Indian National GNSS Programme: Crustal deformation measurements in the Indian Sub-continent

The Indian National GNSS Programme was launched about one and half decades ago with a view to provide a boost to crustal deformation measurements for constraining the movement of Indian plate, identifying the regions of strain accumulation, and to estimate the convergence rates across some identified faults/boundaries. Under this programme, a network of 50 permanent GPS receivers has been established, which is fully functional for the last about 8 yrs. The network has generated very important data sets, which in turn have helped in the estimation of Indian plate motion, regions and rate of strain accumulation, rate of convergence across some identified faults, etc. The measurements have also been utilized in monitoring co-seismic and postseismic deformation related to recent earthquakes that occurred in India and adjoining regions, such as the 2001 Bhuj, 2004 Sumatra–Andaman and 2005 Kashmir earthquake. This article presents some salient results obtained for specific corridors in the Himalaya, Indo-Burmese arc region, Andaman–Nicobar Island region and Indian plate interior region.