'ISRO fast enlarging role in developmental activities': MoS Jitendra Singh

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is no longer confined mainly to the launching of satellites, but it has been constantly enlarging its role in development activities, Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh said on Tuesday.

The Minister recalled that over four years back, on the intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, an extensive brain-storming exercise was held in Delhi wherein representatives from different Ministries and Departments were engaged in an intense interaction with scientists from ISRO and Department of Space in order to work out how best space technology could be utilized as a modern tool for supplementing, improving and expediting infrastructural development as well as the implementation of various welfare schemes.

Following this, he said, space technology is now being used in diverse sectors including agriculture, railways, roads and bridges, medical management/telemedicine, procurement of timely Utilization Certificates, disaster forecast and management, weather/rain/flood forecast, etc.

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ISRO tech in diverse sectors

As for the agriculture sector, Singh informed that ISRO technology is now also being used to carry out crop production forecast for at least eight major crops including wheat, Kharif and rabi rice, mustard, jute, cotton, sugarcane, rabi sorghum and rabi pulses.

In the Railway sector, Jitendra Singh said it was in recent years that applications of space technology were realized in guarding the unmanned Railway crossings, detecting obstructive objects on rail tracks to avoid train accidents and other such activities. Similarly, he said, satellite imaging is now being utilized for supervising the Indian borders and to check foreign infiltrations.

While ISRO and the Department of Space have already overtaken several other countries in their Space Missions, the images procured by missions like Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) are now being utilized even by premier space centres. In the infrastructural development and public welfare projects, India has taken a lead in the application of space technology and its example is now being followed by other countries of the world, Singh said.

(PTI Photo)

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