Tuesday, September 02, 2008

National Remote Sensing Agency becomes an ISRO Centre

National Remote Sensing Agency becomes an ISRO Centre (NSI News Source Info) September 2, 2008: Considering the importance of the activities carried out in the area of aerial and satellite remote sensing, the National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA), an autonomous society under Department of Space (DOS) has been converted into a full-fledged Government organisation called National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) from today (September 1, 2008). NRSA was established as a registered society under the Department of Science & Technology in 1974 with the objective of undertaking and facilitating remote sensing activities in the country. The administrative control of NRSA was transferred to the Department of Space during early eighties and with the growth of indigenous efforts in space borne remote sensing, NRSA played a major role in the ground segment under the Indian Remote Sensing Programme. NRSA, through its training establishment Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS), Dehra Dun, has become an institution of international repute for capacity building. It is expected that, with the conversion, NRSC will, as part of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), fully integrate with other ISRO Centres in the development and operations of the ground segment of the large constellation of India Remote Sensing Satellites and will also take a bigger role during the R&D phase of IRS programme. NRSC as a Government entity, is expected to fulfill its goals playing a major role in important national programmes, through linkages with all concerned Government departments/agencies such as Ministries of agriculture, water resources, urban development, Home Affairs, etc., including the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). Dr V Jayaraman has been appointed as Director, National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), Hyderabad and he took charge from Dr K Radhakrishnan, the out-going Director. Dr Jayaraman holds a Bachelor’s degree in electronics engineering from University of Madras, Master of Science in electrical engineering from IIT, Madras and a Doctorate in Physics from Bangalore University. He is recognised for his contributions in the areas ranging from spacecraft systems engineering to applications development and positioning of policies & regulatory framework for integrating the high technology inputs into national development. Dr Jayaraman has brought coherence amongst technology, research and applications of direct relevance to Earth science. Dr. Jayaraman is a fellow of institution of Electronics and Telecommunications Engineers, Fellow of Indian Geophysical Union, Member of the Indian Society of Remote Sensing, Indian Society of Geomatics and Astronautical Society of India.

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