In view of recent initiatives with regard to development and design of National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) for India, all major spatial data producing agencies have agreed that such a body would allow better co-ordination and facilitate data production and distribution to various users for overall development of the country.

CSDMS had organised a seminar “NGDI: Towards a Roadmap for India” where a Strategy Document was adopted in the presence of Hon'ble Minister of State for Science and Technology, Government of India. The progress towards the NSDI for India has been encouraging. Various members of Task Force and Committees under the umbrella of Task Force have been doing excellent work to achieve the goals. Follow-up studies on the recommendation of the Workshop are underway.

In this context a need is being felt to speed up the issue of consultation and participation of larger number of professionals, officials and users from various concerned departments, industry, NGO’s and Universities on the findings and recommendations of the Task Force and its sub committees. A seminar on NSDI for India is being organised during Map India 2003. The focus will be to:

• Review the progress of steps taken in the direction of creating NSDI for India.
• Present the report of the various committees of NSDI to participants
• Spread the awareness about the NSDI initiatives amongst larger spatial community
• Encourage the industry and government organisations to follow the format and standards formulated by NSDI
• Invite various data generating agencies (both Private and Public Sector) to participate and contribute to NSDI
• Assess the potential demand of spatial data from various sections of users.

Programme Schedule