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Indian satellites might not be Y2K compliant

"No," says Dr N Seshagiri, convenor of the National Task Force on Information Technology and director general of the National Informatics Centre.

The International Satellite Organisation (Intelsat) has come out with a compliance report in respect of its own satellites.

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These satellites carry transponders that use embedded chips acquired from foreign sources and if they are not free from the Y2K problem, communications could become a serious problem, Seshagiri admits.

In the meantime mission controllers of the Indian Space Research Organisation are carrying out the final checkouts of the meteorological and communications payload of the INSAT 2E satellite. This is in preparation of declaring them operational.

Scientists at the Master Control Facility in Bangalore are checking whether the footprints of the communications transponders on board the satellite are being obtained as envisaged.

INSAT 2E reached its final destination of 83 degrees east longitude on April 17. Launched by an Ariane 4 rocket from Kourou in French Guyana on April 3, the satellite, after various critical and crucial manoeuvres, is now perched 36,000 km above the Indian Ocean, looking constantly to India.

Nine of its 17 transponders have been leased out to Intelsat. The satellite is considered to be a powerful one in the region with its footprints extending to a large area covering India, China, Middle East, and major parts of Southeast Asia.

Some of the channels also extend from central Europe to Australia, including China and southern parts of the erstwhile Soviet Union.

Besides these powerful transponders, INSAT 2E also has two meteorological payloads of a charged coupled device camera and a very high resolution radiometer which operates in three spectral bands of visible, thermal infrared and water vapour.

At a function to be held in Bangalore on April 27, ISRO would be formally handing over the leased transponders to Intelsat Director General C Kullman. Intelsat is also planning to have a meeting of the users in the city prior to taking charge of the transponders.

The Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited's acting chairman and managing director, Amitabh Kumar, and secretaries of the departments of information and broadcasting and communications are likely to be present on the occasion.

UNI

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