Natural Resources Data Management System (NRDMS)

Introduction

The Natural Resources Data Management System (NRDMS) Programme was launched in 1982 with the objectives of developing and demonstrating scientific methods and techniques for local level planning. It envisions enabling people, communities and institutions of Local Self-Governance with requisite databases and Science & Technology tools for informed participation in local level governance.

The activities under the Programme have been continuously re-oriented over the years with the evolution of concepts and techniques in areas like Geographical Information Systems (GIS), High Resolution Data Gathering and Positioning. With maturing of technologies and their increasing acceptability amongst end users in the States, NRDMS Programme presently aims at developing State Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs) and demonstrating their utility in various decision support applications at different levels of the planning hierarchy.

The objective of the Programme is to set up integrated geo-spatial databases at lower area units like Districts and Sub-Districts, demonstrating their utility in various application sectors like Rural Development by developing Village Information Systems and Urban Development by Municipal GIS systems. The other areas of application include Water Resources Management, Conservation of Environment & Forests, Mining & Mineral Explorations, Natural Disaster Management with special reference to Landslides, Infrastructure Development, Capacity Building and Human Resource Development, promoting and providing R&D support in emerging areas of Geospatial Technologies, forging linkage with stakeholders, and documenting and disseminating the Programme outputs amongst the end user agencies.

The Budgetary Provision made for this Programme during the current financial year is Rs. 22Crores. Currently, 30 Districts of Karnataka, 17 Districts of West Bengal, and 13 Districts of Uttarakhand have been equipped with District NRDMS Geospatial data centres, developed under the Programme, for supporting establishment of State SDIs. Total number of districts covered under NRDMS is 60. Recently, 4 more states i.e. Haryana (24), Jammu & Kashmir (22), Odisha (30), and Jharkhand (24) have been added and the work of all these 100 districts in these states is in the process of getting networked for ensuring up-to-date data flow and utilization of Geospatial Technologies for decision support. The further expansion of the system is dependent on interest evinced by the State Governments subject to availability of funds.

This was stated by the Union Minister for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, Dr. Harsh Vardhan in a reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today.

Source

Press Information Bureau, 27 April, 2016