Towards Edusat II - Dr. B. S. Bhatia

TOWARDS EDUSAT II
B.S. Bhatia
Former Director
DECU/ISRO

Areas of applications
• Satellite Broadcasting
• Interactive Training
• Tele-education
• Telemedicine

Major projects
• Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE)
• Kheda Communications Project (KCP)
• Training and Development Communication
Channel (TDCC)
• Jhabua Development and Communications Project
(JDCP)
• Gramsat
• Telemedicine
• Edusat

SATELLITE INSTRUCTIONAL
TELEVISION EXPERIMENT
(SITE)

Satellite Instructional Television Experiment
(1975-76)
Was the test bed for satellite based education and training.
Largest Sociological Experiment covering 2500 villages.
Programmes for school children, school teachers and rural
audience on Agriculture, Health, Hygiene, Nutrition etc.
40,000 teachers were trained during SITE.
Substantial knowledge gain in Health and Hygiene.
Ministry of Education and NCERT were active partners.
Triggered off many initiatives in Distance Education leading to
establishment of CIET-SIET, CEC, AVRC, EMRC & IGNOU.

TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT
COMMUNICATION CHANNEL
(TDCC)

TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT COMMUNICATION CHANNEL
SYSTEMS CONFIGURATION
AUDIO
ANTENNA
TV+AUDIO
EARTH STATION TV STUDIO
TEACHING END
TELEPHONE
LINES
AUDIO
INSAT
TV+AUDI
O
TV+AUDIO
DRS Rx
TV+AUDIO
AUDIO
TV
DRS Rx
TALK BACK
TERMINAL
DRS TV
SATCOM TALKBACK
FAX
TV
RECEIVE ONLY TERMINALS
TELEPHONE TALKBACK
PHONE
PC
EMAIL
CLASS ROOM

TDCC - MAJOR AREAS OF APPLICATIONS
* Distance education - IGNOU, DPEP, State
Open Universities, etc.
* Rural development - State Govt (s). of Gujarat,
Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, etc.

TDCC - USER AGENCIES/DEPARTMENTS
- Panchayati Raj
- Education - DPEP and Teachers’ training
- Health
- Women & Children - ICDS
- Forest
- Rural development
- Special schemes and occasions - Election, Pulse
Polio etc.
* Operational since February 1995. Utilized 25 days
a month.

EDUSAT

GSAT-3 (EduSat) SATELLITE

Edusat Coverage
5 Spot Beams in
Ku Band
1 National Beam
in Ku Band
1 National Beam
in Ext C Band
(6 Channels)

Education Satellite System
Objectives of Education Satellite System to meet the
Challenge of Number and Quality through:
1. Providing Effective Teachers Training
2. Supplementing the Curriculum based Teaching
1. Providing Access to Quality Resource
Persons (Higher & Professional
Education)
2. Strengthening the Distance Education
Efforts Initiated by Various Agencies
3. Taking Education to Every Nook &
Corner of the Country
4. Providing Access to New Technologies
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Video Conferencing
Asymmetric Internet
Through TVRO
Voice Chat on
Internet
Technological Possibilities
Radio Broadcast
Webcam as
Return Link
TV Broadcast
Technological
Possibilities
Talkback Channel
as Return Link
Night time Loading
at Receiving end
Internet as
Return Link
Online Education
through Internet
Telephone as
Return Link
Effective Multimedia Delivery to be Planned
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EDUSAT COVERAGE
5 Spot Beams in Ku Band
1 National Beam in Ku Band
6 National Beams in Ext C Band
NETWORKS OPERATIONAL
• National Beam : 09
• Regional Beams : 38
NO. OF TERMINALS INSTALLED &
COMMISSIONED
• National Beam (750 SITs +1383 ROTs)
• Regional Beams (2298SITs +26272 ROTs)
• Total (3048 SITs + 27655 ROTs)
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Ku-National Beam
Name of
Agency
IGNOU
NCERT/ CIET
CEC / UGC
AICTE
Vigyan Prasar
(DST)
Sidhi Network
I & C
Completed
188
90
121
102
48
1084
*TRANSPONDER FULL*
Utilization
Per day
~ 6 Hrs.
~ 7 Hrs.
~ 7 Hrs.
~ 6 ½ Hrs.
~ 1 Hr/Day +
4 Hrs. (Tue) +
10 Hrs. (Spl.)
~ 4 Hrs.
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Ext-C band Coverage
Name of
Agency
IDSP
INDO-US
Project
Rajasthan
Network
(B).Panchayti
Raj
I & C
Completed
220
40
I & C
Completed
27 (SITs)
+ 168 (ROTs)
Utilization
Per day
~ 5 Hrs.
18

Ku Band Regional Beams
J & K (95 SITs)
Punjab (290 SITs)
Haryana (509 SITs)
Rajasthan (82)
Gujarat (30 SITs + 10564 ROTs)
Tripura (50 SITs)
Nagaland (38 SITs)
Mizoram (28 SITs)
Meghalaya (50 SITs)
Jharkhand (11 SITs)
West Bengal (126 SITs + 340 ROTs)
19

Ku Band Regional Beams
Karnataka (42 SITs + 2130 ROTs)
Tamil Nadu (485 SITs)
Kerala (88 SITs + 900 ROTs)
Lakshadweep (16 SITs)
Madhya Pradesh (215 SITs)
Orissa (30 SITs + 80 ROTs)
Delhi (22 SITs)
Chattisgarh (43 SITs)
Maharashtra (40 SITs)
Andhra Pradesh (2100 ROTs
under INSAT – 3B)

OBSERVATIONS
• Internet not available on Edusat
• Almost no offline usages
• No usage during off office hours
• No exclusive structure in MHRD
• Edusat priority varies in States
• No dedicated Edusat teams/personnel in States
• Coordination mechanism between National & State
Government is required
• Funding issues:
- Centrally sponsored scheme
21

OBSERVATIONS
• Content availability and Generation &
Management
• Make available all the easily content on the
network
• Generate Teacher Oriented Content
• Enable Teacher to Generate own Content
22

Recommendations
• MHRD should manage Edusat utilization
• MHRD should create a central agency for Edusat
utilization, Content Management & Coordination
• Establish technical advisory group with ISRO
• Have only National Beams on Edusat
• Bunch all Broadcast Channels into a single DTH bouquet
• Reach out to Remote Areas
• Internet should be made available to users on Edusat
• All E- Journals should be made available on Edusat
• Library connections should be provided to remote
colleges through Edusat
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THANK YOU….!