As proposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the India Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will launch a dedicated communication satellite by December 2016. ISRO chairman AS Kiran Kumar told the media on the sidelines of a programme in Bengaluru that ISRO was preparing to launch a dedicated satellite for the eight SAARC countries by December 2016 to provide a range of public services.
He said, “The two-tonne satellite will have 12 Ku band transponders, with each dedicated to one country in the region for providing communication, education, tele-medicine, disaster monitoring and other need-based services.”
India is the only nation in the SAARC countries which has the capability to build and launch satellites for communications, earth observations and space sciences.
The South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation was formed in 1985 with Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives Nepal, Pakistan and Sri lanka as its seven members and expanded subsequently to include Afghanistan.
It was in the last SAARC summit in Katmandu on November 26-27, 2014, that heads of the region endorsed PM Modi’s proposal for such a satellite on the lines of regional satellites in Europe and North America.
Kiran Kumar said, “At a SAARC meeting in Delhi, experts finalised modalities to have a dedicated satellite for the region. Five representatives from each country, including Pakistan participated in the meeting.”
“All going well, we hope to put a SAARC satellite in the geostationary orbit by December next year as we need 18 months to build and launch it,” the Isro chief Kumar said after chairing a session on “Contribution of Indian Institute of Science to strategic sectors” at the IISc alumni global conference.
The Ministry of External Affairs is coordinating with its counterparts in the region on details of their needs.
“We plan to have a SAARC consortium for future space programmes for the benefit of the region on lines of the European space consortium, as each country will have some capability such as ground station for specific needs like direct-to-home link and tele-connectivity,” Kiran Kumar added.