EDUSAT Applications Take off

The utilisation of ISRO’s first thematic satellite, EDUSAT, took off with the inauguration of EDUSAT based Primary Education Project in Chamarajanagar District of Karnataka on March 7, 2005. The Chief Minister of Karnataka, Mr Dharam Singh inaugurated the project at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network, Bangalore.

From left: Mr M Shivanna, Hon’ble Member of Parliament, Mr H S Mahadeva Prasad, Hon’ble Minister for Food & Civil Supplies, Government of Karnataka, Mr R Ramalinga Reddy, Hon’ble Minister for Primary & Secondary Education, Government of Karnataka, Mr Dharam Singh, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Karnataka, Mr G Madhavan Nair, Chairman, ISRO, Mr Vijay Gore, Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Karnataka, Mr A Bhaskaranarayana, Director, SCP, ISRO and Mr S K Shivakumar, Director, ISTRAC at the inauguration

Under the project, taken up by ISRO under EDUSAT distance education programme jointly with the Karnataka State Government, 885 satellite receive terminals have been set up predominantly in tribal areas – Chamarajanagar (289), Gundlupet (203), Yelandur (69), Kollegal (114), Kannur (194) and H D Kote (14). This forms part of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan being implemented by the Department of State Educational Research and Training (DSERT). These Ku-band satellite receive terminals are intended for programmes that supplement curriculum based teaching in the schools and will be synchronised with the school time-table for covering the syllabus.

DSERT has already produced 100 programmes on identified topics, which are highly focused hot spots to improve the quality of education for the students in remote tribal areas. Another 100 programmes are under production. The programmes are produced in simple local language with a good content of high quality animation to make the students understand the basics in science, mathematics and languages. The local teacher at each location will also act as the facilitator in helping the children to understand the subjects and answer their questions.

Each of the 885 Direct Receive Satellite terminals consists of a 1.2 m diameter Ku-band dish antenna, a set-top box and a 29” colour TV monitor to receive the programme. Each of these terminals is also provided a battery pack, which is charged by a solar panel to provide uninterrupted power supply for reception at least for a period of 2 to 4 hours. The system is housed in a specially designed, aesthetically appealing cabinet. The local custodian can easily operate the system. To avoid misuse of the terminals,TV is tuned to receive only EDUSAT based programme. The complete terminal including the solar panel-battery power supply costs about one lakh rupees. While ISRO is funding the cost of these terminals, DSERT produces the contents and local people maintain the sets.

As the programme proceeds in Chamarajanagar district, periodic evaluation will be undertaken to optimise the content and delivery system to replicate the programme in other backward and remote places. The Karnataka Government is already proposing to add another 200 terminals in other parts of the State.

Apart from the Chamarajanagar Primary Education Project, Visvesvariah Technological University Network with 100 nodes has been transferred to EDUSAT.

EDUSAT, launched by Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-F01) on September 20, 2004, is India’s first thematic satellite dedicated exclusively for educational services. Parked at 74 Deg East Longitude in the 36,000 km high geosynchronous orbit, the satellite is specially configured to relay through audio-visual medium, employing multi-media multi-centric system, to create interactive classrooms. EDUSAT has multiple regional beams covering different parts of India — five Ku-band transponders with spot beams covering northern, north-eastern, eastern, southern and western regions of the country, a Ku-band transponder with its footprint covering the Indian mainland region and six C-band transponders with their footprints covering the entire country.

The Hub for national beam has been established at Ahmedabad. The national beam is planned to be used for:
• Indira Gandhi National Open University —100 terminals across the country and another 20 terminals in the North East for teachers’ training
• National Council for Educational Research and Training — 100 terminals for Secondary and Higher Secondary Education and Teachers’ Training
• Indian Institutes of Technology at Kharagpur and Chennai — 70 and 5 Terminals respectively
• Institute of Electronics and Tele-communication Engineers — 18 for DST/National Council of Science Museums — 25
• Centre for Environmental Education — 5

Regional beams of EDUSAT are planned to be as follows:
• Southern beam: Anna University, Chennai (260 nodes), Annamalai University, Chennai
(57 nodes), Gandhigram Rural Institute, Dindigal (90 nodes), Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirapalli (22 nodes), Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Tamilnadu (442 nodes)
• Western beam: Gujarat Government, Department of Education (148 nodes), Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Ltd., (50 nodes), Department of Higher Education, MP (50 nodes), Tribal Development, MP (50 nodes), BITS, Pilani (20 nodes), Technical Education Board, Rajasthan (91 nodes) and Blind People’s Association, Ahmedabad (25 nodes)
• Northern beam: State Institute of Educational Technology (67 nodes), Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar (40 nodes), Tapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, Patiala
(10 nodes), Department of Training and Technical Education, New Delhi (40 nodes), UP Rajashri Tandon Open University, Allahabad (55 nodes)
• Eastern beam: West Bengal University of Technology, Kolkata (40 nodes), Vidyasagar University, Midnapore, West Bengal (10 nodes), Netaji Subhas Open University, Kolkata
(90 Nodes), Jarkhand Education Project Council, Ranchi (192 nodes)
• North-Eastern beam: Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat (18 nodes), Arunachal University, Itanagar (13 nodes), Manipur University, Imphal (200 nodes), Nagaland University, Kohima
(10 nodes), Sikkim Government Law College, Gangtok (20 nodes).

Thus, EDUSAT is expected to herald a new era in the educational sector by bridging the distances and allowing effective optimum sharing of scarce resources for teaching.

Mobile Ku-band terminal used during the inauguration