IIT Hyderabad, Department of Posts, and NRSC (ISRO) Collaborate to Launch DIGIPIN: A National-Scale Geospatial Addressing System for India

• Compactness: Short and efficient codes for ease of use.
• Geographic Precision: Ability to extract exact latitude and longitude coordinates.
• Inclusivity: Coverage for all parts of India, including densely populated and remote regions.
• Privacy: DIGIPIN carries no personal information.
• Future-readiness: Scalable and adaptable for future needs.

In a landmark move to revolutionize India’s addressing infrastructure, the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IITH), in collaboration with the Department of Posts and the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), ISRO, Government of India, has developed DIGIPIN – an open-source, machine-interpretable geospatial addressing system designed to provide precise and standardised digital addresses across the country.

Traditional descriptive addresses in India suffer from a lack of uniformity and machine-readability, causing inefficiencies in postal and logistics operations. DIGIPIN aims to transform this system by introducing a geo-coded, digital public infrastructure (DPI) layer for India’s physical addressing landscape.

DIGIPIN is a compact, intuitive, and human-readable geohash, capable of encoding the latitude and longitude of any point of interest in India, from urban households to remote maritime locations. The system is designed for offline usability, privacy, and robustness, making it suitable for diverse applications including e-commerce, emergency response, and public service delivery.

Dr Shashank Vatedka

 DIGIPIN is the outcome of a dedicated research effort by a team of faculty from the Department of Electrical Engineering at IIT Hyderabad, Dr Shashank Vatedka, Prof Soumya Jana and Dr Lakshmi Prasad Natarajan, along with Tarandeep Singh, a former MTech (AI) student. Their work has produced a geohashing scheme that encapsulates geographic coordinates into short, intuitive codes, which can be extracted even offline using location-enabled devices.

Prof. Soumya Jana

Dr Lakshmi Prasad Natarajan

Prof. B S Murty, Director of IITH, expressed pride in the achievement, stating, “DIGIPIN represents a leap towards the vision of a digitally empowered India. By converting every location into a simple, verifiable, and interoperable digital code, we are laying the foundation for an address infrastructure that can scale with our nation’s growing technological and societal needs. IITH is proud to contribute to this national initiative that blends open-source innovation, geospatial intelligence, and public service and this can be considered a revolution in the field of Navigation.”

Dr. Shashank Vatedka, Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, IITH, mentioned that, “DIGIPIN will provide immense convenience to Indian residents and all stakeholders by succinctly and precisely representing a physical address. For instance, it could be represented as a QR code or a barcode and printed on consignments for machine-based routing; DIGIPIN could be easily stored and communicated using digital wallets.

Dr. Lakshmi Prasad Natarajan, Associate Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, IITH, mentioned that, “The idea was to make it as easy as possible to automatically assign codes and start using DIGIPIN with as little manual intervention as possible. In many cases, finding one’s DIGIPIN would be possible using only a device with a reasonably good location service (such as a smartphone) and an app equipped with a high-resolution map.”

Dr. Soumya Jana, Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, IITH, mentioned that “The applicability of DIGIPIN could be wider, going beyond the primary use as a digitization technology for conventional addressing. They could be used in scenarios where conventional addresses are inconsistent or not available, such as emergency response services, locating public service centres/utilities such as Health camps, Aadhar enrollment offices, and so on.”

DIGIPIN is a geohashing scheme designed to have the following features:

• The length of the DIGIPIN is designed to be as small as possible in order to provide an efficient digital representation of addresses.
• It contains the geographic location of the address. It is possible to extract the latitude and longitude of the address from the DIGIPIN with low complexity. This can also be done offline.
• All points of interest to India (including maritime regions) are assigned DIGIPIN, and it is possible to assign a unique DIGIPIN to very densely populated areas.
• The format of the DIGIPIN is intuitive and human-readable. An effort was made to infuse a sense of directionality within the format of DIGIPIN.
• Ease of code assignment and usability: A crucial point of consideration was to make it as easy as possible to automatically assign codes and start using DIGIPIN with as little manual intervention as possible. In many cases, finding one’s DIGIPIN would be possible using only a device with a reasonably good location service (such as a smartphone) and an app equipped with a high-resolution map.

DIGIPIN only encodes geographical information and contains no personal details that could lead to privacy violations.

DIGIPIN is designed to be robust to future developments and changes.

ISRO Achieves Breakthrough in Now-Casting Lightning Events Over India Using Data From Geo Satellites

ISRO has made a major breakthrough in now-casting lightning events over India using data from geostationary satellites. This advancement, led by ISRO’s National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), enhances predictive accuracy with a 2.5-hour lead time.

Now-casting is the process of predicting imminent weather events with a short lead time, usually within the next 0 to 6 hours. It’s different from traditional weather forecasting, which predicts conditions over days or weeks.

The method relies on detecting lightning signatures in Outgoing Longwave Radiation (OLR) data from the INSAT-3D satellite. A reduction in OLR strength serves as an indicator of potential lightning occurrences. To refine predictions, ISRO incorporated additional meteorological parameters like Land Surface Temperature (LST) and wind, creating a composite variable that improves forecasting accuracy.

 

The dome-shaped enclosure, or radome, for antennae at an NRSC facility

This breakthrough is crucial for disaster management and public safety, as lightning is a dominant natural hazard in tropical regions.

How It Works

• Satellite Observations: ISRO researchers detected lightning signatures in Outgoing Longwave Radiation (OLR) data from the INSAT-3D satellite. A reduction in OLR strength serves as an indicator of potential lightning occurrences.
• Additional Meteorological Parameters: To refine predictions, ISRO incorporated Land Surface Temperature (LST) and wind data, creating a composite variable that improves forecasting accuracy.
• Real-Time Monitoring: The developed composite variable effectively captures variations in lightning activity observed by ground-based measurements, allowing for improved prediction of lightning occurrence and intensity.

Why This Matters:

Lightning is a dominant natural hazard in tropical regions, causing significant damage and loss of life. This breakthrough enables early warnings, helping authorities take preventive measures to reduce risks.

ISRO’s NRSC and Shiv Nadar University, Delhi - NCR Ink MoU to Advance Space Research and Innovation

The collaboration will boost research in remote sensing, disaster management, advanced farming, environmental studies, and space technology.

Shiv Nadar University, Delhi-NCR has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), a key arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), to accelerate research in space technology and artificial intelligence.

The signing ceremony, held in August, brought together Dr. V. Narayanan, Secretary, Department of Space & Chairman, ISRO, along with Dr. Prakash Chauhan, Director, NRSC; Dr. Karthik Krishnan, Associate Dean, Research, Shiv Nadar University, Dr. S. K. Srivastava, CGM, RCs, NRSC; and Dr. Sameer Saran, DGM, RC-North, NRSC.

This collaboration will advance research in remote sensing applications for environmental and urban planning, disaster management using satellite imaging and predictive analytics, AI-driven precision agriculture for crop monitoring and yield optimization, climate resilience studies leveraging earth observation data, and autonomous UAV-based environmental assessments.

Speaking on the significance of this collaboration, Professor Ananya Mukherjee, Vice Chancellor, Shiv Nadar University, Delhi - NCR said, “This MoU marks a significant milestone in the University’s journey of expanding its research footprint in space sciences and allied fields. Collaborating with ISRO opens up unprecedented opportunities for our faculty and students to work on pioneering projects with national and global relevance. We are committed to leveraging this partnership to drive impactful innovations in space technology, data analytics, and climate resilience. This collaboration will not only advance research but also inspire the next generation of scientists and innovators,” she said.”

The partnership will promote joint research initiatives, technology commercialization, student projects, and skill development programs. It aims to strengthen India’s leadership in space exploration while enabling the university to play a meaningful role in shaping the future of space research. Dr. V. Narayanan, Secretary, Department of Space & Chairman, ISRO, reaffirmed ISRO’s commitment to academic collaborations that promote innovation and knowledge exchange. “ISRO has always prioritised collaboration with academic institutions to promote a culture of innovation and knowledge exchange. This partnership with Shiv Nadar University underscores our commitment to harnessing research excellence for addressing real-world challenges. By engaging with the university, we are not only expanding our research outreach but also reinforcing India’s leadership in space science, earth observation, and sustainable development,” he said.

This initiative will lay the foundation for capacity-building programs to train the next generation of space scientists, joint publications and technology incubators for emerging space technologies, and industry collaborations that bridge the gap between research and real-world applications. Bringing together scientists, faculty, and students, the partnership will contribute to groundbreaking discoveries in space research and reinforce India’s position in remote sensing and AI-driven innovations.

About Shiv Nadar University, Delhi-NCR

Shiv Nadar University, Delhi-NCR, is a student-centric, multidisciplinary research university offering various academic programs at the undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral levels. The Institution was set up in 2011 by the Shiv Nadar Foundation, a philanthropic foundation established by Mr. Shiv Nadar, founder of HCL. As per QS Asia 2024 rankings, Shiv Nadar University, Delhi NCR, India's youngest Institution of Eminence (IoE), is placed amongst the top 36% institutions in Asia and is ranked 41 amongst Indian institutions. As per the Nature India Index 2023, it was ranked amongst the top 30 Indian institutions for research. In the Government's National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), Shiv Nadar IoE has been the youngest institution in the 'top 100' Overall list for six consecutive years. In NIRF-2024, it ranked 62 in the 'University' category.

About Shiv Nadar Foundation

Established in 1994, by Shiv Nadar, Founder, HCL - a US$13.8 billion leading global technology enterprise, the Foundation is committed to the creation of a more equitable, merit-based society by empowering individuals through transformational education, and to bridge the socio-economic divide. Over the last 30 years the Foundation has directly touched the lives of over 39,000 alumni and students through its marquee institutions in literacy, K12 and higher education. Today, the Foundation has a community of over 100,000 constituents, which includes not only globally dispersed alumni and students but also faculty members, corporate executives, and extended families.

The Foundation has invested over US$1.5 billion in its seven landmark institutions and initiatives across education and art. Currently, over 17,000 students and over 2,700 faculty and staff are part of the Foundation along with more than 26,000 strong globally dispersed alumni community.

The Foundation's students have gone to study at some of the best institutions globally including the Ivy League in the US and top universities in other countries including Australia, Singapore, China and UK. Students are also working in major corporations, including Goldman Sachs, Honda, HP, Schindler, and several others both in India and across other geographies. Faculty across the Foundation institutions are drawn from the best Indian and international universities, with a strong focus on research and innovation.

The Shiv Nadar Foundation pursues the philosophy of 'Creative Philanthropy'. It is a powerful model which envisages creation of institutions that are built to last and continue to impact future generations. It is an approach that allows sustained institutionalised philanthropy for long-term, high-impact, socio-economic transformation