Threat to AI from Fake AI Story Tellers

The biggest threat to AI development and adoption often stem from issues like data biases, ethical misuse, regulatory hurdles, or resource inequalities that hinder genuine innovation. However, misinformation and misrepresentation by self-proclaimed "experts" can indeed erode public trust and dilute the field's credibility, as seen in recent high-profile incidents. IT companies need to get rid off Y2K Era mindset where expertise were diluted to dotcom level  and pushed a lot  of IT resources  into the system due to increased demand.  Some of them became Leaders and are still in the system promoting same type of people with whom they feel comfortable. 

Regarding your specific example of Neha Singh from Galgotia University, she is an assistant professor and There is a serious trend among  many organizations to appoint spokespersons who can  tell stories i"n English without understanding nitty grittiest of technology. They come up with their own "Cock & Bull stories that  now I call "Dog & Robot" type stories. Every company has elevated their English Communication trainer in their AI capability team and they are representing and talking also.  Recent  fiasco at AI Impact Summit 2026 is glaring example to highlight this problem and need to tackle at on time before its hurts more.    Head of the Department of Communications at the School of Business there. Her background appears rooted in communications rather than core AI research or engineering.711946 At the India AI Impact Summit 2026 held recently in Delhi's Bharat Mandapam, she presented a quadruped robot named "Orion" as an in-house development from the university's Centre of Excellence.1687b2 However, it was quickly identified by attendees and online users as a commercially available Unitree Go2 model manufactured by China's Unitree Robotics, leading to widespread criticism for falsely claiming it as indigenous innovation.

The university has since apologized, vacated their stall at the summit, and initiated an internal probe, describing it as a "mistake.". They clarified that Singh has not been suspended but has been asked to remain during the investigation. Her LinkedIn profile now shows an "Open to Work" banner, fueling speculation about her status, though the institution denies any firing. This episode has sparked broader discussions in academic and tech circles about accountability, with some defending her as a potential scapegoat for institutional pressures, while others see it as emblematic of hype over substance in AI narratives.

In a larger sense, "fake" or overhyped AI leaders can indeed pose a threat by spreading inaccurate information, diverting resources from real advancements, and fostering skepticism toward legitimate AI progress—especially in emerging ecosystems like India's. That said, the field is resilient, with threats more commonly arising from systemic challenges like talent shortages or geopolitical tensions over AI tech. If you're referring to other examples or want to dive deeper into AI risks, let me know!

AI Renaissance & Hyper GENAIism

 Generative AI has created a different landscape and a different way to do something that investors are considering,. They need to look at it differently because what it did was democratize technology significantly. Everyone now has access to similar resources, these incredible resources. If you're using OpenAI APIs, everyone can grab these APIs and grab this amazing stuff. So the barrier from a technology perspective has been lowered significantly but gap between the available talent and required expertise is still wide enough to hamper the real traction in the application of GenAI in the fields like  Oil & Gas, Energy & Utilities, Manufacturing and .Healthcare.

 The huge amount of hype around generative AI since ChatGPT launched 11 months ago has been unlike any piece of technology people have seen in a generation. But despite the massive investment of awareness, time, and budget in GenAI projects, few organizations seem to be meeting their business goals with GenAI. That’s a reason why experts are predicting a modest pullback in 2024. Organizations will follow different trajectories in their experience of generative AI, so it doesn’t necessarily mean an organization needs to fall into the trough. It generally happens when expectations are not managed. If you start out by looking at some targeted use cases, some targeted pieces of implementation, and you have good metrics for success, and also investments in data management and organization; good governance, good policies; if you combine all that with a practical narrative about what the models can do, then you’ve controlled the hype and you’re less likely to fall into the trough.

 The  current AI renaissance will create a general awareness and acceptance of technologies like Pattern Recognition,  ANN, Deep Learning and Big Data based analytics which was earlier limited to scientific and research organizations.  IT companies will learn that present model of talent development and trailing is not enough  to tackle the domains which require deep learning of subjects like mathematics and modeling too apart from the usual IT skills employed in the IT support and maintenance projects.   Very soon by 2025,  dusrt of GenAI  Hype settle and make way for talent discovery to increase in productivity

Ram Setu &Union Pacific Rail

 Sea Bridge connecting India and Sri Lanka. 

Once someone said.

 Ram is fictional, from where did he get his engineering degree to build Ram Setu.

 - DMK leader Late  Karunanidhi

Photo 1

The Union Pacific Rail Line in United States off America passes through the middle of the Great Salt Lake.

 Photo 2  Ram Setu

When railway tracks expanded in America, many rail companies competed to earn money by laying railway tracks and running many trains, but ....

 While connecting the East America to the West America, there was a huge ocean-like lake in the middle, which is the largest lake in America known as The Great Salt Lake.

 The biggest challenge before the engineers was how to fix  alignment of route ,  pillars  and  lay the railway track across this lake.

 There was an engineer in the team of Union Pacific Rail  who had read Ramayana and knew about  #RamSetu....

 He came to India and studied Shri Ram Sethu, then his mind rang and he found out that if we lay a straight railway line across the lake, then this railway track could be broken by the waves...

 He built his railway track exactly on the design of Ram Setu, which is standing there and serving in America for the last 60 years.

 It happens that...

 Where the water is deep and wavy, stability is achieved only by a slow curved / zig-zag design and Ram Setu was composed by the grace of Rishi Munindra, who was the revered Gurudev of Nal Neel.

#spiritualgeology 

#gurugyan #गुरुज्ञान

Spiritual Geology :Varah Avatar and Table mountain

 

Evidence of a major  Isostatic and Tectonic upluftment event in Ancient Hindu scriptures can be seen at many places  around Table mountain national park, South Africa. 

#क्षीरसागर और #वराह
#spiritualgeology
#वराहअवतार #kshirsagar #varaha
#TableMountain #isostacy #isostaticupliftment #geology

For as long as humans have occupied this part of the world – since approximately 15 000 years ago – Table Mountain has been a constant and steady presence. Myths and legends have been told about the place, and even today it is seen as an important spiritual landmark.

There is a story in the Puranas that Hiranyaksha took the earth away in #Kshirsagar.
was hidden, which Lord Vishnu incarnated as #Varaha
Took it out.
See, this topic is as simple as it seems in the story, do not understand it
  Puranas cannot be understood merely by taking out the meaning of the word.  There are many ways to understand this story. Earth ie solid element, water or abyssal substance is fine.  Earth on which humans, birds etc. live.  The water was engrossed i.e. had gone to Hades.  Lord Narayan took the Varaha avatar (who can live in both water and earth elements) and established the earth by taking it out of the abyss.

There was only water everywhere on the earth, where life was not possible, normal life where yagya rituals etc. could be done.  The piece of earth which was brought out by the Varaha Avatar of God, can also be called tectonic plate in today's language, which has now become seven continents in seven parts. The story is not only a story, it is also a sign of scientific implications.  gives.
  This topic is not as simple as it seems in the story. Mythological stories are not only stories, it is a matter of science.  Its explanation is as mysterious as the discovery of the origin of the universe by modern scientists.  Atal, Vital, Sutala, Talatal, Rasatal, Mahatal and Patala.
It has seven floors.
There are 7 lokas above it.  Prithvi Lok (forgetfulness) Hiranyaksha had perverted this sequence and hid the earth in the abyss. Means this sequence was taking distortion.
Now in the legend which is Kshirsagar where Hiranyaksha hid the earth, which Lord Vishnu took out by taking Varaha avatar, #Kshirsagar is not on our earth, it is somewhere in the infinite sky.

Some time ago, space scientists have also claimed to be a place where 140 million more water than Earth is said to exist,

The universe is infinite, it is not a matter for an ordinary human to understand its secret. In this universe, we do not know how many earths are in the sky.
The Puranas are said in metaphorical ornamentation. To understand their real meaning, the vision of Vedas, science, philosophy is also necessary, otherwise this Purana is only a story to you.

Watch this video 

https://youtube.com/watch?v=XQgCioMYl-g&feature=share

Natural Hazards Alerts

 

Natural Hazards Alerts

Natural hazards are associated with changes in ocean, land, atmosphere, and ionosphere. The ground, borehole, and satellite observations provide information at spatial and temporal resolution over the globe. Now optical and microwave satellites are capable in providing meteorological and atmospheric parameters at different pressure levels. With the sponsorship of an NSF Convergence Research grant, this virtual international workshop will brainstorm how to use various data available to scientists to develop or continue development on early warning systems that alert people in local communities, through various social and digital media of natural hazards. Early warning systems have already shown that damage to life and property can be minimized.

https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.agu.org%2FNatural-Hazards-Alerts&data=04%7C01%7Crsingh%40chapman.edu%7C75233defdb884fabd1aa08d9004a7dd1%7C809929af2d2545bf9837089eb9cfbd01%7C1%7C0%7C637541142212416467%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=1d0x7bGGRMKoBSKf%2FKuyxEd4EZ%2BmueDknUS51w5gfyw%3D&reserved=0

Open Source GIS

Alternatives to ArcGIS Desktop 

If you've ever worked with geographic data on the desktop, chances are that you used Esri's ArcGIS application in at least part of your work. ArcGIS is an incredibly powerful tool, but unfortunately, it's a proprietary product that is designed for Windows. Linux and Mac users are out of luck unless they want to run ArcGIS in a virtualized environment, and even then, they're still using a closed source product that can be very expensive to license. While their flagship product is closed source, I would be remiss not to note that Esri has made numerous contributions to the open source community.

Fortunately, GIS users have a few choices for using open source tools to design maps and work with spatial data that can be obtained under free and open source licenses and which run on a variety of different non-Windows operating systems. Let's take a look at some of the options.

GRASS

GRASS  stands for Geographic Resources Analysis Support System). It has a very long history, dating back to original development which began in 1982 under the US government. In the time since, GRASS has been adopted by the academic community, where its development continues today.

I mention this history because it will help you to understand the interface, which launches with a terminal window and asks you a few questions about setting up your project before launching a separate control and display window for working with your data. If the GUI feels like it was later tacked on to a powerful program working under the hood, well, that's probably what actually happened. While the interface may not feel as intuitive to newcomers as some other GIS applications, I like it for two reasons. One, since it really is just a GUI abstraction to the underlying Python commands, advanced users can easily manipulate data and display directly from the Python console, for speed, preciseness, and importantly for academic applications, easy replicability. The second reason I like the interface is that it exposes the wide and powerful array of data manipulation tools directly.

GRASS is definitely the winner when it comes to data analysis and geo-processing, and its tools can be used from external applications, making it an extremely extensible tool which is worth learning even if you don't take it on as your primary desktop GIS system. GRASS is written primarily in C/C++, although many of its modules are written in Python or other languages. 

QGIS

For many people, discovering QGIS is the end of their search for an ArcGIS alternative. It has a clean interface, it's easy to use, and it just works. QGIS supports a wide variety of raster and vector formats, and if you're a Linux user, there's a good chance that it's already packaged for your distribution's default repositories. In addition to Linux, downloads and instructions for macOS, Windows, BSD, and Android can be found on the project's website.

QGIS has great documentation which can be found in its user manual, as well as an active user community which has produced numerous tutorials, guides, and even books to help you succeed. There are also a huge number of plugins that add a ton of functionality not found in the base package, and its Python interface makes it relatively easy for newcomers to create new ones.

You can find the source code to QGIS, which is written primarily in C++, on GitHub under a GPLv2 license.

uDig

While I've been a user of both GRASS and QGIS for several years now, recently I've been trying to expand my horizon a bit and have been trying out uDig, which stands for User-friendly Desktop Internet GIS.

uDig different than the other two tools in that built more as an application framework than a complete solution. It is, in fact, a stand-alone program, and if you download it and fire it up you can begin adding and exploring your data like a more traditional desktop GIS tool.

But its strength comes in its framework design, being built around the same Eclipse IDE that many developers are familiar with already. In this way, uDig makes it easy to develop your own GIS application which meets the specific needs of your users. The project's gallery hosts many examples, from smart grid to forestry to logistics. uDig is jointly licensed under the Eclipse Public License and a BSD license, and you can find its Java-based source code on GitHub.

In addition to these desktop tools, there are numerous tools beyond the desktop that GIS users can take advantage of. There are libraries for developing web-based mapping tools like Leaflet and OpenLayers. On the database site, most major database systems will support basic X/Y coordinates, but PostGIS leads the pack with spatially-enabled open source databases by providing extensions on top of PostgreSQL. Libraries like GDAL/OGR provide base functionality to many other spatially enabled programs and have bindings for many popular programming languages. Projects like GeoServer and MapServer offer server-side spatial data hosting.

Many of these open source projects find commercial support from companies like Boundless. The open source geospatial ecosystem is rich, and perhaps richer, than its closed-source counterpart. Several of the projects above fall under the umbrella of OSGeo, the Open Source Geospatial Foundation, which houses a number of different geographic tools and projects which are worth checking out.

High Resolution Mapping using UAS

UAS platforms are nowadays a valuable source of data for inspection, surveillance, mapping and 3D modeling issues. New applications in the short- and close-range domain are introduced, being the UASs a low-cost alternatives to the classical manned aerial photogrammetry. LIDAR has become the inevitable technology to provide accurate 3D data fast and reliably even in adverse measurement situations and harsh environments. It provides highly accurate point clouds with a significant number of additional valuable attributes per point compared to traditional digital photogrammetry based approach. UAS photogrammetry images generate the high resolution terrain visualisation, topographic data essential to detect precise asset locations, terrain modelling, geomorphological changes, vegetation dynamics and tree height models.

According to the new market research report  LiDAR market is expected to reach USD 1,809.5 Million by 2023 from USD 819.1 Million by 2018, at a CAGR of 17.2% during the forecast period.

The market for Solid-State LiDAR is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. The higher CAGR of the market for solid-state LiDAR during the forecast period is attributed to the increasing range of applications of this type in the automotive and robotics industries. The solid-state LiDAR systems were specially introduced for the automotive industry. These LiDAR systems can also be installed in economy cars due to their low costs.

On the basis of installation, ground-based LiDAR expected to grow with the highest CAGR during forecast period. The ground-based LiDAR systems are used in the applications including small area scanning, corridor mapping, volumetric mapping, and defense area surveying. Mobile ground-based LiDAR is a new and emerging technology used in many applications such as corridor mapping, transportation, hydrology, forestry, and construction. Mobile ground-based LiDAR systems are mounted on a mobile platform, preferably on a terrestrial vehicle. The advantage of being mounted on a vehicle is that it enables the LiDAR to scan large areas accessible by road. The automotive sector is emerging as an application area for the mobile ground-based LiDAR systems, and the number of premium cars equipped with advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) is rising every year. This is expected to further boost the market for mobile ground-based LiDAR systems.

North America is expected to dominate the LiDAR during the forecast period. This growth can be attributed to the supportive government initiatives and increasing utilization of LiDAR systems by various institutes for various applications, such as corridor mapping, forestry, environmental, and exploration, along with some of the emerging applications including advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and urban planning.  The growing awareness regarding the benefits of LiDAR systems, which include easy functionality, better quality, less complexity, and improved features, can also be the driving factors for the growth of the LiDAR market in the US. In addition, major companies such as Trimble, Faro, and Velodyne are based in the US, which is also a key factor leading to the large share of the US in the LiDAR market.Major players operating in this market are Teledyne Optech (Canada), Leica Geosystems (Switzerland), Reigl Laser Measurement Systems (Austria), Trimble (US), Faro Technologies (US), Quantum Spatial (Aerometric) (US), Velodyne LiDAR (US), Beijing Surestar Technology (Isurestar) (China), Geokno (India), Sick AG (Germany). 

Temporal Analysis of Cape Town Drought

Cape Town is running out of water. After three years of intense drought, South Africa’s second-largest city is just a few months away from “Day Zero,” the day when the city government will shut off water taps for most homes and businesses.

The impacts of such a shutdown will be devastating. Citizens will have to wait in long lines at state-managed distribution points to receive a mere 25 liters of water per day, less than half the water needed for one average shower. Experts are already warning of public health concerns like poor sanitation leading to faster spreading of dangerous diseases, especially for the city’s poorest residents, and forecasting that pipes may crack from dry conditions, endangering future water distribution if and when the drought ends. The Western Cape Premier has warned that “normal policing will be entirely inadequate” to manage the chaos that could ensue.   

Although this instance is one of the most extreme, Cape Town is not the only city to suffer from intense water scarcity in recent years. From São Paulo to Los Angeles, cities around the world have made headlines due to severe droughts intensified by climate change and exacerbated by poor water management.

The loss of water can be seen most clearly with Cape Town’s biggest dam, Theewaterskloof. The reservoir now holds only 12 percent of its original capacity.
For more details visit..
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/world/capetown-water-shortage/?utm_term=.757d2010be6f

ISRO launched a record 104 satellites using a single rocket.

The satellites from seven countries were carried by the Indian Space Research Organization’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle on its 38th consecutive successful flight.

The mission reinforces India’s emerging reputation as a reliable and cost-effective option for launching satellites. In 2014, ISRO put a satellite into the orbit of Mars, becoming the first Asian country to reach the red planet at fraction of the cost of a similar launch in U.S. and Europe.

It first released its main cargo, ISRO’s 714 kilogram Cartosat-2 series satellite, which will be used for earth observation. It then released two smaller ISRO satellites, followed by the remaining 101 nano satellites, one each from Israel, Kazakhstan, Netherlands, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, and 96 from the U.S. As many as 88 of the nano satellites belonged to U.S.-based company Planet Inc.

ISRO said the satellites went into orbit 506 kilometers from earth, inclined at an angle of 97.46 degrees to the equator–very close to the intended orbit–after a flight of nearly 17 minutes. In the subsequent 12 minutes, all 104 satellites were successfully separated from the rocket in sequence, it said.

After separation, the two solar panels of ISRO’s Cartosat-2 series satellite were deployed and the space agency’s command center in Bangalore took control. In the coming days, the satellite will begin to provide start sending back black and white, and color pictures, ISRO said.

ISRO has now put 226 satellites into orbit, including 180 from foreign nations. The global space industry was estimated to be worth $323 billion in 2015, the latest year for which data are available, according to the Space Foundation, a U.S.-based research group. Commercial space business comprised as much as 76% of the industry.

Revenues from Geospatial Analytics industry to top $72.21 Billion in 2020

According to a new market research report  published by Marketsandmarkets, the Geospatial Analytics Market is expected to grow from USD 27.42 billion in 2015 to USD 72.21 billion by 2020, at a CAGR of 21.4% from 2015 to 2020. 

Download Free PDF brochure : http://tinyurl.com/jal4omf 

GIS technology to play a key role in the geospatial analytics market

GIS technology has given a significant boost to the geospatial analytics market due to developments in several trends, such as increase in the amount of geospatial information gathered through smartphones, GPS devices, and social media, among others. An increase in the accuracy of data gathered; advancements in hardware technologies, are additional factors influencing the demand of GIS technology.

Business vertical holds the largest share in the Geospatial Analytics Market

The business vertical holds the largest market share among all the verticals. This large share is attributed to the increasing deployment of geospatial technologies in verticals, such as retail, manufacturing, real estate, healthcare, and so on. In retail, GIS technology is used to discover the best possible site for the location of a new shopping mall.

Europe emerged as the leading region in terms of adoption and implementation of geospatial services

Europe accounted for the largest share in the global geospatial analytics market in 2015. This high market share is mainly attributed to huge investments made in the field of geospatial analytics by key players in European countries.

Major players of the geospatial analytics market covered in the report include Trimble Navigation, Ltd., Hexagon AB, General Electric, RMSI, Bentley Systems, Inc., ESRI, MDA Corporation, Fugro N.V., Harris Corporation, and WS Atkins Plc. Some of the other players are TomTom, Digital Globe, Critigen, AAM, and Nokia.

Restructuring loan without Discoms Business Process Re-engineering is a doomed Idea

With a three-year government rescue package coming to a close, the highly indebted state of Rajasthan is getting tough - it's demanding farmers start paying for their electricity.

In a country where rural communities have become used to free power, the state that is home to some 70 million is tasking private firms with running power distribution in its big cities as it tries to recoup what it's owed.

Restructured power distribution debts alone amount to a quarter of Indian banks' problematic loans, and Rajasthan's state-run utilities owe about Rs 61,000 crore, with some Rs 3,000 crore due by end-March. While Rajasthan dropped an earlier plan to actually raise existing tariffs after opposition from farmers.

With these debt levels echoed across the country, Indian states have little choice but to find ways, extreme or otherwise, to face up to a long-ignored problem. Bad debts aren't just threatening banks - with electricity utilities central to the problem, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's electoral promise of power for all could be jeopardised.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) warned in June that the risk of states failing to repay loans on time was "very high", as a three-year rescue package launched in 2012 comes to an end - the source of Rajasthan's urgency on collecting fees for electricity. And the central government has identified the power utility sector as critical to solving banks' bad debt problems.

States who cannot pay banks what they owe over the next few years could be forced to turn to the central government for help, putting pressure on India's consolidated fiscal deficit. The centre has ruled out a rescue package along the lines of the 2012 scheme launched under the previous government.

The responsibility under the federal system for reform lies with states - all with different appetites for change, and for pursuing villagers who fail to pay.

Decades of mismanagement and political meddling have left utilities selling electricity below cost and turning a blind eye to rampant theft. The result is state distributors are sitting on $66 billion (nearly Rs 4.38 lakh crore) worth of debt, according to rating agency CRISIL, double the level four years ago.

Rajasthan's drive to collect payments from farmers and call in private firms to help run power distribution replicates reforms made a decade ago in PM Modi's home state of Gujarat. Distributors there are now largely profitable, and power is reliably available across most of the state.

But reform has proved tough and not all states are willing to take difficult steps. In largely agricultural Uttar Pradesh, farmers pay a fixed fee for unlimited power, equating to about one rupee per unit of electricity, a sixth of the generation cost. The state power company's finance director says it has no plans to raise prices to close that gap.

Integrated Power Development Scheme (IPDS)

The Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will be soon launching Integrated Power Development Scheme (IPDS).He would launch the Integrated Power Development Scheme (IPDS), a flagship project of his government which aims at strengthening sub transmission and distribution network in the city along with 100 per cent metering facility. 

The IPDS is one of the flagship programmes of the Ministry of Power and will be at the core attempt to ensure 24x7 power for all. The Scheme, announced in the Union Budget 2014-15, aims at strengthening of sub-transmission network, Metering, IT application, Customer Care Services, provisioning of solar panels and the completion of the ongoing works of the Part -A of the Restructured Accelerated Power Development and completion of the Reforms Programme (R-APDRP). R-APDRP has now been subsumed in IPDS and the program would be extending to smaller towns as well. The focus of IPDS is strengthening of sub-transmission and distribution network, metering of distribution transformers /feeders /consumers and IT-enablement of distribution sector and strengthening of distribution network in the urban areas.

Government of India will provide budgetary support of Rs. 45,800 crore over the entire implementation period of IPDS. Out of the total amount Rs 1,067 crore has been sanctioned for Uttar Pradesh including Rs 572 crore for Varanasi. The Project envisages converting area overhead lines into underground cabling in the areas around the temples and ghats in the Varanasi city. The Scheme includes upgradation of the electrical assets at Sub – centers, lines and distribution transformers, capacity enhancement and renewal of the old sub – stations and installation of roof-top solar panel in government buildings. IPDS will help in reduction in AT&C losses; establishment of IT enabled energy accounting / auditing system, improvement in billed energy based on metered consumption and improvement in collection efficiency.

The Scheme is being launched from Varanasi for which Rs 574 crore has been allocated. The sector’s key financier Power Finance Corporation would prepare the detailed project report (DPR). The state government would then either bid the project or nominate agencies to execute the same as per the DPR.

Note: 

The following are major differences between IPDS and earlier schemes for urban distribution sector:

a. Unlike earlier distribution scheme for distribution strengthening like R-APDRP which was limited to towns with 30000 or more population (10000 or more for special category states) as per Census 2001 IPDS covers the complete urban area of distribution utilities.

b. Unlike R-APDRP scheme , where conversion of loan into grant was extended upto 50% maximum and 90% max (for spl cat states) subject to reduction in AT&C loss , IPDS provides 75% max ( 90% max for spl category states) (incl 60% upfront ( 85% for spl cat states) with additional grant linked to achievement of milestones prescribed under the scheme.

References..

http://www.apdrp.gov.in/Forms/Summary_Sanctioned_Projects_Part_A

http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=122834

Book Review: Recovery from Indian Ocean Tsunami: A 10 year journey

10 years back in 2004, 26th of December, the Indian Ocean Tsunami devastated several countries in Asia, and the impacts also reached to East Africa. Over last 10 years, lots of innovations were made in different aspects of disaster risk reduction. The book has 31 chapters, drawing lessons from four countries: India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. There are five sections: Overview (10 chapters), Indonesia (8 chapters), India (6 chapters), Sri Lanka (5 chapters), and Thailand (2 chapters).

One of the chapter that deals with the role of IT & GI Services in Emergency Response Management is authored by me.

http://www.springer.com/earth+sciences+and+geography/natural+hazards/book/978-4-431-55116-4

India Wants To Build Massive Digital Infrastructure To Cover 800 Million Rural Citizens by 2019

A $17-billion government program to build a national optical fiber network that will connect India’s gram panchayats, or village-level governments, aims to cover the entire country in three years and could be a game changer, an Indian minister told Forbes.
Ravi Shankar Prasad, minister of communications and IT, and the head of the advisory group which supervises the implementation of the Digital India program, as it is called, said the program was approved by the Indian cabinet last month, and aims to cover 50,000 gram panchayats this year, 100,000 next year and the remaining 100,000 the following year. India’s 600,000 villages where over 800 million live, are administered by these local self-governments. “The entire country will be covered by broadband within three years and the internet will reach the remotest villages,” Prasad said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who steered the Digital India policy, is personally overseeing the project to ensure deadlines are met, he said. 

The program would rapidly drive internet usage in India and boost the economy. “India is sitting at the cusp of a huge digital revolution,” said Prasad.

“Something big is unfolding,” said Hemant Joshi, partner at advisory firm, Deloitte Haskins & Sells. But the Digital India program is not without challenges, experts said. Finding the financial resources and meeting program deadlines could be foremost among those. India’s structure where governments ruling the country and the states are sometimes led by different political parties could throw up additional complications, Joshi said. There is also the matter of ‘right of way’ when laying thousands of miles of fiber optic cable.
The government plans to hire at least 10 CIOs to oversee the Digital India program in key ministries, and create four other senior positions for dealing with adoption of standards and security aspects.

The government will create an enabling platform that will aid in delivering government services to citizens as well as services in education, healthcare, entertainment and e-commerce. “Public services like land records and caste certificates will be made available online on demand online,” Prasad said. In conjunction with state governments, 20-hour e-literacy training programs in local languages will be conducted in 200,000 community service centers across the country.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/saritharai/2014/09/18/india-wants-to-build-massive-digital-infrastructure-to-cover-800-million-rural-citizens-by-2019/

SAP ACE Award 2014 to DFCCIL

In recognition of India Public Services sector in driving excellence and innovation using information technology, to improve the lives of people and deliver better, more effective government, SAP felicitated 16 Indian enterprises with the SAP Awards for Customer Excellence (ACE) for being at the forefront.

The awards were presented at the eight SAP ACE Award ceremony held at JW Marriot in New Delhi, India. The SAP ACE 2014 for Public Services award categories included Utilities, HR & Payroll, Mobility, Procurement, Finance, Urban local bodies, Innovation and Database computing.

Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Ltd ( DFCCIL ) has been awarded the SAP ACE Award 2014, on 13th August, 2014 as a Special Recognition for leveraging technology in the. This being the first case in public sector wherein DFCCIL leveraged SAP solution for its core process and integrated the same with GIS both in the Corporate Office and in all the 14 CPM offices across both Eastern and Western Corridors. Implementation has been done by HCL. 

The award honoured Indian public services organisations that became the differentiator in improving people’s lives and help urban governments to be best run governments and to help cities contribute to a better run country.

http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=MEGA-CORP-DIGEST-03092014026006

Smart Cities & Digital India Initiative by GoI

As expected PM Narendra Modi has approved an umbrella programme—Digital India- comprising various projects worth about INR 1 lakh crore ie USD 20 Billion  to transform the country into a digitally-empowered knowledge economy. The Digital India programme includes projects that aim to ensure that government services are available to citizens electronically and people get the benefit of the latest information and communication technology (ICT).

The Digital India programme is a transformed version of the already running National e-Governance Plan. It is in addition to 100 Smart Cities project in the next 5 years. The Mega trend of Smart Cities is set to drive urban development for the next decade and will drive demand for response, storage, multi-energy networks, smart devices, and new business models. In 2025, it is expected we will have around 26 global Smart Cities which will feature five of the eight aforementioned parameters. Around 50 percent of these will be located in North America and Europe.

There are several cities that are focusing on specific aspects that help it run efficiently, such as on their transport, energy and waste management. In example, implementation of smart grids is being pushed heavily for smart energy management. Eight key aspects that define a Smart City are smart governance, smart energy, smart building, smart mobility, smart infrastructure, smart technology, smart healthcare and smart citizen.

Frost & Sullivan research estimates a combined market potential of $1.5 trillion globally for the smart city market in segments of energy, transportation, healthcare, building, infrastructure, and governance. If one compares that to GDP of nations in 2014, it will sit above the GDP of Spain, thus making it the 12 largest GDP in the world. Yet, while the potential is huge, the challenge faced is finding funding and developing the right business model, as many cities in the Western world do not have the finances available to take on some mammoth-sized projects. As such, four main models that will be used, through which companies will engage with city authorities and utilities to tap into this market will be used: Build Own Operate (BOO), Build Operate Transfer (BOT), Build Operate Manage (BOM) and Open Business Model (OBM).

Based on Frost & Sullivan’s study on “Strategic Opportunity Analysis of the Global Smart City Market” published in 2013.Smart Cities & Digital India Initiative by GoI

Can Delhi and its Discoms afford Subsidies?

For a very long time, the supply of power to Delhi was a government undertaking. But after decades of losses, in 2002, the state government decided to reduce its hold and unbundle what was then called the Delhi Vidyut Board. BSES bid to take over the Board and about nine months later, Reliance Power bought over BSES. That left Delhi’s power distribution in the hands of a public private partnership between Reliance and the Delhi government. And the new entity’s biggest challenge was to corporatize the creaking government enterprise.

BSES went for massive technological upgradation including IT infrastructure to control losses. BSES invested  Rs 4,000 crore in augmenting the utility’s infrastructure. 

The IT project helped the organization reduce losses from 60 percent to 20 percent. It also lowered consumer complaint levels by over 89 percent with the grievance closure rate of 91 percent.

That has allowed BSES to turn into a self-sustaining enterprise and save the Delhi Government Rs 15,000 crore.

Business process re-engineering and IT project completely revamped the way the electricity utility functions. It curbed corruption, reduced power losses by over 40 percent—and saved the Delhi government crores. “The amount it saved the Government—by not doling out urban subsidies—played significant role in funding the Commonwealth Games,” says Singh K.B. Singh, VP-I.T, BSES who was responsible for transforming it into a modern and profitable electric utilities co..

Integrated Rating for State Power Distribution Utilities

The Integrated Rating methodology for State Power Distribution Utilities was developed by  Ministry of Power  (MoP) and unveiled in the State Power Ministers conference held in July 2012. The methodology  was developed by MoP keeping in view poor financial health of State Distribution utilities and the need to base future funding exposures on an objective rating mechanism. The main objectives of developing the integrated rating methodology for the state distribution utilities are:

• To devise a mechanism for incentivising/dis-incentivising the entities in order to improve their operational & financial performance.
• To facilitate realistic assessment by Banks/FIs of the risks associated with lending exposures to various distribution utilities and enable funding with appropriate loan covenants for bringing improvement in operational, financial and managerial performance. 
• May serve as a basis for Govt. assistance to the state power sector through various schemes like RAPDRP, NEF, etc. MoP has mandated Power Finance Corporation (PFC) to co-ordinate the rating exercise, which in turn has appointed ICRA & CARE to carry out the rating exercise. The exercise does not cover State Power/Energy Departments and private sector distribution utilities.

http://ajaysrivastava.blogspot.in/2013/03/integrated-rating-for-state-power.html

GIS: From Tool to Spatial Data Information System

Five years ago, I started this blog. GIS has graduated from a data capture and manipulation tool to SDIS and merged with the mainstream IT system.  Today’s GIS includes lots of technologies, from programming, remote sensing, web, html, database, IT networking, server management, scripting or automation to route and network analysis…and the list goes on. The problem is that we cannot have every skill on the list in reality. I mean all of these are good skills to GIS; we just cannot be an expert on all subjects. Additionally, GIS is not a pure science, it rests applications. This means, on top of GIS, we will need background knowledge of the discipline whatever the choice for the applications of GIS.

Consider a planner in Public Works Department needs to work on a roadway expansion project, or increase the posted speed limit. The planner might use GIS to (a) identify where to put noise sensors measuring noise impacts in the study, or (b) to use GIS to justify that the noise impacts in an environmental study are within acceptable limits, (c) or use GIS to produce maps explaining the road expansion project and related mitigations in a public hearing. The planner might use GIS to determine the radius of area in which affected homes would receive notifications to attend a coming public hearing. Another planner works on airport expansion project might use GIS to determine which homes can receive free triple-pane window replacement as mitigation to noise impacts justified by an environmental impact report. Examples go on and on. 

When looking at these examples, obviously GIS is used as a tool to achieve the business objectives, to facilitate the operations or justify the legal fulfillment of having environment impact studies done, or simply justify a ‘go ahead’ for a project. The output from the GIS becomes the input to the business process or reaching business decisions. To implement and build the roadway expansion, we will need planners, engineers. GIS is used as a tool to assist reaching the goal. In reality, many engineering departments will assign GIS duties to experience planners instead of creating a ‘pure’ GIS function.

Nevertheless, there are areas that GIS has less emphasis on requiring background knowledge of disciplines, such as creating geo-data for base map, or GIS function in publishing maps in redevelopment agency. But when you think about sanitary base map, don’t you think that the department would want someone who knows GIS and at the same time has sanitary engineering background to understand and read the sanitary construction engineering drawings to ensure accurate data are captured into GI system? 

If you have engineering background, the engineering background will be the core skills that lead you to the appropriate position in engineering related job, and GIS skills would be the secondary skills that make you more successful and ready for the peripheral GIS duties often added to the engineering tasks. GIS is good to have it, but you want to use it in combining with your background and core skills. Out of the GIS skills, you might want to focus on database queries, spatial analysis, CAD interoperability and some mapping skills. As to almost all disciplines programming is helpful. If you perceive you would have lots of repeated tasks, programming in GIS helps to deal with that.

GIS is still a very powerful and useful tool. Like many other professions, it’s a matter of how to apply the technology, and that makes a difference. It is important to find out where you stand in using a technology in combining with other skills you have. GIS would not mean the same for everyone.