What is Geographic Information Systems?
Governments, militaries, business enterprises, and other interests rely on information about the land, location, characteristics of people and resources. For centuries, maps have served as the primary mechanism for managing and communicating geographic information. In the 1960s, computerized Geographic Information Systems (GIS) emerged as a means to manage and analyze such information more efficiently and effectively. Since then, computing power has increased, data have become plentiful, software has become easier to use, and the scope and complexity of questions that GIS is capable of addressing has expanded dramatically
GIS integrates hardware, software, data and policies for collecting, managing, computing, analyzing, and displaying all forms of geographically referenced information. GIS helps us observe, comprehend, question, infer, and present data in many ways that reveal relationships, patterns, and trends in the form of maps, plots, reports, and charts. GIS technology has evolved over the past 40-50 years into a sophisticated discipline that inter-relates and could encompass surveying/navigation methods, map-making and cartography, imaging and image interpretation, database and computing technology.
Applications of GIS have significant social and national relevance. They support governance activities, preparing sustainable development strategies, enabling enterprises to better manage business processes and bring geographical knowledge to citizens. Around the world, GIS has considerable impact on the economies of local, regional, and national governance and development – by creating greater efficiency, more visual communication, and better decision making with appropriate integration of maps, images and attribute data.
Why is NU offering this Unique Programme?
India is on a path of progress and growth. With a 2011-12 GDP expected to be around 2 trillion USD, it is possible that Indian GDP would approach $9-10 trillion by 2025. These could be sustainable and would still be powered largely by domestic demand and the transformation to a highly industrialized and technologically advanced economy. With such a level of economy, developmental activities in India will demand a new paradigm and thought-process and India’s geo-political presence as a dominant economic power will be significant globally. India will require a vastly different information regime to arm itself for the trillion-levels of economy – powered by very efficient national information systems like GIS that will have to be the foundation for the governing and the governed – bringing the assessment of development needs, bridging disparity and gaps, bringing equity, transparency, inclusivity and citizen participation. The central government of India thus plans to expand research and development in geospatial technologies under the National GIS programme-a nationwide GIS that will support all sectors of governance, enterprise and citizens.
The National GIS would be a fundamental component of India’s planning and developmental infrastructure, providing visibility into various aspects of the national economic and governance process, development process, enterprise commerce and citizen participation.
This will create a huge demand for high quality GIS professionals and researchers. It has been envisaged that the total number of GIS workforce will have to increase manifold to meet the demand. NIIT University (NU) has taken cognizance to this serious issue and plans to offer an M.Tech Programme in GIS with active involvement of the GIS industry in India and abroad.
