New Delhi: The All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) has approved the inclusion of Geospatial subject in the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) and National Eligibility Test (NET) examination. This was approved on the recommendation of the National Geospatial Task Force Report 2013 under the Chairmanship of former ISRO Chairman, K Kasturirangan. 


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Students competing for the popular NET for Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) and lectureship in Indian universities and colleges, including IITs and NITs and GATE for JRF in CSIR laboratories, can now opt for Geospatial as a subject. 


Department of Science and Technology (DST) as an organisation and many professionals have highlighted the need for Geospatial subject especially in GATE and NET examination at different forums. 


The step will benefit the increasing number of students who are taking up geospatial as a subject at different levels and help in the evolution of Geospatial Ecosystem in the country.


The Natural Resources Data Management System (NRDMS) under DST is an interdisciplinary research programme which promoted R&D in emerging areas of geospatial science, technology, and its applications to area-specific problems. Over the years, it has successfully demonstrated utilities of geospatial technologies in decision making and developed capacity for geospatial data and information management at state, district, and local levels at pilot scale.


Now, it is evolving into National Geospatial Programme for catalyzing the national geospatial ecosystem and promoting geospatial science and technology solutions, capacity building, entrepreneurship, and international cooperation for sustainable sociology-economic development at all levels of governance and also stressing on including geospatial subject at different levels.


"Geospatial science and technology is a rapidly evolving subject that forms the backbone of a plethora of planning, development and governance activities with unprecedented opportunities both in the government and private sectors," said Prof Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, DST.


"Swamitva, a recent scheme launched by the Prime Minister is a good example to map rural inhabited lands using drones and latest survey methods. The scheme among other things will streamline planning, revenue collection and property rights and thus have a huge positive impact on securing loans by the owners and dispute resolution related to properties," added Prof Sharma.