Bengaluru: Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday suggested ISRO give a thrust to the indigenously-developed regional navigation satellite system, NaVIC for global use.
Addressing scientists and staff of the U R Rao Satellite Centre, he complimented ISRO for establishing and putting in operation NaVIC and termed it as a significant achievement. He wanted ISRO to actively pursue the expansion of the NaVIC system in terms of areas covered, services offered and its effective utilisation to meet the national requirements.
Observing that India has huge potential to expand its footprint globally in the space sector, Naidu urged the recently-launched Indian Space Association to contribute in a big way to make India totally self-reliant and a global leader in the space arena. He appreciated ISRO for its leadership role in incubating Indian private entities by enabling them to participate in space-related activities. “I am sure the impressive track record of ISRO in building the knowledge base and space assets over the years will be leveraged to multiply the benefits to the nation with the participation of private players”, he added.
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Describing ISRO as the pride of the nation, the Vice-President said the organisation is respected globally for its outstanding achievements in the field of space research. “Over the years, ISRO has made invaluable contribution to the nation’s progress by building more than 100 state-of-the-art satellites for various applications and also establishing operational launch vehicle systems like PSLV and GSLV”, he noted.
Lauding UR Rao Satellite Centre for relentlessly pursuing its mission of providing operational satellites, scientific missions, exploratory missions and Deep Space Missions, he noted that 53 operational satellites of ISRO were providing valuable services to the nation, especially in areas like telecommunication, broadcasting, meteorology, remote sensing, navigation and space science.
Expressing his happiness that India has become a world leader in the niche area of satellite-based remote sensing services, he said the remote sensing satellite data and images have become indispensable tools in enhancing efficiency and meeting the developmental needs in various areas including agriculture, forestry, oceanography, infrastructure planning, energy and environment, water resource and development planning.
Pointing out that the data from the meteorological payloads operating in various satellites facilitate forecasting of weather including drought, severe rainfalls and cyclones, the Vice President expressed confidence that ISRO will continue to conceive and build advanced on-board systems to deliver the required data. “This will further improve weather forecasting which will help farmers and enable us to better manage natural calamities”, he added.
He also expressed his appreciation that the UR Rao Satellite Centre was working on the next generation of IRNSS satellites, Chandrayaan-3 for a soft landing on Moon and Aditya-L1 mission to study the Sun by next year. Terming his visit to URSC as “truly memorable”, he said that he was impressed by its future plans which include Venus orbiter mission and follow-on mission to Mars. Karnataka Governor, Thawarchand Gehlot, ISRO Chairman, Dr K. Sivan, Director, UR Rao Satellite Centre, Sankaran, Scientific Secretary, ISRO, Umamaheswaran and others were present on the occasion.
