reports o. management and r&d support divisions - National ...

ñ �ig. 16 The home page of NAL’s web site as it ñ
�ig. 17 WebISTAD, CSIR’s portal for
appears on 15 July 2003. The site reports on NAL international cooperation, went online on 1 January
activity to an international audience.
2003. WebISTAD is CSIR’s first web-based information
service.
In 2003-2004, the effort will be to
introduce better software engineering
practices (better quality and
documentation procedures) and
introduce efficient (and secure) webbased
workflow practices. The
objective is to develop marketable
software products, not provide ad
hoc software solutions requiring
continual change.
18.6D DESIGN AND
DEVELOPMENT O�
IN�ORMATION
PORTALS
Web sites and intranets must
eventually graduate into highly
interactive and efficient information
portals. With every passing year NAL
appears to get closer to this objective.
NAL’s web site at www.nal.res.in
continues to receive a very large
number of visitors (�ig. 16). It is
always difficult to effect big changes
in a well-established site but one
tries. Simple animation using �lash
adds to a site’s appeal, although one
must be careful not to overdo things.
Interactive services (e.g. online
applications for temporary positions,
vendor registrations) also help. NAL’s
web managers have been successful
in such efforts; the site has settled
down nicely.
WEBISTAD
WebISTAD, CSIR’s portal for
international cooperation (�ig. 17)
jointly developed by NAL and ISTAD,
went online on 1 January 2003. The
portal contains a large number of
databases (fellowships, trainer
potential, addresses), useful links
(carefully structured, based on
resources and research institutions)
and services. WebISTAD’s eclearance
service has, however,
proved to be the most popular; this
service is currently offered to NAL,
NCL, NIO and IICT, but it will be
progressively extended to most CSIR
labs. WebISTAD still has several
imperfections, but it is CSIR’s first
web-based service.
VIMAN VIKAS
With NAL’s growing involvement in
the design and development of
certified composite airworthy
components, usually with very
stringent time targets, scientists –
especially in the Advanced
Composites Division – are quite at
the end of their tether. VIMAN VIKAS
is an initiative to develop a workflow
based information system to support
this component development activity.
Work has just started – the module on
material receipt and management is
currently being coded – and there’s
still a very long road ahead.
MAUSAM
IMD’s contribution to the NMITLI
project on ‘mesoscale modeling for
monsoon-related predictions’ is likely
to be in the area of data management,
visualization and dissemination. The
MAUSAM portal is expected to
become the visible interface of his
vitally important project. The first
initiative was to web-enable a software
routine to retrieve (and plot)
meteorological data acquired from
NCEP for the project.
IMD is now three years old; the
Division should, over the years,
graduate into a very good knowledge
repository and management centre.
18.6E PHOTOGRAPHY AND
OTHER
IN�ORMATION
SERVICES
The Photography Unit has only one
way to go: go completely digital. In
2002-03, the Unit acquired an
excellent digital camera with
NAL Annual Report 2002-2003 167