[OSGeo-Discuss] Re: FOSS GIS in India

[Lane DeNicola]

I can corroborate Ravi Kumar's observation on GIS in educational
institutes.  The Indian Institute of Remote Sensing in Dehradun
figured prominently in my dissertation research, and in a conversation
with the dean of the Institute (V. K. Dadwhal) in 2005 he explained
that IIRS had entertained the incorporation of FOSS GIS into their
curriculum, but the institutionalized norms (e.g. proprietary tools)
of the majority of the potential employers of IIRS graduates were by
far the dominant force in making their own selection of tools.

--Lane DeNicola

On 8/10/07, Ravi Kumar wrote:
> GIS in educational institutes:
> Markus Neteler visited and did some work with Anna
> University Chennai, in early nineties, and they still
> show GRASS GIS in their syllabus. But unfortunately
> there are no takers. There are more than a hundred (an
> approximation) institutes and universities in India
> that offer courses in Geomatics, Remotesensing,
> including the IITs( top educational institutes of the
> land). All of them teach proprietary GIS (ARC and
> ERDAS) and  image processing software. The reason,
> they are driven by the industry's needs, and it is a
> fact that jobs are there for those well versed in
> proprietary software.

-- 
Lane DeNicola
Faculty Fellow in the Humanities
Geography Dept. and Program in Science, Technology & Society
Syracuse University
http://www.nacresky.com/lad