Deccan Herald: Microsoft Research India has developed a multilingual interactive digital map in collaboration with the Science and Technology Department of the Government of India. Union Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal unveiled the map, the first of its kind prototype, at the first annual research symposium of Microsoft Research India.
The prototype, which would be available for browsing in a couple of days, would initially give details about Bangalore, though the political map of the country was also available. Microsoft Research India Managing Director P Anandan said the digitalised multilingual map, available in Hindi, Kannada and Tamil besides English, would be provided in other languages also as and when the necessary tools were available. The Map had been developed with inputs provided by the Survey of India.
A special feature of the Virtual India map was that users could add information relevant to their own communities tagged to specific locations on the map. The demonstration made at the symposium was the first public demonstration of the ongoing project that explored innovative ways to create and disseminate geospatial data.
The prototype released today enabled additional information such as location of polling booths and other data that empowered citizens to create and maintain maps that were uniquely relevant to their communities. Microsoft Research India and the Department of Science and Technology planned to leverage the experience from the prototype to develop effective countrywide mechanism for spatial data creation, collection and dissemination that could be useful in a number of ways, including disaster management, Anandan said.
(Ed: This is completely different from the strategy of Google Earth which attracted criticism from the Indian government citing security considerations. Microsoft has used a very smart approach by roping in the government into the project)
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