The Hindu : National : Satellites can bridge digital divide: ISRO chief

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Sunday, May 01, 2005

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Satellites can bridge digital divide: ISRO chief

Staff Reporter

``Our satellites can now track small objects on earth; we are also self-reliant in launching them''

BANGALORE: The Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) G. Madhavan Nair said on Saturday that the digital divide between people living in urban and rural areas could be bridged through the network of Indian satellites.

Delivering the 32nd Vikram Sarabhai Memorial Lecture on "Space applications for societal needs" via a video link from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, Mr. Nair said CARTOSAT, the latest advanced remote sensing satellite slated for launch, would be an addition to the constellation of Indian satellites. CARTOSAT would provide high-resolution images that would help make better maps.

Mr. Nair's lecture was part of the 36th mid-term symposium on "Emerging and futuristic communication systems." It was organised by the Institution of Electronics and Telecommunications Engineers.

He said the Indian space programme had travelled a long way from the launch of Aryabhata and Bhaskara I in 1975 and 1979. "Our satellites can now track small objects on earth. We have also attained self-reliance in launching them," Mr. Nair said.

The Indian National Satellite (INSAT) series, he said, was widely being used in tele-education, telemedicine, meteorology and disaster warning.

For the tele-education project, EDUSAT was being used to create virtual classrooms. In Chamarajanagar district of Karnataka most of the schools had the facility, and it enabled students to interact with teachers far away from their place.

One lakh patients were being treated through telemedicine, he said.

The ISRO was trying to build a disaster management support system that could warn about natural disasters. Roddam Narasimha, member of the Space Commission, said the transformation of space, communication and information technologies had brought about a big change in the common man's way of working and thinking.

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