Karnataka State Council for Science and Technology (KSCST) is all set to digitise the entire nation with comprehensive information for overall development,  planning and mapping. The Union government’s initiative will be carried under National Spacial Data Infrastructure Project, said Prof M K Surappa, the Honorary Secretary of the Council.

Speaking to reporters at a workshop on National Resource Development Management System (NRDMS)  here on Friday, he said the Council, a premier scientific advisory body to the State government is creating a web based portal with in 9 months. This portal will be interlinked with the State  and Union government departments and local bodies from grama panchayat level to metropolitan cities across the country.  It will be a interactive portal and it is easily accessible to the public, he said.

Objective
Objective of the project is to ensure sustainable growth and development and  improve the quality of life through scientific planning. In order to avoid regional imbalances, over lapping, duplications and lacking, the digitalised mapping will be done on existing natural resources and infrastructure, Prof Surappa explained.

Mapping
The mapping includes all information related to geography, population, number of schools, hospitals, anganwadi centres with the names and designation of the staff, administration details of the related civic bodies, water supply, power supply, number of public taps and borewells of the respective areas. Based on the information available in this  system related to lacking, duplications, over lapping, the departments and agencies can initiate any developmental works that is required in creating infrastructure or in utilising the natural resources. However, the information on security and  sensitive issues, is accessible only to the respective departments, he stated.
The data of all districts is available with a click of a mouse through this science and technology-based mapping system. The Government observed that there is lack of co-ordination among the departments in getting information, in the current system of maintaining paper files and ledgers. Hence, this idea of going digital mooted, he told.

Adopt
The Union government has adopted Karnataka state council for this work as this is the only State in the country to establish council centres in all the district head quarters successfully carrying the mapping and planning work. Mysore is the first district where the Geographical Positioning System (GPS) has been completed successfully in the State and the comprehensive information was updated as on 2006. 

Mysore will take the lead even in forth coming national digitalised survey work, he said. Earlier, Latha Siddashetty,  President of Zilla Panchayat inaugurated the workshop. Deputy Commissioner N S Channappa Gowda and IAS officer  Salma were present.