We will support the partner governments through the Indian industry, says ISRO

Some five months after the South Asia Satellite or GSAT-9 was put up in space as New Delhi’s gift to six neighbours, ground delays outside India seem to be holding up its planned harvest.

The Indian Space Research Organisation, which owns and operates the roughly ₹200-crore communication spacecraft, says it has initiated the processes to set up ground stations for the partners to receiver/send satellite communication. It has invited expressions of interest to find suitable Indian industry players who will set up the ground equipment.

While half of the satellite’s 12 Ku-band transponders is reserved for the partners, the Indian part has been in use without a hitch.

A.S. Kiran Kumar, ISRO Chairman, told The Hindu, “It is work in progress. We are now trying to get the partner governments to start using the services of the satellite. They must first set up the ground segment depending on what they need.” The satellite has a planned life of 12 years.

It would be a slow build-up as work must be coordinated with each of the six governments. “We are trying to push it as much as possible but it does not move at the pace that we would like. Eventually we will support them through Indian industry,” said Mr. Kiran Kumar, who is also Secretary, Department of Space, that functions under the Prime Minister.

In India, which has a 50-year active space history, satcom-based activities can routinely kick in a couple of months after a communications satellite is launched. But for the smaller neighbours, space is a relatively new area.

The Indian space hug wraps Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Their satellite-based services are said to be small and some may be using commercial foreign satellites.

Speed in Bhutan

In the case of Bhutan, Mr. Kiran Kumar said there had been significant progress and many interactions, because of which “We are going ahead” faster than with the others.

To begin with, ISRO has enabled video transmission uplinked from India. Once the countries start using their part of satellite fully, he said it could open or spur activities for poor and unconnected areas — tele-education and tele-medicine or consultations with doctors; besides a SAARC library link of regionally relevant information.

India has offered each country one Ku-band transponder free of cost along with services. The gesture is meant to spread the use of DTH television and VSATs to support Internet-based applications.

The South Asia Satellite was first announced by the Prime Minister in 2014. India itself has been grappling with an old shortage of Ku-band transponders — because of which Indian DTH operators lease their capacity on private foreign satellites.

Asked about it, Mr. Kiran Kumar said sharing amidst scarcity was a generous act for the larger good.