Chinese Vice-Premier Zeng Peiyan has urged authorities responsible for statistics, surveying and mapping, food and tobacco to implement the government’s scientific outlook on development and innovate to improve accuracy and authority. Related authorities should improve their surveying and mapping work to provide a quality service for the country’s construction, he said. http://news.xinhuanet.com

China has finished 40% of the updates of its largest national geographic information database and will complete the entire project by 2010, according to State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping. It is a 1:50000 national basic geographic information database that covers the whole country with the largest scale and highest precision up to date. Social and economic development, as well as geographic change has led to changes in the database. The Bureau planned to finish another 14% of the project in 2008.

The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) has got into a mission mode and prepared an environmental atlas for the Pune district. It will serve as a ready reckoner for industrialists and entrepreneurs with information on sites with relevant environment information in the district. The District Environmental Atlas will soon be put up on the MPCB website. www.expressindia.com

AInformation Kerala Mission, have taken the initiative to prepare digitised cadastral administrative maps of urban local bodies and grama panchayats in the state for planning and administrative process. It has been made using GIS and with the aid of the Survey and Land Records Department having administrative boundaries of the local bodies along with survey and land record details. www.newindpress.com