The All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) has approved for the inclusion of the geospatial subject in the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) and National Eligibility Test (NET) examination on the recommendation of the National Geospatial Task Force Report, 2013, under the chairmanship of former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman, Dr. K Kasturirangan.
Students competing for the popular NET for Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) and lectureship in Indian universities and colleges, including the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and GATE for JRF in the Council for Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) laboratories can now opt for geospatial as a subject.
Earlier, the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and several other professionals had highlighted the need for geospatial especially in GATE and NET examination at different forums.
Dr. KC Tiwari, Department of Science and Technology’s Geospatial Chair Professor, Centre of Geoinformatics, Delhi Technological University, had made efforts for inclusion of geospatial as a subject in the GATE and NET examination. The decision is, therefore, is also an outcome of DST’s insistence and Dr. Tiwari’s endeavours.
This will benefit the increasing number of students who are taking up geospatial as a subject at different levels and help in the evolution of a geospatial ecosystem in the country
“Geospatial science and technology is a rapidly evolving subject that forms the backbone of a plethora of planning, development and governance activities with unprecedented opportunities both in the government and private sectors. Swamitva, a recent scheme launched by the prime minister is a good example to map rural inhabited lands using drones and latest survey methods.,” said Prof. Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, DST.
The Natural Resources Data Management System (NRDMS) under DST is an interdisciplinary research programme to promote R&D in emerging areas of geospatial science, technology and its applications to area-specific problems. Over the years, it has successfully demonstrated the utility of geospatial technologies in decision making and developed capacity for geospatial data and information management at state, district and local levels in pilot projects.
It is now evolving into National Geospatial Programme for catalysing the national geospatial ecosystem and promoting geospatial science and technology solutions, capacity building, entrepreneurship and international cooperation for sustainable socio-economic development at all levels of governance.