To Deepen Space Engagement Across Country, ISRO To Set Up 12 Research Centres In Tier-2 Cities 

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) plans to seek research ideas from across India and especially from Tier-2 cities. Six Space Tech Incubation Centres and six Regional Academic Centres for Space are slated to come up across the country with each centre being bestowed with a grant of Rs 2 crore by ISRO.

A Space Tech Incubation Centre to be housed in the National Institute of Technology, Agartala, was remotely inaugurated by the Tripura Chief Minister during the first edition of Spacetronics taking place in Bengaluru. According to the chairman of ISRO, other incubation centres will come up in the cities of Trichy, Jalandhar, Nagpur, Indore and Bhubaneshwar, where again they would be housed in the local NITs.

The Regional Academic Centres for Space are being planned in Jaipur, Patna, Guwahati, Varanasi, Kurukshetra and Kanyakumari. The ISRO Chairman, while elaborating on the role of these centres, stated that the incubation centres would focus on products while the regional centres would direct their energies on projects.

Another important announcement made by the ISRO Chairman related to the establishment of academic chairs by the space organization, with the first Satish Dhawan Chair set to be instituted at the University of Jammu.