A high-level delegation from Mauritius, led by the Honourable Minister for Information Technology, Communication and Innovation (MITCI), Mr. Darsanand Balgobin, paid a fruitful visit to ISRO on August 17, 2023.
Honourable Minister was accompanied by the Chairman of the Board of the Mauritius Research & Innovation Council, Dr. Kaviraj Sharma Sukon.
The delegation had a meeting with Shri Somanath S, Chairman, ISRO/Secretary, DOS at the ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bengaluru.
Also, Director of U R Rao Satellite Centre Mr. M Sankaran; Scientific Secretary of ISRO Mr. Shantanu Bhatawdekar; Director of National Remote Sensing Centre, Dr. Prakash Chauhan and other senior officials were also part of the discussion.
Chairman, ISRO/ Secretary, DOS while thanking Mauritius for hosting ISRO’s station for about 3 decades, outlined potential applications of space technology that could benefit Mauritius.
The Honourable Minister highlighted the specific requirements and aspirations of Mauritius.
ISRO presented technical details and application potentials of the proposed India – Mauritius joint satellite, a microsatellite designed for remote sensing from Low Earth orbit.
Besides, plans for providing training to Mauritius officials, in three domains, viz., building the satellite, operating the satellite and utilising the received data from this satellite for various applications were also discussed.
This meeting has also helped in enhancing the overall scope of India-Mauritius space cooperation through
- (i) sharing of data pertaining to Mauritius territory, acquired by Indian Remote Sensing satellites;
- (ii) Developing an ‘India-Mauritius space portal’ with satellite data, geospatial layers and value-added services pertaining to Mauritius;
- (iii) Initiating discussion for space industry level collaboration between the two nations to unlock new avenues for the utilization of space technology by various stakeholders in Mauritius.
Source: https://www.isro.gov.in/visit_Mauritius_Minister_space_cooperation.html
