Indian Railways, PEC sign MoU to set up Kalpana Chawla Chair on geospatial technology

Union Ministry of Railways and PEC University of Technology have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for setting up of Kalpana Chawla Chair on Geospatial Technology for Indian Railways at the University.
The MoU was signed in the backdrop of Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu’s Budget announcement in this regard.
Key facts

• The academic chair is being instituted in memory of Indo–American Astronaut and Alumnus of PEC Late Kalpana Chawla. She was the first woman of Indian origin in space.
• The objective of the chair is to encourage research activities of Indian Railways in Geo-spatial Technology.
• It will also help to strengthen Railway projects where use of remote sensing data, Geographical information System (GIS) and global positioning system (GPS) is predominant.
• This will immensely help Indian Railways to develop in house solutions to the problems which are often outsourced to western countries.
• The Chair will be headed as Chairman by V.K.Gupta, Member Engineering, Railway Board and Manoj Arora, Director, PEC University of Technology, Chandigarh as Co-chairman.
• The Chair will function through a Chair Core Committee (CCC) and shall have members from Railways and PEC.

Month: Current Affairs - May, 2016