Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh today launched two Geoportals namely ‘Bhuvan Panchayat (Ver. 4.0) Portal” for rural land records management and “National Database for Emergency Management (NDEM Ver. 5.0)” developed by Indian Space research Organization (ISRO) .
These latest geospatial tools are meant for visualisation and planning to provide high resolution satellite imagery of 1:10K scale for different locations across the entire country.
“Launch of these portals is a sequel to reforms introduced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the last one decade”, says Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Earth Sciences, MoS PMO, Department of Atomic Energy and Department of Space and MoS Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Dr. Jitendra Singh.
Recalling the journey which began soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi took over in 2014, it was in the beginning 2015-16 a brainstorming session on applications of Space Technology for the benefit of infrastructure development, planning, disaster risk reduction and land record management, weather forecasting, agriculture development was discussed.
The Minister congratulating team ISRO on the launch of Geoportals said “We have not only launched rockets and reached the sky but we are also mapping the earth from the sky”. The Science and technology Minister said “Space- Technology has virtually entered every household. We have rightfully carried forward the vision of our founding father of space technology, Vikram Sarabhai who believed that development in Space will have a multifaceted impact on life of common citizens, be it telemedicine, digital India, identifying unmanned railway crossings.”
Dr Singh reiterated that the priority of the Government is to integrate various services and allow common citizens to take benefit from it. He mentioned that the outcome of policy decisions under Modi Govt. in the last few years opened the space sector for Private participation having a positive impact from one startup in 2022 to more than 200 startups in 2024.
Highlighting the importance of ‘Bhuvan Panchayat Portal to support “Space based Information Support for Decentralised Planning (SISDP)” and empower the citizens at the grass root level in Panchayats’ the Minister said this is continuing our efforts to empower the citizens at the grass root level and allow them to take benefit of these services.
Speaking on the benefits of National Database for Emergency Management (NDEM Ver. 5.0) which will provide space-based inputs on natural disasters and aid in disaster risk reduction In India as well as neighbouring countries. To prevent the citizens from vagaries of nature and put in place an effective early warning system so that administration can proactively prevent the disasters and inform us regarding the Land Use Land Change (LULC).
S. Somanath, Chairman ISRO, Secretary Dept. of Space expressed gratitude towards Union Minister for his continuous guidance and leadership. Vivek Bhardwaj, Secretary, Ministry of Panchayati Raj; Dr Ravi Chandran, Secretary, Earth Sciences; S.K Jindal, Addl. Secretary, MHA; Rajesh S. Inspector General of Forest, Moefcc; Manish K, Dy. Director General, GSI M/o Mines and Dr. Prakash Chauhan, Director, NRSC were also present on the launch ceremony.