Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) has floated a tender, asking private firms to manufacture earth observation and communication satellites, to meet its demand for 70 satellites over five years.

The agency needs to launch a satellite every month to meet the growing needs of customers for direct-to-home (DTH) broadcast, mapping applications for urban and disaster planning and communication services. "We have floated an expression of interest for end-to-end manufacture of two satellites," said M Annadurai, director of the Isro satellite centre, soon after the successful ...