Kipal Sibal, the minister of Human Resource and Development of India, and the former minister of Technology and Earth Science, has introduced a pilot program in 33 schools in which to teach geospatial technology at the secondary and vocational level. "We need to prepare our children for the 21st century, which is going to be a century of enormous challenges. Launching of these courses is also a step towards preparing the children for the challenges," said Sibal in an interview published in sify news. Does this savvy politician have vision or what? I had the chance to interview Sibal three years ago at the Map World Forum conference in Hyderabad. At the time, he was pushing to a more open data policy in India. I would say he is probably one of the single most influential politicians, certainly in India, that has pushed geospatial technology forward.
