Rituparna Kakati | 22 Nov, 2017
The International
Seminar on Indian Space Programme, which discussed participation of the
industry in the commercial space segment, was concluded Tuesday in New Delhi .
Speaking on the
occasion, the Secretary, Department of Space, Chairman Space Commission and
Chairman Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), A S Kiran Kumar said that
India has set new benchmarks in the era of space technology in various areas
such as Space Application development, Space science, Satellite sub-system
co-creation and Space Infrastructure.
The event was
organised by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Antrix Corporation
Limited (the commercial arm of ISRO), in coordination with Federation of Indian
Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).
Kumar expressed that
Space technology has immense potential in space exploration, joint ventures of
collaboration in assembly and integration of satellite sub-system, cluster
development, knowledge and information dissemination, launch infrastructure
co-development, ISRO’s versatile workhorse PSLV launch vehicle integration and
communication and navigation satellite creative co-creation opportunities,
among others.
While giving his valedictory address, Foreign Secretary, S Jaishankar said that
the space sector has come of age with rapid strides in PSLV, GSLV and GSLV Mark
III and having potential in economic growth and development of the country.
He said that India
is proud of its space sector achievements. He enlisted the reasons for the need
and the requirement for development in capability augmentation and capacity building,
be it, in Space application, Satellite based mobile technology, Telemedicine
and disaster management to name a few.
In the industry
session, during the opening address Dr. Annadurai, Director ISRO Satellite
Centre laid stress on role of space technology in achieving sustainable
development goals, disaster management and improving important governance
objectives.
Dr. V K Saraswat,
Member, NITI Aayog chaired panel for the session on ‘Capacity Building and
Talent Management’.
The session skewed
towards members of the academic community and they discussed the current
challenges and the way ahead. He said that the need of the hour is to be more
aggressive about developing the space department and expanding the capabilities
of the industry.