GoI grants approval to Gujarat for utilizing transponder of 36 MHz Q-band capacity

Gandhinagar, 13November 2014

Government of India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has granted the approval to Gujarat for utilizing transponder of 36 MHz Q-band capacity.

The new approval will enable the broadcasting of more than 16 educational channels through DTH. As a result of this permission, state’s education and agriculture departments would be able to broadcast more educative, training and employment programmes for students and youths.

The transponder of 36 MHz Q-band was allotted to Gujarat by the Central Government after persistent representations by then CM of Gujarat, Shri Modi. But the approval of its utilization was pending since past few years. This is now been resolved as Government of India granted the necessary approval.

Gujarat will utilize the bandwidth to function various EDUSAT project through BISAG (Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space Applications and Geo-informatics) for long distance education.

The transponder will enable the state in delivering education programmes to the schools, colleges, universities and for imparting the medical education, technical education and skill development knowledge. This will bring a qualitative change in the level of education across the state.

Gujarat Chief Minister Smt Anandiben Patel thanked Government of India and PM Shri Narendra Modi for taking such an important decision for Gujarat, that will give impetus to the long distance education across the state.

Gujarat is the only state to have in place a state-wide network of information communication technology that covers all its 18,000 villages, 225 talukas and 26 districts.

GTU gears up for relay:

Gujarat Technological University(GTU) was ready to cater educational programmes via TV channels in year 2011 itself when. However permission was lacking from the central government. GTU had sought nod to start four separate channels to serve the need of its four main streams – MBA, Engineering, Computer and Pharmacy. Due to unavailability of permission, GTU had started using recorded video option.More than 1100 video lectures were recorded for the benefit of 70,000 students. Many videos are also uploaded on Youtube. Once the permission is granted to 24 hours channel, GTU will be able to air lectures, laboratory sessions, conferences, seminars etc on channel with the help of BISAG team as technical partner.

Background:

Gujarat had received a full-fledged transponder of 36 MHz Q-band on Indian Space Communication Satellite in year 2011 by the Central government after persistence representations by then Chief Minister Narendra Modi for implementing long distance education system across the 12 sectors at a time. Mr. Modi had made a written representation to then Prime Minister asking him to allot this transponder to Gujarat. He had in his letter, underlined the facts that Gujarat was the only state in the country to have in place a state-wide network of in formation communication technology which covers all its 18,000 villages, 225 talukas and 26 districts. The state had already fully developed the capacity for the long distance education. And so, the state was in a position to receive a full-fledged transponder.Gujarat wanted to use the transponder in bringing about a qualitative change in the primary education. The state wanted to use the transponder in delivering education programmes to the schools, colleges, universities and for imparting the medical education, technical education and skill development knowledge. Besides, the educational programmes for farmers were planned to be transmitted to the interior villages of the state.Gujarat has already successfully functionalized EDUSAT project through BISAG (Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space Applications and Geo-informatics) for long distance education. Gujarat government has the world’s largest information technology network GSWAN (Gujarat State Wide Area Network) with 34,000 offices nodes. Every panchayat in Gujarat is equipped with broadband connectivity. Video conferencing is already in use in Gujarat in the field of education. Gujarat is also at the forefront in using long distance learning system and in imparting the computer knowledge. The transponder will prove benchmark in raising the quality of education as it will enable the transmission of various programmes at a time in 12 sectors.The transponder was being developed under the observation of ISRO.

From archive: Govt of India grants permission to 12 satellite channels of Gujarat govt