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ISRO seee more role for industry

Our Bureau

NEW DELHI, Aug. 31

THE Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) would, as part of its broader vision for future, develop a system for regular census of nation's natural resources and generation of reports on `State of the country's environment', Dr K. Kasturirangan, Chair man, ISRO, has said.

Delivering the 4th JRD Tata Memorial Lecture, instituted by Assocham, Dr Kasturirangan said that such census can identify natural resource `hotspots' that are a cause for concern. ``This in turn can lead to identification of environmentally sensitive are as requiring urgent conservation/ management action''.

He said that the National Spatial Data Infrastructure, being evolved through a partnership approach among various agencies, would be the ``mainstay to support the National Resources Census activity''.

Dr Kasturirangan also said that the scope of participation for Indian industries in the Indian space programme will increase in the coming years. ``In the next five years, the demand on space infrastructure is likely to double and scope of participation for Indian industries will also correspondingly increase.''

He hoped that Indian Industry would, in near future, succeed in producing a total space system that would not only meet national needs but also for export to other countries.

The ISRO Chairman advised Indian entrepreneurs to venture into production, ownership and operations of satellites for communications. ``Such a role for Industries will be the integral part of maintaining national capability in this vital area of infrastr ucture that covers spectrum of services to economic, social and strategic sectors of the country'', he said.

Technologies for digital video broadcasting and advances in satellite technologies which offer greater flexibility in allocation of space resources in tune with the demands will be exploited in future. The national demand for transponders is expected to grow from the present level of 80-100 numbers to about 250 in various frequency bands in the next five years.

On space based meteorology, the ISRO Chairman said that, in future, Indian weather satellites will continue to play a significant role in improving accuracy and horizon of weather forecasts which are important for agricultural operations such as sowing,i rrigation and pest control and several other sectors of the economy.

He maintained that space will continue to be a valuable tool to face the challenges of current times and of future in the field of agriculture, which accounts for nearly 65 per cent of nation's employment and 26 per cent of GDP.

``A vision for an innovative route of development in agriculture with the backdrop of WTO regime and ecological crises that threaten to bring down productivity could truly be derived from the convergence of biotechnology with space and informatics'', Dr Kasturirangan said.