This story is from September 23, 2018

‘More sats in sky will bridge digital divide’

‘More sats in sky will bridge digital divide’
Isro chairman Dr K Sivan (centre) being presented an honorary doctor of science degree during the ninth convocation of Gitam Institute
HYDERABAD: India will enjoy more than 100 Gbps high bandwidth connectivity, in the next few years, with the launch of three GSAT satellites before end of next year, said Dr K Sivan, chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation. He was speaking at the ninth convocation ceremony of Gitam (deemed to be university) on Saturday.
“India has the world’s second largest internet user base. But our present broadband speed is 76th in the world.
ISRO has already launched GSAT-19 in June 2017. This year, ISRO will be launching GSAT-11 and GSAT-29 and next year early, GSAT-20 will be launched. All these are high throughput satellites and together they will provide more than 100 GBPS high bandwidth connectivity across the country which will help bridge the digital divide,” said Sivan while addressing the convocation as chief guest.
According to a press release issued by Gitam, the ISRO chairman also received a honorary doctor of science degree during the convocation. The ISRO chairman said that the government of India has approved a budget of Rs 10,900 crore for 30 PSLVs and 10 GSLV Mk-3 will be launched in the next four years in addition to more than 50 space crafts.
With the government investing more on space research, he told the graduating students that ISRO was looking forward to collaborating more with the industry and academics. “There is major opportunity for indigenisation of avionics. And we (Isro) are not only interested in engaging with established industries but we also would like to see start ups take up the challenge. ISRO recently established a Capacity Building Programme Office to widen the participation of academia and industry in the space sector,” said Sivan, adding that the activities are planned to be coordinated through establishment of space tech incubation centres across the nation.
Three PhD degrees and over 1,017 graduate and postgraduate degrees were awarded during the convocation.
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