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other central government departments like 
Geological Survey of India (GSI), Forest Survey 
of India (FSI), Oil and Natural Gas Commission 
(ONGC) have established their own remote sensing 
facilities for undertaking their studies. 
5. Training: The increased use of remote 
sensing lead to the demand on the 
availability of trained manpower for various 
application areas. The training presently 
offered in India is at Indian Institute of 
Remote Sensing, Dehra Dun. The Institute 
provides training facilities for the resources 
areas in Forestry, Geology, Cartography, Soil 
and Agriculture, Photogrammetry and Remote 
Sensing, Urban and Regional Planning and aerial 
and satellite data processing. The training 
facilities are open to all the organisational/ 
departmental officials including academicians. 
In addition to inhouse training, the institute 
also provide Fellowships under SHARES Programme 
for the developing nations. Over and above 
specialised theme specific training programmes 
are also offered under the aegis of NNRMS by 
Geological Survey of India (GSI) and Forest 
Survey of India (FSI) inorder to cope the demand 
on training. 
6. Education: With the present status of 
operational utilization of remote sensing 
it has been widely felt the necessity for 
introduction of remote sensing in the education 
curricula. As a result, University Grants 
Commission (UGC) and Department of Space 
together have evolved a remote sensing 
syllabus package for introduction at post- 
graduate level either as a part or full 
paper. Besides this DOS and Department of 
Education  (DOEd) have together worked out the 
guidelines of the syllabus for incorporation at 
10th and 11th standards. The percolation 
of remote sensing at the school and 
university level clearly demonstrates the 
efficacy and acceptablity of remote sensing in 
all sections of community. 
TABLE 1 
7. Technology Development & Transfer: While the 
increased use of remotely sensed data either 
through visual interpretation or digital 
analysis techniques, need cost effective tools 
for interpretation and analysis. Towards 
this several visual interpretation aids 
have been developed indigenously and the 
technology has been transferred to the industry. 
The promotion of remote sensing enterpreneurship 
made way for the easy availability of remote 
sensing tools on a more cost effective way. In 
addition the development of PC based Image 
Processing Systems (SIPS and ISROVISION) have 
together broadened the applications of remotely 
sensed data for digital analysis. 
OPERATIONAL PROJECTS 
The acceptance and success of promotion of 
remote sensing in India is primarily due to the 
widespread usage of remotely sensed data for 
various national level operational projects. 
Several projects have been carried out at 
various levels; national, regional, local, case 
wise R&D studies have together provided immense 
impact for the policy planning viz., strategic/ 
tactical/technical levels. The information flow 
generated through satellite based sources is 
dual in nature both in the vertical direction 
right from working level to bureaucratic levels. 
On the other, there is an horizontal transfer of 
technology in specified application areas. The 
applications of remote sensing is mainly either 
diagnostic or solution specific in nature for 
example; the National Agricultural Drought 
Assessment and Forecasting during Kharif season 
at district level is of diagnostic in nature 
while providing information for strategic 
planning in order to take remedial measures. 
The various projects undertaken in India which 
have direct impact on national development have 
been shown in Table 1 clearly depicting the 
positive points for promotion of remote sensing. 
MAJOR REMOTE SENSING APPLICATION PROJECTS 
  
  
Project Level of Planning Horizontal/ * D/S 
Name information purpose Verticle 
Forest Cover Mapping National Strategic  Verticle D 
Wasteland Mapping District Technical Horizontal D 
Landuse/ Landcover District Tactical Horizontal D 
Mapping 
Agricultural Drought District Technical Verticle D 
Assessment 
Ground water District Technical Horizontal S 
Fishing Zones Regional Technical Horizontal S 
Crop Acreages Regional Technical Horizontal S 
Snow-melt Regional Technical Horizontal S 
Flood damage Regional Tactical Horizontal S 
Mineral targetting Case study R&D TD S 
Integrated studies District Technical Horizontal S 
Soil Salinity District Technical Horizontal S 
Grassland mapping Region Tactical Verticle D 
  
* D = Diagnostic 
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S = Solution specific