A clutch of products developed by the Hyderabad-based Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), including an Android app for ocean information services, was launched on Tuesday.
The app, developed in-house by the INCOIS' Marine Fishery Advisory Services team is for the benefit of fishermen. The beta version that was launched is to be refined with the user feedback. There are plans to make available the app on Google Play store and on INCOIS website.
While this is for Android smart phone users, for those using basic phones the Centre unveiled an SMS service in local languages. The text messages will provide potential fishing zone advisory on a real time basis.
An Atlas of potential fishing zones in Indian exclusive economic zone (EEZ) was another product that was launched at the 5th user interaction workshop of the INCOIS. The atlas contains data for each month since 2003 and they are depicted in intuitive maps in the form of frequency of PFZ occurrence.
Other products launched at the programme, in which Shipping Corporation of India chairman and managing director A.K.Gupta was the chief guest, were daily bulletins on ocean state forecast along shipping routes and a high resolution ocean state forecast for west coast of India.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr.Gupta reiterated SCI commitment to work with INCOIS and described the Centre as an “unsung hero”.
