Geo -Satellite App to Follow Educational Campuses for HRD Ministry

The HRD Ministry has decided to keep a tab on funding and other activities in the educational campus around the country through geo-satellite imagery app called ‘Go-Live’. The app will help keeping a tight surveillance over the activities of the universities in the country.

The app will display all the works that are being carried out and purchases that are being made to build infrastructure to the HRD ministry. The application has been developed by ISRO, which will schematically display images to the ministry. The tool in the app Bhuvan RUSA , presents an electronic version of on-ground activities as close as to one metre. This will help the ministry to take note of the materials uses, contractors hired, progress of daily work on construction and funds used by the respective educational institute. The purpose of the app is to monitor the work that is being carried out.

According to a ministry official, “We have seen in the past that funds have been diverted for some other purposes and have not reached the initiative they were meant to support.” This new app will help the officials of the ministry, faculty members and principals of various educational institutes to keep track of the progress of work by the mere clicking of their cellphones. Whether they are in the northern border or the southern frontier, they will be able to chart territories by just swiping the grids of the new styled maps embedded in the app. The app also allows the ministry officials to see details like density of colleges in a specific area, the area distance between two colleges, hostel facilities in nearby institutes and other such infrastructure related information to take vital decisions in future.

The user of the app can pick up map grids and overlay them with information and display of the actual on-ground progress. They can further zoom in to information of any specific colleges by clicking on the pop-up appeared. The app has connected over 1000 campuses in the country, and is planning to expand the same to 1900 by June. According to TISS Professor Venkatesh Kumar, who has been associated with the RUA project initiated by HRD ministry, “This initiative is in keeping with the Prime Minister’s larger objective of linking space technologies to improve monitoring of real-time activities which enhances transparency.”

The Rashtriay Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiya, better known as RUSA, was launched in the year 2013 in order to develop the state universities and building new campuses. It has funded over 1500 academic institutions and has supported them financially to revive their status. Talking about the app, coordinator of the tech support group, Chhattisgarh, D L Sharma said, “First we take the aerial view of the proposed site and at every crucial stage; there is a check on the development. We feel that this has given our country a better way of governance.”