July 09, 2025

A Regional Meet on “Leveraging Space Technology Applications for Viksit Bharat 2047” for the North Eastern Region, in preparation for the National Meet 2.0 to be held in New Delhi in August 2025, was organised at Guwahati on 24th June 2025. The programme was jointly organised by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and North Eastern Space Applications Centre (NESAC), Shillong, in collaboration with Assam State Space Application Centre (ASSAC).

Hon’ble Minister of Science &Technology (S&T), Revenue, Disaster Management (DM) and IT, Govt. of Assam Shri Keshab Mahanta graced the programme as Chief Guest. Shri Som Kamei, IPoS, Planning Adviser of North Eastern Council (NEC), Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (MDoNER); Shri Pallav Gopal Jha, IAS, Secretary to Govt. of Assam, S&T Dept. and Dr. J. V. Thomas, Director, Earth Observation Applications & Disaster Management Support Programme (EDPO)/ ISRO HQ., were Guests of Honour. Dr. S. P. Aggarwal, Director, NESAC, Shri P.L.N. Raju, Special Secretary to Govt. of Assam (Dept. of S&T) and Dr. K. K. Sarma, Group Head (GH), Remote Sensing Applications Group (RSAG), NESAC also graced the occasion. Around 190 delegates representing 39 line departments from eight NER States, State Space Application Centres, NESAC and other ISRO Centres attended the programme.

In his inaugural speech, Hon’ble Minister of S&T, Revenue, DM & IT, Govt. of Assam, appreciated and highlighted the role of NESAC in utilizing space technology for sustainable development of NER as well as in Assam. He emphasized that the deliberations of the meet will lead to identification of cutting edge space technology applications for Viksit-NER and Viksit Bharat-2047.

During the technical sessions, Dr. J.V. Thomas and Dr. S. P. Aggarwal delivered the keynote addresses on “Indian Space Programmes with special emphasis on future Earth Observation Missions” and on “North Eastern Space Applications Centre– Enabling space applications in NER”, respectively. Presentations on the Geoportals of ISRO such as Bhoonidhi, Bhuvan, VEDAS and North Eastern Spatial Data Repository (Ne-SDR) were also made, in addition to the “Role of NGEs in leveraging space technology applications in NER”.

The space technology applications carried out, ongoing and future requirements for the respective NER States were presented by Dr. H. Dutta, Director, Arunachal Pradesh Space Application Centre (APSAC), Shri P.L.N. Raju, Director, ASSAC, Shri O. Nadiachand Singh, Director, Manipur Remote Sensing Application Centre (MARSAC), Shri Wangkit Swer, Project Director, Planning Dept. of Meghalaya, Er. H. Lalsawmliana, Chief Scientific Officer (CSO), Mizoram Remote Sensing Application Centre (MIRSAC), Er. M. Kithan, Sr. Project Director, Nagaland GIS and Remote Sensing Centre (NGISRSC), Dr. Narpati Sharma, Scientific Officer, Sikkim State Remote Sensing Application Centre (SSRSAC) and Shri Abhisek Dasgupta, Incharge, Tripura Space Applications Centre (TSAC).

During the concluding session, the panel of experts deliberated on the strategies to implement the different projects/ requirements identified by State governments.