The National Atlas and Thematic Mapping Organisation (NATMO), an institution under the Department of Science and Technology, has come up with a dashboard that gives an analysis of the COVID-19 situation in the country, an official statement said.

Besides the usual information on the COVID-19 tally, death toll, active cases and those recovered, the dashboard also has pie-charts, graphs explaining coronavirus-related information in a simpler way. 

What is NATMO?

National Atlas and Thematic Mapping Organisation functions under the administrative control of the Union ministry of science & technology. 

It was established in 1956 as the National Atlas Organisation. Prof. S.P. Chatterjee, the doyen of Indian geography, was the founder-director.

It was renamed as National Atlas and Thematic Mapping Organisation (NATMO) in 1978 to give the institution a broad based responsibility in the field of thematic cartography and geographical research. 

This is the premier and only organisation to showcase natural, socio-economic, scientific and technological aspects of the country through maps and atlases.

The first national atlas of India in Hindi — ‘Bharat: Rastriya Atlas’ having 26 multi-colour maps with a scale of 1:5 million portraying a comprehensive physical and socio-cultural structure of the country was published in 1957. 

Its English version — ‘National Atlas of India’ — was published in 1986. Since then, this publication is being updated and revised keeping pace with the administrative changes in respect of states, districts, etc along with conversion in digital mode is under process.

Apart from the above project the organisation has taken up various projects either from the outside agencies or on its own.

NATMO has published ‘Atlas for Visually Impaired’ in Braille script, depicting all the continents and with special emphasis on India.

A large number of qualified professionals including geographers, geologists, statisticians, mathematicians, software applicants prepare maps and atlases in this organisation. 

Major functions of NATMO:

* Compilation of National Atlas in English, Hindi and other regional languages with regular updating.

* Preparation of school atlases for all boards to provide accurate and standard base information for the educational institutions.

* Preparation of state atlases and other special atlases.

* Generation of thematic maps and standardisation of thematic information.

* Mapping of natural resource assessment towards sustainable socio-economic planning at district level.

* Large scale mapping and development of digital cartographic base for utility based services.

* Providing geographical education and training to visually impaired and low vision society through maps and atlases.

* Management of comprehensive geo-informatics products for the service of the nation through web portal.

* National and international cooperation on multidisciplinary geosciences

through collaborative programmes.

* Providing unrestricted map service to all sections of the society.

* Other activities entrusted through the administrative ministry from time to time.

What is the purpose of NATMO’s COVID-19 dashboard?

The NATMO took an initiative to host its COVID-19 dashboard in April to create a single-window platform to integrate all government department data, including initiatives related to combat COVID-19. 

“It was observed commonly that the other COVID-19 dashboards focus on state/district-wise distribution of COVID-19 cases only. But NATMO, in its dashboard, provisioned dissemination of health infrastructure-related information that may help common people to find relevant information on the issue,” a statement said. 

After the initial hosting of COVID-19 dashboard, it has been updated from time-to-time to keep pace with the changing situation, depending on availability of authenticated thematic information.

“The cause-effect relation may be analysed further in consideration of demographic-socio-economic factors, which may help us to acquire maximum knowledge from this scenario,” the statement added.

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