Hiiii and welcome to spatial thoughts GIS podcast 

My name is SHUCHI and I am going to be talking with you all about news and happenings related to GIS and remote sensing 

-> Story1

There is a lot of talk going on about a story which is related to the Hindu Epic Ramayana and remote sensing,

All right, lets try to find out what this controversy is all about,

Those who are familiar with Hindu mythology would know about Rama's Bridge. It is a chain of Limestone shoals, between India and Sri Lanka. According to the Hindu epic Ramayana, the bridge was constructed at Rama's request by his allies.

Now the scientists from Center of Remote Sensing at University of Trichy claim this bridge is the evidence that the events in Ramayana actually took place. 

The scientists claim to have used NASA's satellite imagery to prove that these islands were man made and were constructed 3500 years ago. 

Am I missing something here? 

How can satellite imagery provide information on how old the islands are?

 All it can do is provide visual information of the pattern of islands. The interpretation that this pattern was man-made has nothing to do with science. 

You know what might be going on here????

The Government of India is planning to create a shipping canal through these chain of islands that can save a lot of time for ships traveling through this area.
There has been a lot of protest from religous groups to stop this work and this claim looks to be a part of it.

-> Story 2

Another story doing rounds of the internet has also to do with remote sensing. 

But this time we go to the northern edge of India. Yes... the himalayas. 

A group of scientists from Space Applications Center in India have completed a study that shows significant reduction in size of the glaciers. 

They compared the satellite images from 1964 with current images and came up with the disturbing conclusion. So what does it mean? 
is it something that should make us worried?

Well with all the glaciers melting at this alarming rate, we will see more floods in the northern region and scientists claim that our future generation may face scarcity of water.  I am still not convinced though.. I'll wait and watch out for more scientific evidence on this...

-> Story 3

For all of you who are in the business of providing location based services or use things like GPS tracking, this is for you !!!

the Location India 2007 conference is coming up this June. 

 Indian GPS market is all set to grow from $22 million to $500 million in next 3 years. Big growth rite guys? 

Alright so, that is all for today , hope you enjoyed todays Pod cast.
so join us next time for more fun and more news on Spatial Thoughts GIS Pod cast.