Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee yesterday dedicated to the nation the third generation Insat 3B satellite.
The Insat 3B which had been launched from French Guyana on March 22 last is intended for business, developmental and mobile communication.
It is now ready for operational service with a life span of 10 years.
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Provided with 12 extended C-band transponders, three Ku-band channels and mobile satellite service transponders, the new satellite would carry out important networks for banking and stock exchanges.
It would also support Gramsat Pilot Project in different states including Orissa.
Congratulating the scientists of Indian Space Research Organisation for building India into a space power, the Prime Minister who dedicated the first in the third generation Insat 3 series of satellite at a function held at Raj Bhavan here said that the satellite technology had helped in bringing the administration closer to the people even in remote areas.
The Prime Minister also inaugurated the Swarna Jayanti Vidya Vikash Antariksh Upagraha Yojana and Gramsat Pilot Project on the occasion.
"Proper harnessing of science and technology could help the nation make rapid progress, particularly in the far flung rural areas", he said.
Launching the Gramsat Pilot Project, Vajpayee while sitting at Raj Bhavan here heard grievances from tribal women at Kashipur in south Orissa's Rayagada district on the screen.
They narrated how they were being denied minimum wages and drinking water facilities.
He however appeared disappointed for having failed to reply to their queries following disconnection of satellite link to Kashipur during the period.
Speaking on the occasion, Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said that the Gramsat project would provide an effective and reliable disaster warning
system in the state which was frequented by natural calamities.
To begin with, all the 30 district headquarters and 50 blocks and gram panchayats of Kalahandi, Bolangir and Koraput would be connected under the programme.
Later it would be expanded to cover all the 314 blocks of the state.