OGC India Forum Established to Advance Geospatial Standards in India

The India Forum of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) was recently chartered to provide government, academic, research and industry organizations in India with opportunities to learn about and discuss issues related to interoperability of geographic information involving OGC standards. The Forum seeks to promote interoperability and create synergy between the various producers and users of geographic information and geomatics products and services in India. The Forum also provides a way for Indian organizations to  coordinate their efforts to ensure that Indian requirements are addressed by the international standards of the OGC.

Dr. Ashok Kaushal, Managing Director, PCI Geomatics (India), author of the India Forum charter, said, “Forum members want to work together in India to maximize the benefits of using open standards in dealing with geospatial information. This is important not only for the ICT industry here, but it is also important as India advances in areas such as transportation, energy, agriculture, defense and natural resource management.”

The OGC India Forum founding members are:

• Director General Military Survey
• Department of Science &Technology
• DSM Soft Private Ltd
• ERDAS
• GIS Development Private Ltd
• InfoTech Enterprises Ltd
• INCOIS
• PCI Geomatics
• Rolta India Ltd

The members of the India Forum of the OGC invite other Indian organizations to join the Forum. Agencies can learn about the offerings of Indian companies and pool their interoperability requirements in standards development efforts; companies can meet potential customers and partners; universities and research centers can engage with government and industry and the OGC’s active worldwide interoperability research community; and all can explore together ways to take advantage of the OGC standards that are revolutionizing the geospatial industry.

The OGC® is an international consortium of more than 385 companies, government agencies, research organizations, and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available geospatial standards. OpenGIS(R) Standards support interoperable solutions that “geo-enable” the Web, wireless and location-based services, and mainstream IT. OGC Standards empower technology developers to make geospatial information and services accessible and useful with any application that needs to be geospatially enabled. Visit the OGC website at http://www.opengeospatial.org.