CONNECTIVITY THROUGH SPACE - A BOON FOR DEVELOPING INDIA
DR. K. Kasturi Rangan, Chairman, ISRO

Q. What are ISRO's plans to promote education through space connectivity? 

Space connectivity plays a great role in promoting education, developmental education and training activities in the country. I am glad to inform that ISRO is contemplating to build a dedicated satellite for education called 'Edusat' in the near future.

Q. How far has Indian Space Programme reached vis a vis the vision at the beginning?

Our vision for 'space', as unfolded by Dr Vikram Sarabhai, was to make India second to none in the development and use of space technology to leapfrog the process of development. The uniqueness of this vision was that he saw new opportunities in space for a large developing country like India, barely within three years of the launch of the first Sputnik. And this was in contrast to the common perception that the spectacular space feats of the early era were nothing more than an extension of the cold war rivalry. More explicitly, in the vantage point of space, he perceived possible solutions to issues of national development, particularly bringing education at the door steps of masses and generating timely and precise information about weather and natural resources in a way that could help our farmers and policy makers to take better decisions. His intuitive mind saw that space is a community resource, having outreach to all and capable of serving without distinction between rich and the poor and transcending the barriers of knowledge, literacy and any form of social or geographical imbalances.

Over the past 4 decades, the Indian space programme has turned this vision into reality. What is more significant is that we have not only developed capabilities to meet national needs, but also achieved a position of excellence by global standards. 

Q. What is the history of India's space initiative?

India's space efforts began in a modest way near a sleepy village of Thumba near Thiruvananthapuram, close to which the earth's magnetic equator is situated. A sounding rocket launch facility was established to enable scientists to study the unique phenomena associated with upper atmosphere in this region. This was also of great interest to global scientific community. The first rocket, which took off in 1963 from Thumba facility, marked an important milestone for Indian space programme. It was a small rocket - weighing just over twenty kilograms and reaching a height of about 200 km. In 1968, this facility was dedicated to the United Nations to enable international scientific community to conduct research from this unique place.


Q. What was the significance of such a programme at the time of its inception?

While scientific quest was the immediate aim of such activity, this step was crucial in developing the nucleus of culture where large group of persons in diverse activities learn to work together for accomplishing a single objective. This was facilitated by establishing in the vicinity of Thumba's rocket launching station, a Space Science and Technology Centre with objective to develop expertise in aerospace engineering, manufacture of atmosphere sounding rockets and a modest satellite launcher. The aim was also to produce men and women who acquire the capability to do front ranking research. There was also clear understanding that engaging in advanced fields of research would inevitably lead to collaborative relationships at international level and an ability to deal with peers, establishing mutuality which can sustain such relationships. These initial endeavours enabled the development of a strong ethos for self-reliance and paved way for an operational space programme in the country.

Q. What were the stages involved in developing our country's space programme?

Our space programme evolved through three major phases. The first phase related to the initiation of activities with the objective of proof-of-concept evaluation and this was followed by the experimental phase that demonstrated end-to-end capability. This led finally to the operational phase with systems providing regular services. 

In the initiation phase, one of the primary tasks was the evaluation of the efficacy of space systems, as either alternative to conventional terrestrial systems, or to look at them as complementary or supplementary to the conventional approaches. The pioneering Satellite Instructional Television Experiment was such a step to evaluate the efficacy of the satellite broadcasting system with a vast outreach to provide developmental communications and literacy. It was a unique sociological experiment of its kind anywhere in the world, involving 2400 villages spread over six states of the country, covering nearly 200,000 people and it used the American ATS-F satellite. Similar studies were done for evaluating efficacy of imageries obtained from space for quantifying the natural resources status and to observe changes in them. In all these studies relating to the initiation phase, use of foreign space systems, configuring the ground system to suit the national needs and conditions, and working closely with potential user community, were the essence of the related efforts. This phase also witnessed the development of the first satellite launch vehicle SLV-3, with a capability of orbiting 40 kg class of satellites into low earth orbit.

In the second phase, i.e. the experimental phase, a major exercise was undertaken to create an end-to-end capability in the design, development and in-orbit management of space systems together with associated ground systems. These were systems with limited capability, realized within stringent cost and time controls. In the case of remote sensing, the experimental satellites Bhaskara-1 and Bhaskara-2 were the pioneering steps in this direction. The Bhaskara missions, even with 1 km resolution, enabled developing the capability to image from space, transmitting and processing the image information on the ground and disseminating the data products to the users. The Ariane Passenger Payload Experiment (APPLE) provided the unique opportunity to design and develop a 3-axis stabilized communication satellite with all the relevant technologies, with the limited capability of two transponders. Besides building, deploying, and in orbit management of such a satellite, a number of interesting communication and broadcasting experiments were carried out with APPLE as the forerunner of future operational communication satellites. 

In the operational phase, major space infrastructure has been created over the last two decades. Such infrastructure broadly fall under two classes: i) one for communications, broadcasting and meteorology, through a multi-purpose satellite system popularly known as INSAT system, and ii) the second, the space-based remote sensing infrastructure, the Indian Remote Sensing satellite series, namely IRS. Currently, the INSAT system consists of six satellites with a total capacity of 85 transponders, providing services for telecommunication and television broadcasting. The broadcasting capability of these satellites is not only used for regular entertainment, but also for distance education and developmental communications. More recently, these capabilities are being used for newer areas of applications like telemedicine and e-Governance. The communication capability of the INSAT system has significantly improved the quality and support of high-density traffic between far away points and have become a mainstay of the national information infrastructure. At the same time, it has extended the outreach to less accessible areas in the North-East and the islands. INSAT has also ushered in a new era of business communications among closed user groups, particularly using Very Small Aperture Terminals (VSAT). INSAT system provides vital information for weather through its 24 hour observation capability of the region and also provides warnings on cyclones by tracking their movements. 

Q. Please take us through the milestones of Indian Space Programme.

Indian Remote Sensing satellite programme is an excellent example of contribution to societal development and also making forays in the global arena. Based on the experience of the experimental satellites, the BHASKARAs, and taking into account the unique nature of the Indian requirements such as in agriculture, the first of the operational Indian Remote Sensing satellite was designed and developed over a time frame of 1982-88. The IRS-1A, launched in 1988, compared favourably in its performance with the then contemporary satellites elsewhere. Within three years, an on-orbit spare IRS-1B was also launched, and together with IRS 1A, provided valuable services to the user community. The IRS was the core of an integrated effort to manage the nation's natural resources through a major programme - National Natural resources Management System (NNRMS). The NNRMS enabled a wide user network, through the central and state government agencies, in the country to utilize the IRS data and address national development needs in land management, water resources management, environmental and forest inventory, coastal applications, urban and rural applications and supporting disaster management requirements. Parallely, through the 1990s, the second-generation IRS system has been developed with improved capabilities of observation and providing resolution of 5 meter - surpassing the global capability available at that time. The unique complement of sensors onboard IRS-1C/1D make this as one of the most versatile civilian satellites available for earth observations anywhere. The Earth Observation Satellite infrastructure was further augmented through orbiting two more satellites primarily - one of which was for ocean observations. IRS-P4 carries sensors both for physical and biological oceanographic studies. The successful launch of TES on October 22, 2001 has given India the capability to produce 1m images. Thus the currently available Indian constellation of IRS satellites is used for land and ocean observations and is the mainstay of the NNRMS. IRS satellite system has also become a part of global source for remote sensing data and caters significantly to the world market.

Q. Please tell us about the Launch Vehicle Programme

Consistent with the goal of achieving self reliance in remote sensing and telecommunications arena, two work horse launchers - Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, that is PSLV, for remote sensing needs and Geostationary Satellite launch Vehicle, GSLV, for telecommunications, broadcasting and meteorology needs were configured. The technological leap from SLV to PSLV and GSLV technology was decided to be cautiously bridged through an intermediate launcher namely Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle, ASLV. The successful launches of ASLV provided valuable inputs to the development of PSLV and GSLV.

After two successful launches of PSLV, the launcher was declared operational. Till date, five consecutive successful launches of PSLV have taken place.

The flight of PSLV - the inaugural of the operational launcher - in September 1997 gains immense importance since with this, India gained the end-to-end capability in the remote sensing field. The successful inaugural launch of GSLV early this year is a step towards acquiring similar end-to-end capability in communications field too.

Indian approach to space has yielded rich dividends. India is now self-reliant in space even though it does not mean producing all technological systems. Most technologies are mastered and absorbed although not all of them are put into mass production. Remarkable benefits have reached the common man in a timely and cost-effective manner.

Q. How does the Space Programme benefit the Industry?

A substantial benefit of our national space programme is derived by industries and the Indian Space Programme in turn views industry participation as an essential requirement for its success and growth. The program has adopted a conscious policy of maximally utilizing the industrial capabilities available in the country and to provide Indian industry with the technical wherewithal through technology transfer and other support. A concerted effort was mounted to transfer the space technology to the Indian industry wherever needed and exploit its existing capability to the fullest extent. Currently, over 500 small, medium and large-scale industries are involved in the programme of space. Over 230 technologies have been transferred so far. 

Antrix has posted remarkable success in marketing high-resolution satellite imagery to over half-a-dozen countries such as USA, Germany, Japan, Korea, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Ecuador. Data sales to many more countries are being negotiated. Taking advantage of the ISRO Tracking & Telecommand network - within India and outside covering important geographical region and frequency band - which were built to support the in-house space missions, ANTRIX has offered ground station support to international aerospace companies such as Lockheed Martin, Hughes, Space Systems Loral, German Space Agency, WorldSpace, National Space Program office of Taiwan, GE American, etc. and in orbit test support to communication satellites at a low cost.

As yet another feather in the cap, under a commercial contract, ISRO has offered half the communication capability of INSAT-2E to INTELSAT. The operationalization of PSLV has opened up another door of opportunity to ANTRIX, which capitalized it by launching two piggy back satellites - KITSAT from Korea and TUBSAT from Germany - on commercial terms along with its own IRS-P4 in March 1999. And just five days ago, on October 22, German satellite BIRD and Belgian satellite PROBA were launched successfully on commercial terms together with our own satellite on board PSLV. Some more opportunities are being negotiated.

The Indian space programme has taken several policy initiatives to enhance the industry's role in terms of greater integration of space systems in industry, development of consortia approach, policy for long-term commitments and partnership in commercial activities.

Q. Please tell us about how INSAT System has affected the area of Satellite Communication ?

INSAT system, which represents one of the largest domestic systems in the world, had been responsible for phenomenal expansion of television coverage in India and now it provides access to 87% of population with over 1000 transmitters in INSAT network. Besides influencing social and cultural landscape of India, television primes substantial economic activities. Similarly, nationwide radio networking is also achieved through INSAT and plans are underway to have Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) services. Each satellite communication transponder, whose typical annual lease charges are about Rs.5 crores, triggers average advertisement revenue of Rs. 50 crores. The INSAT system has also been supporting growing VSAT network facilities for private sector and business users. In a sense, the investments in the INSAT systems are totally paid back through the value of services rendered. 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. This represents an attractive opportunity for Indian industries to participate in the manufacture or establishment of satellite systems for communications applications
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Q. How can Satellite Communication aid in Distance Education and Training

ISRO from its very inception started work on the use of Satellite Communications for Development and Education. It started its efforts in mid-sixties and undertook the first major experiment to use Satcom for development communication, e.g. the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE) in 1975-76. It continued its efforts in gaining experience in hardware, software and managerial aspects. A major effort to develop understanding in developmental communication was the Kheda Communications Project (initiated as part of SITE) in which over two decades of substantial work was done in understanding the approach to software development. Today the INSAT system provides satellite development communication. Besides, efforts like Training and Development Communication Channel which was also extensively utilized by IGNOU and the efforts at defining the GRAMSAT system are now leading to the evolution of the Edusat system.

Q. Please tell us something about Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE)

The Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE) conducted in 1975-76 was the task bed of satellite broadcasting. Direct Reception TV sets were installed primarily in about 2400 primary schools or gram panchayats. Programmes for school children, primary school teachers, and rural audiences were transmitted to carry education and information to distant and remote villages. The results not only established the technical feasibility of the configuration but demonstrated its efficacy in supporting primary education and carrying development oriented information to rural audiences. The system was used to provide training to 50,000 primary school teachers. It demonstrated increased interest and increased vocabulary among students and it showed significant gains in areas of health, hygiene, nutrition, animal husbandry, political orientation, and modernity.

The Ministry of Education and NCERT were active partners in the endeavour and the experiences led to the establishment of a school broadcasting system over INSAT supported by CIET at the NCERT and SIETs in several states. 

SITE also was the trigger for the UGC to initiate its Countrywide Classroom leading to the establishment of the CEC, EMRCs and AVRCs. Subsequently, IGNOU too started its telecasts and all the above efforts have to some extend been brought together to operate Gyan Darshan, the Education Channel.

Q. What is the Training and Development Communication Channel (TDCC) all about?

The experience with broadcasting systems indicated several limitations when used for educational purposes. Broadcasting systems do not provide for any interaction, between the resource person and the learner, which is so essential in an educational and training situation. To overcome these limitations ISRO introduced the use of one-way video two-way audio teleconferencing interactive networks for education and training. Such networks cater to specialised audiences and provide for interaction and are therefore being termed as interactive narrowcasting networks. Three major areas of applications have emerged. These are distance education, training/continuing education, and training for rural development.

The Indira Gandhi National Open University was one of the early users of the network, followed by AIMA and other agencies involved in distance education. Of course, now, IGNOU has shifted the teleconferencing to the Gyan Darshan channel, but DPEP continues to be a major user of the network.

The TDCC networks are being utilised by the State Governments for regular training of their field staff and of late engineering college networks have been established in Gujarat and Karnataka to conduct engineering classes over the network. 

Q. How can Satellite Communication help with Rural Development?

To further demonstrate and study the efficacy of a satellite based development communication and training network for rural development a pilot project viz., Jhabua Development Communications Project (JDCP) was carried out Jhabua District of Madhya Pradesh from November 1996.

In the two-year pilot phase of this project 150 receive terminals at the village level and one talkback terminal in each of the twelve block headquarters were installed. This network of talkback and receive terminals are being utilized to conduct training programmes for the field staff and for communicating specific development oriented messages to the audiences at the receive terminals. Now the programme stands extended to 1062 village panchayats of three districts of Madhya Pradesh, namely Jhabua, Dhar and Barwani.

A large-scale survey of 3600 households with 23,175 family members was conducted. The survey was conducted in four stages at an interval of about eight months each. The major findings were as follows:

 substantive gains accrued to the regular viewers and their households in all subject areas;

amongst the viewers, the gain in health awareness was 57% and in health practices was 43%;

the gain in health awareness increased with greater exposure to health issues. The gain was maximum in the group who had initially low level of health awareness.

Q. Please comment on Challenges in Education

Education is the backbone of national development; it is widely accepted as an instrument of social change (Education Commission, 1968); education is also seen as the best defence of a nation (Nigerian Minister of Education stated during the E-9 Summit in New Delhi in 1993). Taking the centre stage of any development effort, education is a major indicator of human development. Today, education is not merely basic education (of five or eight years) for all; in the developed world, the common minimum education is defined either as 10 or 12 years of schooling.

India faces challenges of education at various levels, namely, adult and continuing education, school education, higher and professional education, which are further bound by regional rural-urban and gender disparities. At the same time the challenge is two-fold - that of numbers and of quality. Indeed, the challenge is meaningfully educating a one billion strong nation on a continuing basis. 

Following is a quick review of the state of education in India.

Q. Please comment on the education scenario in India.

India hosts the single largest illiterate population in the world. According to Census 2001, there are 302 million Indians above the age of six years who are illiterate. Female illiteracy is as high as 45.8% and rural illiteracy is about 43%.

Article 45 of our Constitution ensures that "the state shall endeavour to provide for free and compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of fourteen years". Yet the fact remains that 36.75 million children in the age group 11-14 are out of school and the dropout rate at the primary level is as high 54.5%. 

In case of secondary education, by the end of the Tenth Five Year Plan there will be an addition of about 6.9 million students at the secondary and senior secondary level, which in turn will require an additional 0.13 million new teachers and about 34, 500 new school units. The number of students enrolled in higher education in 1999-200 were 70.8 lakhs and the number of teachers were 3.31 lakh. But the enrolment is very high in under graduate programmes and abysmally low in post-graduate progammes. Further, faculty-wise analysis of enrollment indicates high percentage of enrolment in arts programme, followed immediately by commerce and then science. Studies also indicate that the rate of participation in higher education is only 6% of the eligible children in India as compared to 50 % in developed countries.

While the sheer expansion in numbers itself poses challenges to quality of education, massive expansion in knowledge and information base is leading to rapidly changing needs and demands. Irrespective of the level at which they teach, all teachers need to be fully equipped with rigorous intellectual and other qualities to understand and value their own culture and help learners to view various events happening around them. But the fact is that there is a shortage of qualified teachers at all levels. At the primary levels most of the teachers are educated only upto the secondary level, while at the secondary level almost 66% of the teachers are themselves educated only upto higher secondary. Teacher training is a vital quality concern and an estimated 4.6 million school teachers need training on a regular basis. The non-availability of qualified teachers has also affected the performance of students and failure rates are very high in subjects of Mathematics, Science and English.

High quality education also faces other constraints like dearth of latest scientific equipment, upto date libraries, and research facilities. There is a non-availability of latest information, studies, data, pedagogical techniques as well as inability to interact with peers professionals and experts. Privatisation too has posed academic and quality questions.

Q. Are we prepared to receive the challenge of globalisation?

Due to globalisation, the world is going through rapid changes where national boundaries of production and distribution and the quality of life are giving way to global trends and standards. The instruments like WTO, GATT, IPR are emerging to comprehensively cover all aspects of life. For India this challenge is far more complicated due to the pluralistic culture of multiple religion, language, customs and mores, the challenge before India is far more complicated than that in many other countries. Globalisation justifies higher enrolments in higher and professional education and requires better results in this area. There is, therefore, a dire need to upgrade existing institutions and expand the network rapidly.

Q. Please tell us more about EDUSAT

In view of the challenges faced by the nation in the field of education and in view of the potential use of satcom to support education, thought is being given to launch a satellite to be dedicated to meet the requirements of the total education sector.

'Edusat' has been specially configured to meet the requirement of education in the country at all levels. To meet the regional requirements of languages, High power Ku-Band Multiple Beams will be provided. Multiple Spot Beams will also help in optimizing the cost of ground segment and will cater to multimedia education package delivery. The satellite will also have national coverage beams in Ku and Extended C-band to continue the on-going developmental communication activities initiated already in the country.

The establishment of such a system will need a cooperative national effort by several central and state departments. Providing the satellite alone would not be enough. The ground system has to be in place, and effective mechanisms for utilisation of the system would be required. The most important challenge will be that of content generation, which has to be done by the educationists. Substantial experience exists. We have to positively build upon the past experience to come up with a joint activity to effectively meet the challenge. I would invite the academic institutions, NGO's and all concerned to join us in the effort of Educating the Nation. IGNOU can take a lead role in this national endeavour.

Q. Could you please summarise your conclusions regarding India's space programme?

Over the past four decades, we have learnt that realization of reliable space systems, whether it is a launcher or a satellite, demands highest level of professionalism - which is an inevitable requirement to achieve economic and social progress in the face of intense global competition.

I personally feel that all the good of development in this country is a tribute to visionaries and institution-builders of the nation that envisioned the nation's march to progress and development - like the vision of Dr Vikram Sarabhai in Space and Prof. Ram Reddy in the field of Education, especially in 'Distance Education'. If ISRO is able to operationalise the 'Edusat' programme in the country at the earliest, I will consider it a big tribute to Prof. Ram Reddy.

I take this opportunity to thank the Indira Gandhi National Open University for having given me this honour to share with all of you the perspectives of our space programme and its role in delivery of education.