The Hindu Business Line : Remote sensing policy being upgraded

A high-level committee drawn from many ministries is going over the changes that need to be made, particularly for high-resolution data of 1 metre and better.

The aim is to make the business of satellite pictures user-friendly, hassle-free, faster yet tougher from the angle of national security.

The 2001 policy governs the buying and use of Earth imageries within the country and also the resolution of the imageries taken from ISRO’s IRSs (Indian Remote-sensing Satellites) and foreign satellites.

The DoS Secretary and ISRO Chairman, Mr G. Madhavan Nair, said the policy was merely being “upgraded” as it already covers issues of satellite data dissemination and security. “A high-powered committee is holding discussions to see what needs to be upgraded, what can be put in public domain and also the issue of authorisation. We want to do it by this year-end,” Mr Nair told Business Line.

Mr Nair said post-review, high-resolution satellite data — now screened by a committee — may be given to genuine users faster, within a month (Lesser resolution pictures take 1-2 days.).

Price-wise, he said, “We are already almost 50 per cent of international prices. We may further reduce it as usage increases.”

Two ISRO arms alone are authorised to distribute the data: the National Remote Sensing Agency, Hyderabad, for data from IRSs within the country, and Antrix Corporation for data exports. “Though we have put these measures in place, many are not following the stipulations,” Mr Nair said.

GOOGLE EARTH SCARE

Two years back, when ISRO was yet to have 1-metre imageries, Google Earth caused a furore in defence and national security circles when it enabled Internet browsers to see high-resolution pictures of almost any place on earth. The imageries from foreign satellites, defence authorise then said, exposed sensitive defence locations to undesirable eyes. While vulnerable places are now given out either smudged or fudged, the Centre and Google are still debating the issue.

The RSDP review is expected to unshackle remote-sensing data from the current resolution limit of 5.6 metres as users — among them urban planners, natural resources groups, infrastructure companies and NGOs — are increasingly seeking higher resolutions. The global market can offer 60-cm pictures while ISRO itself has 0.8-1 metre capability. ISRO’s high-resolution data sales, according to Mr Nair, are Rs 20 crore-plus and growing. ISRO also wants to provide higher ocean- and meteorology data in a short time to modellers.

VETTING USERS

The policy is also expected to tighten the user norm, Dr V. Jayaraman, Director, Earth Observation Systems, ISRO, said, without elaborating. “It will improve access and pricing, in tune with market needs, while ensuring that (sensitive) data will not fall into wrong hands for wrong uses.”

Dr Jayaraman said, “We want to strengthen the single-window mechanism. Without restricting use, the policy will ensure that users adhere to the data procedures. We want to know the end user. There should be a clamp on content being brought in from outside.”

Compared to other countries, the Indian RSDP is pretty transparent and quick to respond, he said. The US, for example, has shutter control over private commercial satellites flying over Israel; it even bought all imageries of Afghanistan during the war.

“Besides, the market scenario has changed beyond what we had anticipated in 1995 (when ISRO burst on to the global imagery scene IRS-1C, 1D data). No one had even dreamt then of sub-metre data,” Dr Jayaraman said.

“Our focus is now on doing a safe business of imageries and how you do developmental projects without affecting security aspects.”

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