Friday, September 1 2006 17:37 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Moscow: India and Russia will jointly develop a new generation global positioning satellite for wider navigational application with commercial spin-off.

"Under the space co-operation agreements signed during President Vladimir Putin's India visit, both countries will jointly develop new generation GLONASS-K satellite for the GLONASS global positioning system, which will function parallelly with the American GPS," Indian Ambassador Kanwal Sibal said.



Addressing an internet press conference last evening, he said Russia intends to operationalise GLONASS by 2010 by completing the cluster of 24 satellites. Under the Indo-Russian agreements some of the current Russian GLONASS-M satellites would be launched from the Indian soil with the help of Indian launch vehicles.

"The GLONASS will provide commercial services to surface transport, shipping and airlines," he said addressing the Russian netizens.

Responding to a question about Indo-Russian scientific, space and nuclear cooperation Sibal said that next year the two countries will mark the 20th anniversary of their Integrated Long-term Programme (ILTP) covering the whole gamut of scientific and technological interaction in the advanced areas.

"The focus of bilateral cooperation now will be in nano-technology, bio-technology and information technology, specially where they intertwine," Sibal said addressing the conference organised by the leading Russian business agency "RosBiznesConsulting" (RBC).

According to RBC 29800 netizens were hooked online to listen live audio of Sibal's press conference.

Sibal also said that Indo-US nuclear deal will open doors for Russia cooperation with India in civilian nuclear energy, which is already building two units at the Kudankulam nuclear power station in Tamil Nadu.