Ordnance Survey Director General and Chief Executive Vanessa Lawrence officially pushed the on button of a massive new £2 million printing press at the mapping agency's Southampton head office recently. The six-colour printing press is one of the largest in the country and will be used to produce Ordnance Survey's paper maps, including the 650 different recreational and leisure maps that together cover every corner of Britain. www.OrdnanceSurvey.co.uk

The Jakarta city Governor Mr Sutiyoso has said that his office would submit a draft of the Jakarta Spatial Plan to the City Council for approval in February. The Jakarta administration began reviewing the Jakarta Spatial Plan, known as the Jakarta 2010 Master plan in 2005. The administration admitted that the revision was due to rising complaints over the poor quality of the city's environment.
www.thejakartapost.com

IWS Holdings Group is to commence the vehicle location system driven with GPS based GIS. However, the system is yet to be approved by the Ministry of Defence. The company expects the defence clearance soon. www.colombopage.com

ESRI announced that ArcGIS software is playing a role in the Philippine government's Environmental Animal Health Management Initiative (EAHMI), launched earlier this year. The initiative will analyze animal disease distribution and environmental conditions, identify risk factors, and develop sustainable environmental animal health management strategies for the Philippines and is essential for cost-efficient disease control and sustainable agricultural development.
www.esri.com

India's Union Science and Technology Minister Mr. Kapil Sibal said that the preparations for establishing a world class national early warning system for tsunami were progressing well and that it would be ready in September 2007. Mr Sibal told a Press conference that high-resolution topography of the coastal belt and bathymetry of shallow water had been initiated. The National Remote Sensing Agency was preparing topographic maps for an area of 15,000 sq. km (7,500 line km and two km inland from the coastline) and so far acquired data for 3,300 sq. km.
www.hindu.com

Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) has procured India's first road network survey vehicle from Australia. The vehicle, fitted with advanced lasers, cameras and GPS technology, will map data on the condition of roads and collect other roadside information while on the move on highways.

The data would be used by CRRI for conducting analysis on the quality of road infrastructure and traffic flows. The institute will survey 50,000 km of national highways in the first phase. Australian Road Research Board (ARRB) Group, which has been instrumental in introducing the technology in India, has localsised the technology by equipping one Tata Sumo vehicle with the network survey equipment. The survey using the new vehicle is likely to commence in January and the process is expected to be completed for the entire 50,000 km stretch by 2009. Besides, other things the new equipment will allow CRRI to monitor the road network and assess it against other roads as well as assess the suitability and ride quality for road users.
http://economictimes.indiatimes. com/articleshow/739140.cms