Centre for Excellence on space technology to come up at AP

A new Centre for Excellence related to space technology will come up at Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh anda small satellite manufacturing facility at Nagpur inMaharashtra.
These would come up in collaboration with the Canada based non-government organisation CANEUS International.
A MoU to this effect wassigned here today between the Government of Andhra Pradesh andCANEUS chairman Milind Pimprikar in the presence of scientific secretary of ISRO Dr P G Diwakar and United Nation's Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) director Simonetta Di Pippo.
The event is part of CANEUS's Global Hub for Capacity Building Initiative.
It was organised to mark 50 years of "UNISPACE+50," the United Nation's Conference for Explorationand Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.

While the small satellites will be manufactured at Mihan near Nagpur, the Centre for Excellence will be developedat Tekuledu village near Hindupur in Anantapur district ofAndhra Pradesh.

The chief executive officer of Andhra Pradesh Economic Development Board (APEDB) J Krishna Kishore said CANEUS will set up a manufacturing facility for smallsatellites in Nagpur and a Centre for Excellence at Hindupur,close to Bengaluru.
The Centre for Excellence will provide a research and development support - a complete design, R&D, intellectual support will come from this Centre, he told PTI.
"Hindupur in Andhra Pradesh is becoming a centre for automobile, biotech, aerospace and defence. We already have Kia Motors, which is coming up with a major manufacturing facility creating 25,000 jobs - direct and indirect - near Anantapur.", he said.

"In the same district we have lot of aerospace and defence activity, biotechnology and textiles. All these are within one hour reach of Bengaluru," said Kishore.
The Centre for excellence will have close linkages with all the universities in and around the Centre for excellence like in Anantapur, Karnool and Bengaluru, Kishore said.
The Andhra Pradesh government has chosen 60 acres of land in Tekuledu to set up the Centre for Excellence.
The workwill start from January this year and will be ready in seven to eight months.
ISRO will only be a knowledge partner for the entire satellite related activities in the initial phase and will join it in the later period of time.