New Delhi, Aug 22: Mauritius Minister for Information Technology, Communication and Innovation (MITCI), Darsanand Deepak Balgobin, currently on India visit, on Tuesday called on Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh at North Block here and conveyed his country’s best wishes for Chandrayaan. He also sought extended space sector collaboration between India and Mauritius.
Later, the Mauritius minister led a high-level official delegation to discuss space sector-related projects with India’s Minister In-charge Space Dr Jitendra Singh and his team. The two delegations also discussed a proposal for a Joint India-Mauritius Satellite.
Balgobin expressed satisfaction over his meeting with Dr Singh. India and Mauritius also agreed to utilise ISRO’s ground station in Mauritius to offer support to third-party missions.
The Mauritius minister visited ISRO facilities in Bengaluru and ISRO presented technical details and application potentials of the proposed India – Mauritius joint satellite to him.
The two ministers agreed on expanding the scope of ISRO’s Ground Station set up in Mauritius to include third-party missions including the European Space Agency and an amendment to the existing MoU is planned to be signed to facilitate such collaboration.
Mauritius has hosted ISRO’s ground station for tracking satellite and launch vehicles for more than three decades and currently, this ground station is continuously manned with two antennas (of 11 m diameter) operated in Mauritius.
Dr Jitendra said the Chandrayaan-3 mission is attracting wider international collaborations for India. Dr Singh and Balgobin also discussed areas like space cooperation through sharing of earth observation satellite data; developing an ‘India-Mauritius space portal’ with satellite data, geospatial layers and value-added services pertaining to Mauritius; and initiating discussion for space industry-level collaboration.
