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"Go live" is the red-hot app mantra at the HRD ministry. As more and more colleges and universities get funding, the Centre is keeping tabs on activities on campus through geo-satellite imagery.Whether it is uploading horizon-to-horizon photos or zoomed-in images, a new application developed by Isro for the ministry schematically displays all the works carried out and purchases made: a brick laid, machinery bought or a pit dug.

The tool-Bhuvan RUSA app-presents an electronic version of on-ground activities as close as one metre, thus helping locate everything from the material used, contractors hired, daily progress on construction and funds used. "The idea is not so much about policing as it is about monitoring," a ministry official said.

Equipment purchased, infrastructure built, budgets planned and the larger vision of states chalked out in their respective higher education plans, all converge on this tool.

"We have seen in the past that funds have been diverted for some other purposes and have not reached the initiative they were meant to support," said a ministry official.The new app is on cellphones of ministry officials, principals and faculty members, all of who, whether in Sikkim or Surat, Kashmir or Kanyakumari, can chart territories by swiping across the grid of the new-style maps.

There is information on the density of colleges in a specific location, the area between two colleges, institutes with hostel facilities, thus helping the ministry and the states to plan.The application picks map grids and overlays them with information and alongside displays the image of the actual on-ground progress. Click on a virtual pushpin and a pop-up appears, zooming in to information of a specific college.

"This initiative is in keeping with the Prime Minister's larger objective of linking space technologies to improve monitoring of real-time activities which enhances transparency," said TISS professor Venkatesh Kumar, who has been working with the HRD ministry for the RUSA project.To date, 1,000 campuses have been mapped and the tool aims to connect 1,900 institutes by June. In all, to date, 1,500 academic institutions have received financial support. The Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA), launched in 2013, aims to revitalise state universities and apart from aiding new campuses, it also works with once-upon-atime blue chip public institutes that have been sapped of fresh funds and ideas and revive their halcyon days.

D L Sharma, coordinator of tech support group, Chhattisgarh, said that geo-mapping is a great way to monitor progress. "First we take the aerial view of the proposed site and at every crucial stage, there is a check on the development. We feel that this has given our country a better way of governance."