History was created on the morning of 22nd January, when the SRE-1 satellite decelerated from orbital speed of 29,000km/h to 43km/h before splashing into the ocean and being successfully recovered by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). This was a giant leap for ISRO and paved the way for manned space missions of the future. At the same time, a little to the north, in Hyderabad, the lamps were being lit for another major event: Map World Forum 2007.

He announced a new policy was to deregulate airborne remote sensing, thus paving the way for data collection by private industries. But, he forewarned, unless academia and industry collaborated and carried out a drive for capacity building the actual benefit of geospatial technology would not be realised. Analysing the changing demographic profile across the world, one that more and more necessitates the export of skilled personnel from India, China and ASEAN countries to other parts, he appealed to technologically advanced countries to participate in capacity building. Appreciating GIS as a warehouse of information and thus a tool of democracy, he pointed out that high-resolution data being made freely available to all might be a cause for concern to governments and he appealed to industry to exercise some restraint.

During conference inauguration on 22nd January 2007 awards were made, most notably to Dr K Kasturirangan for his leadership in space science and technology in India and to Mr Jack Dangermond for lifetime achievement. Chief guest, Malaysian Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Mr Datto’ Seri Haji Bin Khalid, presented geospatial activities helping in the development of Malaysia. He outlined its uses in urban planning, an integrated transport system and land related transaction management through the e-tana (e-land) system, and emphasised the need for collaboration among Asian countries in sharing expertise, experiences, technology and, more importantly, geo-data. He pointed out the privacy and security concerns associated with geo-data and technology and appealed to stakeholders to address these concerns in the wider interest of regional co-operation.

The state of Andhra Pradesh is leading the IT revolution in India and is also home to most of what is happening in the geospatial field. Chief Minister of State Mr V. S. R. Reddy talked about his government’s efforts and schemes in the area of flood mitigation, reservoir storage estimation, environmental impact assessment, irrigation planning and management and crop acreage estimation. He emphasised the use of geospatial technologies in projects like the Integrated Land Information System: a pilot project on all land-related public concerns. The Village Information System is another government project: through kiosks villagers can explore information about the market, natural disasters, crop status and so on. With the success of these pilot projects the state plans to extend their scope to the entire state: e-governance in practice.

During five special plenary sessions, aspects of technology development, capacity building and the business model were touched upon. In the capacity-building session Prof. Ian Dowman outlined a need for sustainable human resource institutions to perform functions effectively, efficiently and in a sustainable way. Prof. Martien Molenaar emphasised the need for capacity building not only to generate data but for converting the data into processes. He added, "Continuous efforts at capacity building have become more a need as hardware is becoming obsolete every two to three years, software being changed every four to five years, and the underlying concepts being modified every ten to fifteen years." Echoing the views of Mr Kapil Sibal, Prof. Molenaar stressed that education had to be at international level, considering the needs of a flat world. Mr Michael Jones, CTO, Google Earth, explained the philosophy behind Google Earth and why he felt it was more beneficial for citizens to have Google Earth than not to have it for fear of security.

Besides presentations, at the end of each parallel seminar panellists discussed core issues and answered queries. Workshops and industry technology presentations were also available. Topics covered not only technology but also issues such as Intellectual Property
Rights and GIS, Open Source, Health and Medical GIS and Editor’s Forum. Sixty-eight stands occupied a spacious exhibition hall for an well-organised show attended by all the major players from all continents. The industry sees India not only as a hub for out-sourced jobs but also as a market for geospatial products and services and as a future site for R&D centres. Some companies are already present in India, either directly or through Indian partners, while many have been looking forward to understanding the dynamics of the Indian marketplace. The presence of companies from China, Russia, the Middle East, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand was particularly encouraging.

No proceedings or compendium of presentations was available. GIS Development may make these available through its website, and a selected few through its magazine. It is not clear whether or not the output of conference discussions will be used; a document may be prepared listing discussions and resolutions.

The HICC centre was a wonderful site, but difficult to commute to from the main town of Hyderabad and thus, as all elite things, beyond the reach of commoners. Since sessions ran in parallel one could not attend all those of interest, and the last two days were too overcrowded with sessions that might possibly have been distributed over the first two days. Proper grouping of presentations covering similar themes within one session would help the participant to attend more sessions. The valedictory function was held on the afternoon of 25th January. Er. Hussain Lootha, Director General of Dubai Municipality, UAE, the main valedictory speaker, invited everybody to attend the next Map World conference in Dubai in 2009