Mighty India Power

India may soon roll out satellite -assisted navigation services in collaboration with Russia's NIS-GLONASS. The two countries, after talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Russian President Vladimir Putin, today signed a memorandum of understanding for conducting the proof of concept through pilot project for providing the satellite-based navigation services. The MoU envisages a pilot project to assess the usage of the Russian Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS)using the capabilities of BSNL/MTNL ground infrastructure. The three-way partnership document was signed by R K Upadhyay, Chairman & Managing Director, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd., A K Garg, Chairman & Managing Director, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam LtdBSE -1.99 % and Alexander Chub, Director-General, OAO Navigation and Information Systems. "Success of the pilot project may provide insights for wider applicability of GLONASS signals in the future in areas such as disaster management, telepho...

Next month, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) will attempt to shoot down an incoming “enemy” ballistic missile in outer space, well before it enters the earth’s atmosphere. DRDO chief V K Saraswat has told Business Standard a newly developed Prithvi Defence Vehicle (PDV) interceptor missile is to be launched from Wheeler Island (off Odisha’s coast, 150 km from Bhubaneswar), travelling 110-150 km into space, where it will destroy an incoming missile, fired earlier from a naval warship in the Bay of Bengal. This comes on the heels of the DRDO’s successful November 23 test of its Advanced Air Defence (AAD) interceptor missile, which destroyed an incoming target missile at an altitude of 15 km. Together, the AAD and the PDV missiles, with their radars and control centres, will form a two-layered anti-ballistic missile (ABM) defence system to protect strategic targets such as Delhi by 2013-14. While the AAD missile performs endo-atmospheric (inside-the-atmosphe...