COMMERCIALIZATION OF REMOTE-SENSING - ISSUES AND PERSPECTIVES

Today, remote sensing (RS) technology has reached a level of operation alization and does not need to be promoted as it is being used for a v ariety of applications for resource management by Government and priva te agencies for their routine work. How the technology needs to be sus tained in the future is the need of the hour. While the continuity of the RS services has been recognized as an important element for susten ance, the stage is now set for sustaining the RS technology by initiat ing commercial use of space-based RS. A change from a 'facility concep t' of the operational era to 'services concept' for the RS technology is needed. The thrust has to be towards developing an independent sect or for spatial information with the active involvement of users, priva te entrepreneurs and other agencies to develop space-based RS market s egments. The path to market development demands programmes with a stro ng business and marketing plans towards providing innovative solutions to spatial information demand through effective packaging of mature t echnologies. In this article we discuss the transitions that RS techno logy has seen in the past from an experimental programme, where the st ress was on promotion of RS, through an operational programme, where t he stress was on adopting RS as a facility, to a commercial developmen t, where the stress is on services and making RS a part of the users a ctivities. The strategies that will have to be adopted - encompassing technology, applications, manpower development, infrastructure develop ment, marketing, etc. have been discussed in this article.