IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine - March 2020 - 160

CHAPTERS
ASHISH GHOSH, DEBASRITA CHAKRABORTY, AND RAHUL ROY

Activities of the IEEE GRSS
Kolkata Chapter

he initiative for the IEEE Geoscience and Remote
Sensing Society (GRSS) Kolkata Chapter was advanced by Prof. Ashish Ghosh in 2010. The Chapter
was approved and began functioning on 19 September 2012. Since then, this academic society has
strived to bring together, under a single umbrella,
geoscience and remote sensing researchers from India, particularly from the northeastern part. This
plan has promoted a boost in
the knowledge-sharing process.
The Kolkata Chapter is the secTHIS ACADEMIC SOCIETY
ond GRSS Chapter established
HAS STRIVED TO BRING
in India.
TOGETHER, UNDER A SINGLE
Our first chair was Prof. AnUMBRELLA, GEOSCIENCE
imesh Mait ra, who presided
AND REMOTE SENSING
over the activities of the Chapter
RESEARCHERS FROM INDIA.
during 2012-2016. He was succeeded by Prof. Ashish Ghosh
(2017-2018). The current GRSS
Kolkata Chapter leadership is as follows:
◗◗ Prof. P.K. Nanda (Siksha 'O' Anusandhan University,
Odisha), chair
◗◗ Prof. Susmita Ghosh (Jadavpur University, Kolkata),
vice chair
◗◗ Dr. B. Uma Shankar (Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata), vice chair
◗◗ Arijit De (Netaji Subhash Engineering College, Kolkata), secretary
◗◗ Sandip Nandi (Kalyani Government Engineering
College, Kalyani), joint secretary
◗◗ Dr. Dalia Nandi (Indian Institutes of Information
Technology, Kalyani), treasurer
◗◗ Dr. Swastika Mukherjee (Chakraborty) (Sikkim Manipal Institute of Technology, Sikkim), nominations
chair.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MGRS.2019.2956765
Date of current version: 6 March 2020

160

The executive committee consists of
◗◗ Animesh Maitra (Calcutta University, Kolkata)
◗◗ Barun Raychaudhuri (Presidency University, Kolkata)
◗◗ Tulsi Bezbaruah (Gauhati University, Assam)
◗◗ Ashish Ghosh (Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata)
◗◗ Imon Mukherjjee (Indian Institutes of Information
Technology, Kalyani)
◗◗ Debadatta Swain (Indian Institutes of Technology
Bhubaneswar)
◗◗ Saurabh Das (Indian Institutes of Technology, Indore).
A dedicated webpage was recently developed for the
Chapter (Figure 1). Information related to Chapter activities is available at http://sites.ieee.org/kolkata-grss/.
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
In most parts of the world, researchers are now interested in specializing in geographic information systems,
geoscience, and remote sensing, having recognized the
prospects of discoveries in the field. While India is a
populated country with a high ratio of youth, there is
always a big concern regarding the lack of skilled workers. As advancement in technology progressed, the public has realized the continuously growing importance
of this sphere. India launched its first remote sensing
satellite, IRS-1A, at Baikonur on 17 March 1988 [1],
and, from then onward, there was no turning back. India accelerated its research and development toward

FIGURE 1. The QR code for the GRSS Kolkata Chapter webpage.
IEEE GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING MAGAZINE

MARCH 2020

http://sites.ieee.org/kolkata-grss/

IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine - March 2020

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