The New Indian Express - Hyderabad 01.08.2009

GIS to be used in polls: Health Minister

Minister for Health and Family Planning Danam Nagender launches a brochure of the GEMSIGNOU community college on Friday. Also seen is IGNOU professor,

HYDERABAD: The government is quite adept at using the latest technology for political ends. Health Minister Danam Nagender, never one to miss the chance to harness an opportunity for political gain, was quick to spot the potential of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) for partisan purposes. “We will use GIS in the forthcoming municipal elections,” he declared at the launch of a community college specialising in GIS at a city hotel.

The Minister added that GIS would also be used for constituency mapping and development work. Although he didn’t specify exactly how the government planned to use the new tool for municipal elections he did say, “This field has good applications and the youth will find jobs after training in GIS. Five to 10,000 people will be needed to operate GIS applications in the coming years”.

He was speaking at the occasion of the launch of the GEMS-IGNOU community college. Community colleges are an alternative system of education where the needs of the community are taken into consideration before framing the curriculum. For instance, a community college in Allapuzha in Kerala specialises in coir weaving.

Geographical Information Systems create databases of knowledge in fields as diverse as agriculture, soil sciences and field surveys which can be used in planning and decision-making.

The GeoMap Society, a Hyderabadbased organisation that specialises in GIS has teamed up with the Indira Gandhi National Open University to offer courses in GIS at two centres: one in Somajiguda and the other in Giraipalli village in Medak. Latha Pillai, Pro Vice- Chancellor of IGNOU, who was present at the launch said, “We want to combine the your expertise with our academic excellence and offer rural youth training so that they can join the mainstream right away”.

Though community colleges are a well recognised form of education abroad they have just been launched in India. IGNOU identified 100 such organisations across India and tied up with them. The tie-up provides these private institutes academic support in the form of certification, examination support, grading etc. The community college scheme was launched on July 4 in New Delhi.

According to Major Shiva Kiran, Principal of the GEMS-IGNOU community college, GIS is a computer-based tool that creates a multi disciplinary database.

“It can be used in diverse fields like agriculture, geology, mapping and more to store information that can be used by the government when it wants to,” he said.