ISRO could offer services to Oman and Mauritius, help them build and launch satellites

EXPANDING India's avenues of cooperation with Oman and Mauritius, the Indian space agency ISRO is working with their counterparts from the respective nations to build and launch satellites for them and offering them the benefits of space applications and space-based services.

The ISRO leadership, led by Chairman Dr S. Somanath, recently hosted delegations from Oman and Mauritius at the ISRO facilities in Bengaluru, also known as the aerospace city of India. 

With Said Hamood Said Al Maawali, Minister of Transport, Communication and Information Technology (MTCIT), the ISRO leadership held talks on building and launching of satellites for the Sultanate of Oman, ground station establishment, and the possibility of sounding rocket (experimental rocket) launches from Oman.

A web-based Geographic Information Systems Portal, developed by ISRO, incorporating satellite data, geospatial layers, and value-added services pertaining exclusively to the Sultanate of Oman was launched by the visiting minister during this meeting. The salient features of the portal include the application potential in various domains - agriculture, fisheries, water conservation, urban planning, climate and ocean, disaster management, and governance.

With Mauritius' Minister for Information Technology, Communication, and Innovation (MITCI), Darsanand Balgobin, the ISRO team discussed the possibilities of an India-Mauritius joint satellite, a microsatellite designed for remote sensing from low earth orbit.

Plans for providing training to Mauritius officials, in three domains - building the satellite, operating the satellite, and utilising the received data from this satellite for various applications, were also part of the talks. 

In addition to this, the meeting helped in enhancing the scope of India-Mauritius space cooperation through sharing of Indian remote sensing satellite data pertaining to Mauritius territory, developing an ‘India-Mauritius space portal’ with satellite data, geospatial layers, and value-added services pertaining to Mauritius, discussion for space industry collaboration, ISRO said.