“Promoting Energy Access Through Clean Energy (PEACE)”

India & USA Launch of a New Initiative “Promoting Energy Access Through Clean Energy (PEACE)”; Signs a MoU on Cooperation to Establish the PACESetter Fund

India and the United States of America signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Cooperation to Establish the PACESetter Fund – A fund to support the Promoting Energy Access Through Clean Energy (PEACE) track of the U.S.-India Partnership to Advance Clean Energy (PACE) to accelerate the commercialization of off-grid clean energy through early-stage grant funding grants to develop and test innovative products, systems, and business models

The MoU was signed by Shri Upendra Tripathy, Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy from Indian side and by Shri Richard Verma, United States Ambassador to the Republic of India from USA side on 30th June, 2015 at New Delhi.

The Government of India and the United States of America have announced the launch of a new initiative “Promoting Energy Access through Clean Energy (PEACE)”. This ambitious cooperation is a new tract under the U.S.-India Partnership to Advance Clean Energy (PACE), a flagship initiative on Clean Energy that combines the resources of several U.S. agencies and GOI Ministries. This has also been listed in the Joint Statement during the visit of President of USA to India in January, 2015.

India-U.S. corpus of about Rs.500 Million ($8 Million U.S. Dollars) have been drawn on 50:50 sharing basis.

Under this, a Steering Committee comprising the Secretary of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and the United States Ambassador to India, and three representatives from each side has been constituted.

It was agreed to cooperate through technical and commercial innovation and the advancement of clean energy in off-grid space. 

Isro successfully launches PSLV-C28 carrying 5 UK satellites

 Indian Space Research Organization's commercial launch capability reached a new high on Friday night when it successfully launched five satellites for the UK.

Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C28) lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota at 9.58pm. Less than 20 minutes later, the rocket placed in the designated orbits three identical DMC3 optical earth observation satellites, an auxiliary earth observation micro satellite (CBNT-1) and one technology demonstrator nanosatellite (De-OrbitSail), built by SSTL.

It was PSLV's 30th flight and 29th consecutive successful one. For the ninth time, Isro used an XL version of the rocket with an additional strap-on. The heaviest commercial mission undertaken by the space agency underlines Isro not only as a major player for space industries globally but also as a leading foreign exchange earner for the country.



"It was a wonderful launch," said Isro chairman AS Kiran Kumar soon after the launch. "We've put all the five satellites of our customers in orbit."

The overall liftoff mass of the five satellites added up to 1,440kg — more than twice the mass of its last commercial launch of SPOT 7 — a French satellite weighing 712kg which was put in orbit by PSLV on June 30, 2014.

The four-stage PSLV-C28 stood at 44.4m, with a liftoff mass of 320 tonnes. The mission was not without challenges. New designs comprising a circular launcher adaptor called as L-adaptor and a triangular deck called Multiple Satellite Adapter-Version 2 (MSA-V2), were realised by Isro to overcome the tough task of mounting the three DMC3 satellites each with a height of about 3m within the existing payload fairing of the launcher.

These international customer satellites were launched as part of the arrangement between DMC International Imaging (DMCii), a wholly owned subsidiary of SSTL, UK and Antrix Corporation Limited (Antrix), the commercial arm of Isro.



The DMC3 constellation, comprising three advanced mini-satellites DMC3-1, DMC3-2 and DMC3-3, is designed to address the need for simultaneous high spatial resolution and high temporal resolution optical Earth observation.

Launched into a single low-Earth orbit plane and phased with a separation of 120° between them, these satellites can image any target on earth's surface every day. Major application areas include surveying the resources on earth and its environment, managing urban infrastructure and monitoring of disasters.

CBNT-1, weighing 91 kg, is an optical Earth Observation technology demonstration micro satellite built by SSTL. The 7kg De-orbit Sail from Surrey Space Centre is an experimental nanosatellite for demonstration of large thin membrane sail and drag deorbiting using this sail.

The DMC constellation satellites which have a mission life of seven years weighs 447kg. CBNT-1 and De-Orbit Sail weigh 91kg and 7kg respectively.



Earlier, Isro launched SSTL's and SSC's (Surrey Space Centre) nanosatellite STRAND-1 on February 25, 2013. The other countries which have launched their satellites using Isro's launch facilities include Germany, Republic of Korea, Belgium, Indonesia, Argentina, Italy, Israel, Canada, Japan, The Netherlands, Denmark, Turkey, Switzerland, Algeria, Singapore, Luxembourg, France and Austria.

This is the second launch by Isro in 2015 with the previous one being launch navigation satellite — IRNSS-1D in March.The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), in its thirtieth flight (PSLV-C28), launched three identical DMC3 optical earth observation satellites built by Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL), United Kingdom (UK).  The three DMC3 satellites, each weighing 447 kg, launched into a 647 km Sun-Synchronous Orbit (SSO) using the high-end version of PSLV (PSLV-XL) from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota (SDSC-SHAR), the spaceport of India. PSLV-C28 will be the ninth flight of  PSLV in ‘XL’ configuration.

The PSLV-C28, in addition to the three DMC3 satellites, also carried two auxiliary satellites from UK, viz., CBNT-1, a technology demonstrator earth observation micro satellite built by SSTL, and De-OrbitSail, a technology demonstrator nano satellite built by Surrey Space Centre.

With the overall lift-off mass of the five satellites amounting to about 1440 kg, this mission becomes the heaviest commercial mission undertaken by Antrix/ISRO till date.

Accommodating the three DMC3 satellites each with a height of about 3 metre within the existing payload fairing of PSLV, was a challenge. To mount these satellites onto the launcher, a circular Launcher adaptor called as L-adaptor and a triangular deck called Multiple Satellite Adapter-Version 2 (MSA-V2), were newly designed and realized by ISRO for this specific purpose.

These international customer satellites have been launched as part of the arrangement entered into between DMC International Imaging (DMCii), a wholly owned subsidiary of SSTL, UK; and Antrix Corporation Limited (Antrix), the commercial arm of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), a Government of India Company under Department of Space.

DMC3

The DMC3 constellation, comprising of three advanced mini-satellites DMC3-1, DMC3-2 and DMC3-3, is designed to address the need for simultaneous high spatial resolution and high temporal resolution optical Earth Observation. Launched into a single Low-Earth Orbit plane and phased with a separation of 120° between them, these satellites can image any target on the Earth’s surface every day. Major application areas include surveying the resources on earth and its environment, managing urban infrastructure and monitoring of disasters.

CBNT-1, weighing 91 kg, is an optical Earth Observation technology demonstration micro satellite built by SSTL. The 7 kg De-orbitSail from Surrey Space Centre, is an experimental nano satellite for demonstration of large thin membrane sail and drag deorbiting using this sail.

 

Kalpakkam breeder reactor to go on stream

It will signal India’s entry into the next stage of its n-power programme.

The 500-MWe Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) at Kalpakkam, near here, is getting ready to be commissioned in September. When the reactor goes critical, it will signal India’s triumphant entry into the second stage of its three-stage nuclear power programme.

The PFBR will use plutonium-uranium oxide as fuel and 1,750 tonnes of liquid sodium as coolant. It is called a breeder reactor because it breeds more fuel than it consumes. “We are committed to making the PFBR attain criticality in September,” said P. Chellapandi, chairman and managing director, Bharatiya Nabikhiya Vidyut Nigam Limited (BHAVINI), a public sector undertaking of the Department of Atomic Energy, tasked with building breeder reactors.

The PFBR construction had been completed and equipment energised. “We are awaiting clearance from the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) for sodium charging, fuel loading, reactor criticality and then stepping up power generation,” Dr. Chellapandi said.

The AERB had sent several safety committees to the PFBR for inspection of design compliance and component specifications.

Dr. Chellapandi said: “We have kept the sodium frozen in 10 big tanks.

“All heat transport systems, comprising the pipelines, the heat exchanger components and tanks, have been filled with pure argon to avoid any chemical reaction with sodium and oxygen. We have to melt the sodium and pump it into the reactor circuits.”

After the sodium charging, engineers will perform thermal hydraulics experiments to check the functioning of the pumps and the heat exchanger.

Later, the AERB will give clearance for loading the fuel. In the first stage of the nuclear power programme, a fleet of Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors, running on natural uranium, had been built. In the second stage, a series of breeder reactors will come up. Reactors running on thorium will form the third stage.

NJAC: Objection overruled

The new judicial appointments act is clearly a superior alternative to the collegium system and, in fact, raises the consultative process in the selection of judges to an almost philosophical level.

The observation by the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court, which is presently hearing the petition challenging the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act and the Constitution Amendment Act, that the collegium system was good but its implementation was bad is the subject of much speculation in government circles. There is apprehension that the court may even strike down the two enactments on the ground that judicial primacy in the appointment of judges has been done away with.

However, from a closer reading of the judgment in the Supreme Court Advocates on Record Association versus Union of India (or Second Judges Case) it would appear that it may not be easy for the Constitution Bench to strike down these two laws on the ground that they destroy judicial independence and thus violate the basic structure of the Constitution.

The judgment lays down the following propositions: (a) Judicial independence extends also to the stage of appointment of judges. It is not enough to have security of tenure, salary, pension, and so on ; (b) Selection of judges is a participatory, consultative, constitutional function performed by high constitutional functionaries whose objective is to pick the best persons for the higher levels of judiciary; (c) In this exercise, no one is higher or lower than the other; (d) normally a judge should be selected through a process of consensus. In case that is not possible, more weightage should be given to the opinion of the Chief Justice because he or she is the expert who can judge the competence of the candidate better. This is necessary to avoid a stalemate and also to avoid an incompetent person with political backing getting through.

Participatory exercise

In the narrative part of the judgment, the court has adopted a larger perspective on the issue. Note the following observation of the court: “The emphasis has to be on the importance of the purpose and not on the comparative importance of the participants working together to achieve the purpose. Each of them has some inherent limitation and it is only collectively that they constitute the selector.”

It further says, “Appointment of judges is a participatory constitutional function. It is perhaps inappropriate to refer to any ‘power’ or ‘right’ to appoint judges. It is essentially a discharge of a constitutional trust of which certain constitutional functionaries are collectively repositories.”

Here, the court emphasises the point that selection of judges is a participatory exercise to be performed by the highest constitutional functionaries and consultation is the essence of this process. The question of the primacy of opinion will arise only when all other efforts fail to select an agreed candidate. “The joint venture of all the constitutional functionaries will help to transcend the concept of primacy between them,” said the court.

Somehow, this conciliatory approach of the court is missing towards the end of the judgment, where it firmly says that appointment shall be made of only those proposed by the Chief Justice. The court laid down an elaborate procedure on the selection and appointment of judges and other related matters, which, in fact was the province of the legislature.

Thus, the primacy of the executive was replaced by the primacy of the Chief Justice. This was done after making the following observations: “It is obvious that the provision for consultation with the Chief Justice was introduced because of the realisation that the Chief Justice is best equipped to know and assess the worth of the candidate and his suitability for appointment as a superior judge.… At the same time, the phraseology used indicated that giving absolute discretion or the power to veto to the Chief Justice of India as an individual in the matter of appointment was not considered desirable (by the framers of the Constitution) so there should remain some power with the executive to be exercised as a check whenever necessary.”

The Constitution Amendment Act and the NJAC Act can be struck down only on the ground that these enactments violate the basic structure, namely judicial independence.

The First Judges Case (or the S.P. Gupta case) judgment was overruled because the court felt that primacy of the executive in the appointment of judges is destructive of judicial independence. In fact, the Constitution Amendment Act does not confer primacy on the executive, which is represented by only one member on the commission. So it cannot be attacked on the ground that it gives primacy to the executive.

Does it take away the primacy of the Chief Justice? Well, the judiciary is represented by the Chief Justice and two senior-most judges who have a powerful voice in this body. Their knowledge and expertise, their formidable status, and so on, are enough to influence the other members and bring them around to their view. If the judges do not approve of a certain name, they can veto it. Once a proposal is vetoed, it cannot be revived.

While it is true that the judges require the support of other members of the commission to get a name through, that by itself is not going to cause any serious erosion of the independence of the judiciary. After all, the learned judges who wrote the judgment made the following significant statement: “The joint venture of all the constitutional functionaries will help to transcend the concept of primacy between them.”

The judiciary could share their knowledge and expertise with other members and elevate the exercise of collective consultation to a higher level. The fact that no one individual or group has primacy in the new scheme accords with the sentiments expressed by the court in the Second Judges Case and the overall perspective adopted by the judges in dealing with the issue.

In fact, the integrated participatory consultative process has been raised to an almost philosophical level by the learned judges. The new enactments provide for a qualitatively better and more broad-based consultation than the consultation among a few judges as per the collegium system.

Constitutional safeguards

The Constitution safeguards judicial independence. Apart from the specific provisions that safeguard that independence, the new enactments extend the concept of independence to the stage of appointment also by providing for the largest number of judges compared to other representatives on the commission and a veto power for them.

Judicial independence is not an end in itself. It is also a means to realise a higher objective, namely to find competent, independent-minded judges for India’s higher judiciary. It is not the means to select judges arbitrarily and without any sense of accountability using the power of primacy. The true merit of a judge will become known only through the process of wider consultation. The two enactments provide for such consultation.

The collegium system lacked transparency and was therefore susceptible to abuse. The present Constitution Bench admitted that there was bad implementation of the collegium system and that is the severest indictment of the system by the judges themselves. The NJAC is by all accounts a superior alternative, and there is no ground to strike down the laws.

(P.D.T Achary is former secretary general of the Lok Sabha.)

The mega wonders of microgrids

The announcement on June 23 of a partnership between SoftBank, Airtel and Foxconn for investing $20 billion in India for solar and renewable energy projects is welcome news. Tens of gigawatts of solar and wind generation will augment today's electricity supply. The investment will also be used to manufacture solar panels.

As renewables percentage in the generation mix rises, thanks to large-scale solar projects and distributed generation, the grid experiences sudden drop in supply as the sun sets. As a result, the loads during evenings have to be met using quick-ramping power plants, typically gas-fired. This phenomenon, called the "duck curve", was first noticed in California. It is so called because of the peculiar shape of the load profile resembling the neck of a duck, resulting from a sharp drop in supply at sunset.

While solar deployments increase the average electricity supply, shortages arise at certain hours that have to be met by conventional, fossil-fuel based power plants, for which new investments are necessary. Such generation is also expensive since the generation plant is used only for a short time. Moreover, such plants defeat the very value proposition of clean, solar projects.

One way to overcome this need to build conventional power plants is to deploy storage in the grid, typically batteries and occasionally fly-wheels. Storage systems enable quick ramp-up of supply at sunset, but are costly.

Microgrids complement the grid
Yet, a way, not typically discussed, would be to deploy solar panels as a part of microgrids. With microgrids, the resilience in supply can be achieved through a clustering of microgrids, each with complementary assets some with more wind, some in proximity to rivers, some with plenty of surface for solar panels and some with battery banks shared with other microgrids.

In other words, a federation of microgrids can achieve stable electricity supply at lower cost without the existing megagrid as back up or as an anchor of last resort. The topology of the future electricity grid might be as a honeycomb, as in cellular telephone systems, or as fractals. Today, little research addresses novel electricity topologies, and, thus, presents opportunities for cutting-edge innovation.

Relying on the research of countries such as the US will not do; their use scenarios, for example, jails, military bases, high-rise buildings, are distinct from India's. India needs microgrids for electricity access at the lowest cost and not as a supplement during emergencies such as snowstorms and hurricanes. The UN's SE4ALL programme and the World Bank's work is helpful advocacy, but insufficient. India needs scalable, investment-grade project definitions and an execution oriented approach.

Microgrid economics
What about the economics of individual microgrids, as standalone systems first, before clustering them? IIM Kozhikode students, with engineering and finance training, developed a techno-financial model of our campus as a 2 Mw microgrid comprising solar panels, batteries and diesel generators. We used internet-derived pricing data for hardware and the campus' historical load profile. Our conclusion: The price/unit is Rs 11 and lower, depending on financing assumptions.

Over 300 million Indians, and 1.3 billion people around the world, pay many times more when they burn kerosene or wood for light or cooking. And, this price is lower than today's diesel-based generation at Rs 15+/unit. But isn't this higher than today's grid electricity price? It is, for now. Whereas the price/unit of coal-based electricity will rise over time, solar and battery systems prices will fall with scale economics and technical advance.

Further, today's grid electricity is subsidised, delivered over a loss and theft prone system (over 30 per cent in some cases), and excludes the cost of emissions. Microgrids are greener and cleaner. Complementary microgrid clusters also lower costs through resource sharing and Demand Side Management (DSM), which controls peak hour loads.

What do we do?
India's public policy must include microgrids as an intrinsically future-friendly solution that defers or avoids fossil fuel investments, in addition to offsetting the "duck curve" phenomenon. Today, no microgrids, unlike Solar Home Systems (SHS), are deployed in India.

India needs a few dozen microgrids, 0.5 to 5 Mw each, for different use situations - campuses, hospitals, residential neighbourhoods, shopping malls, office buildings, business parks, enterprise zones and high schools. Their economics and technical performance - with multiple generation sources, control and DSM - need to be publicly available to encourage business investments.

Microgrids extend the reach of electricity to millions without access to grid power; complement SHS; offset load in congested areas, on campuses, hospitals and; help with grid stability as renewables proportion increases in the generation mix.

The missing ingredient is positive public policy. What organisational arrangement will foster plentiful, clean and universally available electricity?

For goals in plain English Successors to Millennium Development Goals should be achievable - and clearly written

By 2030 reduce the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 live births." Everyone understands what this statement means. It is simple, comprehensible, concise, specific and quantifiable. In September 2015, the Milennium Development Goals, or MDGs, will be replaced by sustainable development goals, or SDGs. There are several parallel channels flowing into SDG formulation. One of these is theOpen Working Group (OWG) and that set of proposals on SDGs now has 17 goals and 169 targets. What I have just quoted is target 3.1, under goal 3 of ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being at all ages.

There has been a Plain English movement, especially since the 1980s, though it has often focused on legal English. Among several Plain English guides, there is a common refrain - short, crisp sentences and no sentence longer than 20 words. This is a principle most successful columnists also follow. Thus, there is no problem with understanding 3.1. It's a different matter that 70 for MMR by 2030, the target year for achieving SDGs, is well-nigh impossible. The global MMR is probably around 210 now. Though the future needn't necessarily be extrapolated from present trends, the MDG period (2000 to 2015) reduction experience suggests 70 by 2030 is asking for the moon. A number like 100 would have been more plausible.

I plead for patience, because I am going to give you three quotes. Here is target 2.4, under goal 2 of ending hunger, achieving food security, improving nutrition and promoting sustainable agriculture. "By 2030 ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production, that help maintain ecosystems, that strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change, extreme weather, drought, flooding and other disasters, and that progressively improve land and soil quality."

Here is target 4.7, under goal 4 of ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting life-long learning opportunities. "By 2030 ensure all learners acquire knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including among others through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship, and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture's contribution to sustainable development."

Finally, here is target 17.18, under the additional requirement of data, monitoring and accountability. "By 2020" - that's not a typo, it is 2020 - "enhance capacity building support to developing countries, including for LDCs and SIDs (small island developing), to increase significantly the availability of high-quality, timely and reliable data disaggregated by income, gender, age, race, ethnicity, migratory status, disability, geographic location and other characteristics relevant in national context."

Other than 2030, do you understand what the first two quotes intend to achieve? I think you will be forced to conclude the following: "If you ask me for a straight answer, then I shall say that, as far as we can see, looking at it by and large, taking one thing with another in terms of the average of departments, then in the final analysis it is probably true to say, that at the end of the day, in general terms, you would probably find that, not to put too fine a point on it, there probably wasn't very much in it one way or the other. As far as one can see, at this stage."

The third quote is different. At least, one understands what it means. But can you imagine what it will take for 193 countries to produce such data by 2020?

In fairness, language in targets will be convoluted if goals try to address multiple objectives at the same time. Consider goal 6. This states, "Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels. This reminds me of a shotgun shooting a large number of pellets in the hope that something somewhere will stick. Notice that each pellet of a shotgun has limited power. To have power, one needs focus. If one is not shooting birds (or clay pigeons) and is engaged in the serious business of setting multilateral targets for 2030, this isn't how one goes about it.

Once upon a time, people who travelled on trains used hold-alls. (I am not using the term in its British or American sense). Everything went into a hold-all. Hold-alls have now virtually vanished and one shouldn't use SDG goals and targets as hold-alls.

With MDGs, there were eight goals, 21 targets and, depending on how you count, 60 indicators. In case of SDGs, if we start with 169 targets, we will probably end with 600 indicators. 169 has nothing to recommend it except for the mathematical trivia that 13x13 = 169 and the even more interesting trivia that, with digits reversed, 31x31 = 961. Since SDGs are serious business and not trivia, one hopes in September, goals and targets are pruned and language simplified.

The Copenhagen Consensus Centre has done extremely interesting work on where (out of 17 goals and 169 targets) development money is best spent and what peoples' priorities are. These two important criteria will knock down quite a few of those goals/indicators.

Isro gets ready for its heaviest commercial PSLV launch on Friday

The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), the workhorse of Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) which has proven its strength even in the interplanet missions, is readying itself to perform the heaviest commercial mission undertaken by the ISRO's commercial arm Antrix Corporation Ltd, on Friday night.

The 62 and half hour countdown activity of PSLV-C28/DMC3 Mission has commenced at 07:28hr (IST) on Wednesday. The launch is scheduled at 21:58 hr on July 10, 2015 fromSriharikota space station, near Chennai. Of the five British satellites, together weighing around 1,440 kg, three are identical DMC3 optical earth observation satellites each weighing 447 kg.

On Thursday, Isro said that the countdown operations are progressing normally. "Preparations for Mobile Service Tower (MST) withdrawal and Propellant filling operation of second stage (PS2) are in progress," it said. On Wednesday, it has been carrying out various stages of fule filling operations. This would be the first commercial launch of Isro this year.

It may be noted, on Tuesday, the Isro's Launch Authorisation Board (LAB) gave its nod for the July 10 launch. The Mission Readiness Review (MRR) committee and Launch Authorisation Board (LAB) have cleared the starting of the countdown on the day.

The British satellites will be put into a 647-km sun-synchronous orbit. Of the other two satellites, CBNT-1 weighs 91 kg and also is an optical earth observation technology demonstration microsatellite, while the De-OrbitSail weighs 7 kg.

Isro said that this is an experimental nano satellite for demonstration of large thin membrane sail and drag deorbiting.

The three DMC3 and the CBNT-1 satellites are built by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. The De-OrbitSail is built by Surrey Space Centre.

The three satellites each with a height of about three metres within the existing payload fairing or the heat shield of the PSLV was a challenge. Thus, a circular L-adaptor and a triangular Multiple Satellite Adapter-Version 2 (MSA-V2) were newly designed and realised by Isro for this specific purpose, said Isro.

The PSLV-XL, which costs around Rs 140 crore, is operated in four stages and has a vehicle lift-off mass of 320 tonne and a height of 44.4 metre.

According to Isro sources, so far the heaviest exclusive commercial mission the Space Organisation handled was in the PSLV-C23, launched on June 30, 2014. The launch vehicle PSLV-C23, with a height of 44.4 metres, lifted off at 9.52 am on that day, carrying SPOT-7, a 714 kg, French earth observing satellite as the main payload, which was injected into a 655 km Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO). Other satellites include 14 kg AISAT of Germany, NLS7.1 (CAN-X4) & NLS7.2 (CAN-X5) of Canada each weighing 15 kg and the 7 kg VELOX-1 of Singapore.

The second heaviest commercial launch was in September 9, 2012, when the PSLV-C21 carried Frech satellite SPOT-6 weighing 712 kg and Japanese satellite PRIORITIES weighing 15 kg.

Interestingly, the highest number of foreign satellites were commercially launched by ISRO in April, 2008, when it launched eight satellites from various countries inclding Canada, Japan, The Netherlands, Denmark and Germany, in PSLV-C9 mission. However, the total weight of these eight satellites was 48.5 kg.

From 1999, the Space Organisation has so far launched 40 satellites of other countries through PSLV, both in exclusive missions and along with the Indian satellites.

Mars Orbiter Mission

India's prestigious interplanetary mission Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) is expected to see extended life as it has come out of the short black out period healty, said Isro Chairman Kiran Kumar in Chennai.

Speaking to the reporters here, he said, "Mangalyan satellite has come out of its black out phase and is orbitting well which means we can extend the Mars mission duration,"

It may be noted that the mission, which reached the Mars orbit on September 24, 2014, was expected to have a life time of six months and in March, the Space Research Organisation announced that its life has been extended to another six months, considering the 1,340 kg orbiter has sufficient fuel left to do so.

However, the risk was that there was a black out phase, of 15 days in June, during when the Satellite would not be visible to the Earth bound communicators, resulting in a communication black out. Reddy, today said that the orbiter has come out from the communication black out healthy.

Speaking about the Isro's role to find missing Coast Guard's Dornier aircraft, he said the plane should emit some sort of radio frequency for them to find out the source. The sea bed can't be mapped as it would be like searching a needle in a hay stack, he added. The Coast Guard Dornier Aircraft CG 791, deployed for surveillance along the Tamil Nadu Coast and Palk Bay from the Coast Guard Air Station Chennai last evening failed to return to the base on June 9, 2015. While search has been going on continuously, there were no positive signs of finding out the missed flight so far.

On SAARC satellite, promised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Kumar said Isro is currently researching on frequency and spectrum location to place the satellite. Once it is all finalised, the work will commence.

It may be noted during his first visit to Isro after he took over as Prime Minister, Narendra Modi announced that India will gift a satellite to SAARC countries.