|
|
"We
are pursuing the development of an indigenous GIS solution" |
says
Lt
Gen Dilip N Desai, Director General Information
Systems, Indian Army while discussing the role,
activities of his department |
|
| What are the activities
of your department? |
The
Directorate General of Information Systems at Army Headquarters
handles the development and fielding of Operational
Information Systems (OIS) and Management Information
Systems (MIS), proliferation of Information Technology,
Military Survey and cartography and the utilization
of space assets for the Army. This encompasses a wide
spectrum of activities ranging from identifying automation
needs, conducting systems studies, interacting with
development agencies, monitoring and providing impetus
to the spread of IT in the Army and catering to the
IT training needs of the Army. Providing hardware and
application software to an organization as large as
the Indian Army also falls within its charter. Insofar
as Military Survey is concerned, the Directorate is
responsible for rendering technical advice to Ministry
of Defence on survey matters, maintenance of digital
cartographic and topographic data of our areas of responsibility
(along and across the international borders), supplying
maps to the Armed Forces and coordinating policies on
mapping with the Survey of India. |
| How important are geoinformation
technologies? |
| All systems
dealing with battlefield management strive to achieve
thehighest possible degree of shared situational awareness
in the given time and space. Geo-information technologies
(GIT) play a crucial role in contributing to this, whether
it is in analysis of terrain or in assisting exchange
of positional information between the various elements
operating in the combat zone. It would not be wrong
to say that Geographical Information Systems (GIS) are
a crucial core component over which other applications
for battlefield management systems are based. |
 |
How
challenging was the adoption of new technology? |
Adopting new
technologies is as challenging for us as it is for anybody
else similarly placed. However, since we deal with the
all-important aspect of battlefield management systems,
the issues involved are slightly more complex. Our approach
can basically be defined as being open to adopting
new technologies and yet retaining the flexibility to
continue using existing
legacy systems and equipment till they are replaced.
Thus, major challenge arises in, both, the integration
of new and old as well as changing over to new systems.
New technologies not only necessitate organizational
adaptation and changes in training methodology but,
in certain cases, also require review of existing practices,
procedures and doctrines in addition to re-structuring
of existing organization in some cases. We are justifiably
proud of the fact that the Indian Army has a well proven
ability to adapt to new weapons and equipment as well
as emerging technologies with practiced ease. This will
stand us in good stead as we transit to a new era of
warfare dominated by the need to achieve information
superiority. |
How
do you see the growth of GIT in India? |
The
growth of geo-information technology in our country
will surely be an extension to the growth in rest of
the IT sector. The benefits of this technology need
to be exploited for various development programs that
the Government is already taking in this direction.
Growing aspirations are bound to lead to better geospatial
data and suitable applications to exploit that data.
The growing demand in the infrastructure development
sector, and for a number of other uses such as disaster
management, will definitely spur our industry to invest
more in research and development activity in this field
leading to reduction in our dependence on expensive
foreign commercial applications. |
What
are the challenges you are facing in the field of GIS? |
Exchange of geospatial
information between different GIS applications remains
the biggest challenge in relation to development of
battlefield management systems. While the approaches
suggested through the utilization of Open GIS Consortium
(OGC), such as Geographic Markup Language (GML), are
suitable for business enterprises to a large extent,
they have major limitations in the context of utilization
by armed forces. This is primarily on account of accuracy,
which is paramount as also bandwidth availability and
computing powers which tend to be restricted at lower
levels in a hierarchical organization. Towards this
end, we are actively pursuing the development of an
indigenous GIS solution which can meet the requirements
of a variety of users in the three Services and yet
work on a common file format. The other challenge has
been in terms of a common geographic reference framework
for the three Services in terms of datum and projection. |
How
far we can depend upon US controlled GPS? |
Over the last
decade, the NAVSTAR system (or the GPS) has become an
international navigation aid used by the US, its allies
and others. Shutting down the system or selectively
denying its use can have political implications and,
as such, appears to be an unlikely proposition. Moreover,
with the GLONASS becoming operational and the Galileo
programme being in advanced stages of development, the
US will not be the only one to have satellite based
navigational systems. Our Government is also actively
engaged in global efforts in this field, with ISRO actively
involved with both the projects, and we do not foresee
any situation which will bind us to any one constellation
of satellites in the future. Going by recent statements
in the press, it appears that ISRO is also considering
a regional system using a constellation of geo-stationary
satellites for India. This would further augment the
facilities provided by existing systems. |
| Google Earth poses a security
challenge. Comments. |
Google Earth
uses high resolution commercially available satellite
imagery. No country can prevent its adversaries from
obtaining these images from companies such as Space
Imaging. Major international terrorist organizations
have enough financial backing and resources to procure
such data from commercial vendors of imagery. Therefore,
whilst the imagery available on Google Earth do have
some security implications, its geo-information technologies
are being exploited by the community for interaction
and assistance at people-to-people level in a world
connected through the Internet. |
| Should India insist on censorship
as China has? |
As is well known,
the Internet is not owned by any one country and the
world community would not appreciate any censorship
on it. The services provided by Google have to be seen
in the context of other web casts and web logs on other
electronic media portals. Many media publications voice
their views on policies of the Government on TV, newspapers
and their websites in our country. This has not resulted
in the Government of India imposing censorship on them.
China has a different political system as well as the
means to control and monitor the Internet. It may be
able to impose such a restriction within their territory,
but have no jurisdiction on the free flow of information
on the Internet. |
Lt
Gen Ranjit Singh has observed that “Security concerns
about maps are at times overplayed” (Coordinates
Jan 2006). Comment. |
I am not aware
of the exact context in which the statement was made
and, hence, can not comment on it. Maps and other forms
of geospatial data are crucial to the process of nation
building and development. The 2004 Tsunami, the Oct
2005 earthquake in India and Pakistan, as well as Hurricane
Katrina in USA have demonstrated that government agencies
alone cannot single-handedly handle relief measures
during disasters of such magnitude. Nations will have
to rely on other agencies to assist in these measures.
Unless geospatial data is available to them, and others
willing to help, we will not be able to develop safe
infrastructure or coordinate effective rescue and relief
operations during times of crisis. Moreover, maps of
numerous types are required for development purposes.
Nonetheless, those agencies which are mandated to look
into the security implications relating to mapping are
only fulfilling their responsibilities when they express
concerns and reservations when commenting upon a more
open regime. |
| Lieutenant
General Dilip N Desai, AVSM, VSM |
 |
Lieutenant
General Dilip N Desai, AVSM, VSM is the
Director General Information Systems of the Indian
Army since February 2005. In this assignment he
guides and directs the efforts of the Indian Army
in preparing for the emerging face of future battles
that is network-centric warfare. Lt Gen Desai
joined the National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla
(Pune) in January 1963 and subsequently, was commissioned
into the 18th |
Cavalry of the Armoured Corps after graduating
from Indian Military Academy, Dehradun in December
1968. In addition to a number of professional
courses, the General officer is an alumini of
the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington,
the Higher Command Course at the Army War College,
Mhow and the National Defence College at New Delhi.
Lt Gen Desai has wide military experience encompassing
command, staff and instructional assignments in
37 years of service. He commanded 18 Cavalry from
1989 to 1991 and later the 1st Armoured Brigade
during 1996-97. During Operation Parakram (2001
to 2002) he commanded the 1st Armoured Division
as part of an offensive strike corps. He has to
his credit a number of important staff assignments,
mainly dealing with military operations, in each
rank. These include three tenures at the Military
Operations Directorate, Army Headquarters where
his last assignment was Additional Director General
Military Operations. He ahs also taught at the
Defence Services Staff College, Wellington. Lt
Gen Desai has been decorated for distinguished
service by the President with the Vishist Seva
Medal in 2000 and the Ati Vishist Seva Medal in
2005. |
|
| August
2006 |
|
|
.gif)
