Mining Surveillance System (MSS) launched

mining-surveillance-system-mss-launched

Question: Who is the Union Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy and Mines?
(a) M. Venkaiah Naidu
(b) Nitin Jairam Gadkari
(c) Kalraj Mishra
(d) Piyush Goyal
Ans: (d)
Related facts:

  • On 15 Cctober 2016 Union Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy and Mines, Piyush Goyal launched the Mining Surveillance System (MSS) in New Delhi .
  • MSS is a satellite-based monitoring system which aims to establish a regime of responsive mineral administration, through public participation, by curbing instances of illegal mining activity through automatic remote sensing detection technology.
  • Ministry of Mines, through Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM), has developed the MSS, in coordination with Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space Applications and Geo-informatics (BISAG), Gandhinagar and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY), to use space technology for curbing illegal mining activity in the country.
  • It has been developed under the Digital India Programme.
  • MSS is one of the first such surveillance systems developed in the world using space technology.
  • The current system of monitoring of illegal mining activity is based on local complaints and unconfirmed information.
  • There is no robust mechanism to monitor the action taken on such complaints.
  • A user-friendly mobile app has been created which can be used by these officials to submit compliance reports of their inspections.
  • The mobile app also aims to establish a participative monitoring system where the citizens also can use this app and report unusual mining activity.
  • Automatic software leveraging image processing technology will generate automatic triggers of unauthorized activities.
  • These triggers will be studied at a Remote Sensing Control Centre of IBM and then transmitted to the district level mining officials for field verification.
  • A check for illegality in operation in conducted and reported back using a mobile app.
  • The advantages of remote sensing technology based monitoring system are:
    1. Transparent (Public will be provided an access to the system);
    2. Bias-free and Independent (The system has no human interference);
    3. Deterrence Effect (‘Eyes watching from the sky’);
    4. Quicker Response and Action (The mining areas will be monitored regularly. Sensitive areas will be monitored more frequently);
    5. Effective Follow-up (action taken on triggers will be followed-up at various levels like DMG, State Mining Secretary, State Office and Headquarters Office of IBM and Ministry of Mines, GoI).
  • There are in total 3843 mining leases of major minerals in India.
  • Out of which, there are 1710 working mines and 2133 non-working mines. Most of the working mines have been digitized.
  • Efforts for completing the digitization of non-working mines are being made through the State Governments, which would be completed in 3 months’ time.

Reference:
http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=151684