report of the action team on global navigation satellite systems (gnss)

Air Passenger Forecasts399. In India, a certain study conducted by <strong>the</strong> National Council <strong>of</strong> Applied EconomicResearch (NCAER) <strong>of</strong> India has forecast that for domestic passengers <strong>the</strong> estimate for incomesensitivity is 1.0 in <strong>the</strong> country. In o<strong>the</strong>r words, in <strong>the</strong> long run an increase <strong>of</strong> 6 per cent in GDP islikely to be associated with 6*1 = 6 per cent increase in air travel, assuming prices do not change.For international passengers in India, <strong>the</strong> estimate <strong>of</strong> income sensitivity is 1.3 – much higher than<strong>the</strong> estimates for domestic travel. For Asia and <strong>the</strong> Pacific region, ICAO studies have predicted<strong>the</strong> highest growth rate. It is matched with <strong>the</strong> rate <strong>of</strong> GDP growth in those areas.400. Forecasts by ICAO show that <strong>the</strong>re will be an increase in scheduled passenger traffic.However, for most countries this growth will be in favour <strong>of</strong> services operated on internationalroutes ra<strong>the</strong>r than those for domestic routes.401. In <strong>the</strong> world, passenger traffic is expected to grow, with growth likely to be larger oninternational routes than on domestic ones. Almost no growth will be recorded in Europe fordomestic passenger traffic. Latin American countries will also see very little growth on domesticroutes as compared with international routes. Maximum growth will occur in Asia for bothinternational and domestic routes.402. The Asia Pacific region is expected to grow by 7 per cent per annum till 2003 and <strong>the</strong>same trends can be expected to continue till 2010, accounting for more than half <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> world airtravel by <strong>the</strong>n. And India, already with its strategic position as an air corridor linking WesternEurope and South-East Asia, is expected to contribute largely to this increase in air travel. Withincreasing economic linkages between India and <strong>the</strong> Asia-Pacific countries, air travel in <strong>the</strong> futureis likely to see increased scales.403. To forecast figures for India, <strong>the</strong> GDP is <strong>the</strong> single most important determinant inforecasting air transport. As mentioned before, income sensitivity <strong>of</strong> domestic air passengers <strong>of</strong>1.1, consistent with <strong>the</strong> world trends - with an estimate being 1.3 for international passengers and<strong>the</strong> estimate being 1 for domestic passengers. The estimate <strong>of</strong> price sensitivity is taken to be – 0.6,so a 5 per cent decline in prices would lead to a 3 per cent increase in air passengers.404. GPS is being used in conjunction with <strong>the</strong> GSM mobile phones for vehicle trackingsystems. The car navigation market in India is still in its nascent stages. There is a potentiallyhuge market for GNSS in train anti-collision systems, intelligent highway systems and leisure,which remains to be exploited. As up to date, <strong>the</strong>re is no service requirement for mobile phones tobe equipped with positioning devices such as <strong>the</strong> US E911 or <strong>the</strong> equivalent European standardE112.405. In Malaysia, <strong>the</strong> main applications <strong>of</strong> GNSS are still in <strong>the</strong> surveying and mapping sector.Fur<strong>the</strong>rmore, works on active research have also been carried out by <strong>the</strong> Malaysian AgriculturalResearch and Development Institute (MARDI) in <strong>the</strong> application <strong>of</strong> GNSS in <strong>the</strong> fields <strong>of</strong>precision agriculture for rice and horticultural crop production. The scope <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> works includedmapping, monitoring and variable rate application <strong>of</strong> farm inputs. The potential for GNSSapplication in o<strong>the</strong>r crops, such as oil palm, has also been explored. It is envisaged that <strong>the</strong> marketgrowth <strong>of</strong> GNSS usage increase significantly with <strong>the</strong>se R&D initiatives.406. The new national datum named <strong>the</strong> Geodetic Datum <strong>of</strong> Malaysia, GDM2000, has beenlaunched with a geocentric datum based on several years <strong>of</strong> GPS data. The new datum will unify70