Article Posted on : - Dec 01, 2008

Madhavan Nair, Chairman, ISRO & Ashok Soota, Past President, CII at the inaugural of Bengaluru Space Expo 2008 on Sunday

BANGALORE (BNS):"In the next five years, Indian space Programme has an ambitious goal of launching several satellites for applications in communications, navigation, disaster management and all weather remote sensing," said Indian Space Research Organisation chairman G Madhavan Nair.

Nair was delivering the keynote address on Sunday at the Maiden Bengaluru Space Expo (BSX) - 2008, organized by CII in association with ISRO and Antrix Corporation Ltd in Bangalore November 29 and December 1.

The ISRO chief added, "With this vibrant program, there will be challenging opportunities for industries in India and abroad to provide equipment and services. These include many small and medium enterprises."

Nair also emphasized that if space has to remain a major driver for growth issues like conducive space environment, reduction of the cost to access to space for growth, global application of space technology to serve individual families and small communities throughout the globe, needs to be addressed.

Ashok Soota, former president of CII and chairman and managing director, Mind Tree Ltd said, " CII is delighted to partner with ISRO and Antrix in organizing this event. BSX-2008 brings together industry with space agencies to jointly explore commercial and civilian applications. The Expo will highlight India's prowess in various areas of space, including manufacturing, launch services, communication, meteorology, and space sciences. It will increase the number of space nations through international collaborations and expand the vendor base."

Soota added, "The Global space industry is now over $250 billion in size, ranging from satellite manufacturing and launching to imaging, navigation and telecommunications. Downstream spin-offs for design, engineering, research, and applications for vendors of all sizes are large, with the satellite industry itself projected to grow from $120 billion now to as much as $1.2 trillion."

Present at the inaugural session of BSX 2008 were Vinay Deshpande, Past Chairman, CII, Karnataka, Sridhar Murthy, MD, Antrix Corporation Ltd, YS Rajan, Principal Advisor, CII and Gurpal Singh, DDG, CII.

According to the organizers, the two-day BSX- 2008 saw huge participation from companies such as Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, Bharat Electronics Ltd, ECIL and global participation from Arianespace-France, Infinisat (USA), European Space Agency, Israeli Space Agency, Thaicom, Yuzhnove (Ukraine), ScanEx (Russia), Intelsat, Avanti Communications Group plc, MEASAT, Asia Broadcast Satellite (HK) Limited, Hong Kong, Spectrolab Inc (a Boeing company), Space Key Components Inc (USA), Thales Alenia, New India assurance, Sea International Space Brokers, Space Corporation (USA), United Space Alliance (USA), AON space, Marsh Space Projects etc and many more companies.