BRICS Members To Share Data From Earth Remote Sensing Satellites

NEW DELHI — Under India’s BRICS Chairship, the BRICS Space Agencies Heads have signed an agreement on Aug. 18 for cooperation in remote sensing satellite data sharing.

This comes after a video conference meeting of the heads of BRICS space agencies was held recently.

“Under India’s BRICS Chairship, the BRICS Space Agencies Heads have signed an agreement for cooperation in remote sensing satellite data sharing on Aug. 18 in the presence of Sanjay Bhattacharyya, Secretary (CPV&OIA) and India’s BRICS Sherpa, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India and other officials from respective external/foreign affairs Ministries,” Indian space agency, Indian Space Research Organization said in a statement.

This agreement enables building a virtual constellation of specified remote sensing satellites of BRICS space agencies and their respective ground stations that will receive the data, the statement said.

This will contribute to strengthening multilateral cooperation among BRICS space agencies in meeting the challenges faced by mankind, such as global climate change, major disasters, and environmental protection, the statement said.

BRICS is an acronym coined for the five major emerging economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. The BRICS members work towards bettering regional affairs, exchanging ideas and research, and working towards sustainable development.

“BRICS reached major landmark today with the signing of Agr on BRICS Satellite Constellation by Heads of Space Agencies It will promote cooperation & use space data & applications for development & social objectives outlined in SDGs, providing benefit to citizens,” tweeted Sanjay Bhattacharyya, Secretary to Government of India in Ministry of External Affairs.

K. Sivan, Chairman, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)/ Secretary, Department of Space; Zhang Kejian, Administrator, China National Space Administration (CNSA); Val Munsami, Chief Executive Officer, South African National Space Agency (SANSA); Carlos Augusto Teixeira De Moura, President, Brazilian Space Agency (AEB); and Dmitry Rogozin, Director General, State Space Corporation “Roscosmos” have signed this agreement.

Indian Union Minister Piyush Goyal recently chaired one of the meetings of BRICS.

“Chaired the 5th meeting of BRICS Industry Ministers, where we adopted the Joint Declaration. Emphasized on greater Intra-BRICS cooperation to foster open, fair & non-discriminatory trade, digital inclusion & expanding the horizon of New Development Bank,” he tweeted.

“BRICS members appreciated the need for adopting the emerging new technologies in a swiftly changing world and recognized this as an important tool for modernization and transformation of industry, promotion of inclusive economic growth, thus helping BRICS national economies to meet the Sustainable Development Goals” said the Ministry of Commerce and Industry in a statement of the meeting said.

“BRICS members agreed on the need to build human resources in line with the changing requirements accelerated by the new emerging technology to promote training and skills development of the related workforce and businesses through workshops, seminars, and exchange programs.”

(With inputs from ANI)

Edited by Saptak Datta and Praveen Pramod Tewari