on India GeoPortal. Executive Committee had approved the said Metadata Standard in the last NSDI – EC meet on 19 March, 2009.
• Dr S K Pathan, SAC ISRO gave a brief presentation on NSDI Metadata Standard Version 2.0. He was asked to continue the good work for the next Version and also to incorporate the aspect of data reliability as a part of data quality.

Discussions

• As the four technical posts created for NSDI are still lying vacant, the committee was informed that Survey of India is providing two officers on loan basis as no other agency has offered. Chairman mentioned that four scientists can be recruited on the strength of DST as per existing recruitment rules or by making suitable amendments to the recruitment rules by the competent authority.
• The Working Group on Node Architecture chaired by Dr. S.K. Sinha, CGWB presented their report suggesting the hardware, software and infrastructure required at the node level to provide metadata. Chairman suggested that this could be done in a project mode and necessary financial support may be provided by DST.
• The committee report on inclusion of services by private operators was presented which suggested that it is very difficult to ratify the data hosted by private operators especially in respect of the international boundaries etc. and thus may not be allowed to register their services on a government portal. However, a policy decision could be taken after a paper on this subject is prepared and discussed.
• Shri P S Acharya, DST presented a report on State Geo-portals like those of Delhi, Karnataka, Kerala, West Bengal, Uttarakhand, and the North Eastern Region. He mentioned that these State Geo-Portals and Clearing houses are being developed for demonstration of utility of the SDI concepts and capacity building of the state level institutions with the help of academic/research institutions. State Governments are implementing the activities in a collaborative mode with DST. Chair appreciated Government of Kerala's recent decision to develop the Geo-portal and Clearing house from its own resources. Relevant technical guidance has been provided by NRDMS/ NSDI. Chair directed NRDMS/ NSDI to remain focused on development and demonstration of the concepts/ methodology/ template rather than on merely replicating available techniques/ tools across multiple States. State SDI’s should provide value in development planning and it should become a sustainable activity.
• A report on NSDI research issues was presented by Prof. N L Sarda, IIT, Bombay wherein he gave the details of Advance lab on ‘Geospatial Information Science and Engineering’ established in the Computer Science Department at IIT Bombay. He mentioned that work on GML 3.2 which covers topology has already commenced.
• National Spatial Data Committee (NSDC) is a high level policy making body on Spatial Data issues. Hon’ble Minister for Science & Technology is the Chairman and all Secretaries are Members. NSDC has met only once during October, 2007. Next meet of the Committee could be held at the convenience of the Chairman for discussing larger issues. Role of NSDC was presented for information of all the members.

Decisions Taken

• Working Group on Metadata Standards will continue their efforts in preparation of NSDI Metadata Standards and the next version should also incorporate the aspect of data reliability.
• To fill the vacant posts at NSDI, scientists to be recruited by DST on induction basis by making suitable amendments to the Recruitment Rules, if required and be utilized to fill the said vacant posts in NSDI.
• To establish data nodes in all the data providing nodal agencies Rs 10 lakh be sanctioned by DST as an annual grant for a period of 5 years and necessary infrastructure be created at all the agencies including manpower/hardware/software/connectivity .
• GSI will chair the working group for `Data Delivery and Capacity Building’.
• The following hardware upgradation at NSDI be carried out to improve the services and reliability of India GeoPortal as the portal is now functional in 24x7 mode.
  i. Replace existing 2003 model servers to the latest technology based blade servers.
  ii. Upgrade the existing 2 MBPS 1:4 MTNL Lease Line to 1:1 Lease Line.
• Private Operators can be allowed on India GeoPortal with a disclaimer, but before allowing them a policy needs to be formulated on security issues for inclusion of private operator services. Technical filters also need to be established to ensure that inconsistent data is not allowed. The private operators should be charged annual fee as an infrastructure fee as per space required/occupied.
• Prof. N L Sarda, IIT Bombay to write letter to all organizations to send their representatives to participate for about two months each for carrying out research work. Advanced Lab in GISE at IIT, Bombay will be a capacity building centre for all participating agencies. Agencies will decide by mutual agreement with IIT, Bombay and deploy officers for a period of upto 2 months. Travel cost to be borne by agencies. Local cost such as accommodation and food will be borne by the Lab for which funds have been provided by DST.
• Next NSDI – EC meet shall be conducted by GSI.
• The meeting ended with vote of thanks.

(Dr. R. Siva Kumar)
Member Secretary, NSDI-EC