Date:14/03/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/03/14/stories/2003031401500700.htm

National

ISRO to launch educational satellite

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI March 13. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is working on an educational satellite (EDUSAT) that can help take all forms of education to areas not reached in the country, the ISRO Chairman, K. Kasturirangan, said here today.

Mr. Kasturirangan, who received a science and technology award instituted by a deemed university near Chennai, from the Union Minister for Human Resource Development and Science and Technology, Murli Manohar Joshi, said educational expertise was concentrated in "a few islands" of excellence at a time when the country was struggling to build a huge educational infrastructure, find funds and appoint good teachers. Once launched, EDUSAT could help take the lectures of expert educators to remote areas, which did not have the required facilities or human resources. Any sector of education — primary, secondary, tertiary or engineering — could thus be widened to benefit the people. Educational institutions should build the necessary "downloading capability" to benefit from the satellite-based education.

Explaining the growth of India's space programme, Dr. Kasturirangan said that in the past 30 years, the space technology had leap-frogged to such an extent that even countries such as the U.S. and France were prepared to buy high quality satellite maps and data from the ISRO. This was possible by continuous innovation, which only the "Indian mind was capable of", he added, while receiving the award (comprising a citation and Rs.1 lakh), instituted the Jeppiaar Educational Trust (JET) which runs the Sathyabhama Deemed University.

Dr. Joshi, who also inaugurated an in-door auditorium at St. Joseph's College of Engineering, under the JET, said Indian science should be guided by a principle of continuous innovation, of developing a technology with a human face. Decrying the technology denial regimes and "technological tyranny of the West", he said India's principle was always to use technology for the welfare of the poor, for removing illiteracy and poverty.

The AICTE Chairman, R. Natarajan, who presided, lauded the JET for maintaining excellence in technical education.

The trust's Chairman, Jeppiaar, said he planned to start a "software technology park" to provide employment to graduates from the JET's institutions. The Government's science and technology research institutions could help by entrusting a small part of their research work to the proposed park, he said.