Both restrictions have hampered the commercial viability of the organisation, and the geospatial industry development within the country. Geospatial practitioners within the country will benefit from greater access to high-resolution imagery, given the country’s ownership of the most remote sensing satellites in the world, with ten in orbit. The military will also benefit from the relaxed restrictions, as the relaxed restrictions will allow them to own and launch their own satellites for surveillance purposes.
There was increasing public outrage about these restrictions as of late, with issues surrounding the ability to locate the missing helicopter of the Arunachal Predesh chief minister. The ten-year-policy was also blamed for the ineffective use of the ISRO archive and its resulting intelligence on change within the country.
This new policy should serve to jump-start broader remote sensing adoption, with more industries taking advantage of geospatial intelligence capabilities.
by Matt Ball on July 4, 2011. Vector-Media