Res Communis

Russia and India sign agreement giving India access to GLONASS

by Sara M. Langston with the blog faculty

Source: The Hindu

India and Russia on Tuesday signed an agreement to share high-precision signals from the Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS) for defence as well as civilian use. The agreement was signed on the sidelines of the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s Indian visit.

As per the agreement, Russia will provide access to the GLONASS high-precision navigation signals to India. Russia currently has a total of 26 GLONASS satellites in orbit, of which 23 are operational. GLONASS is the Russian equivalent of the United States’ global positioning system that allows users to determine a near precise position of any object to within metres.

Notably, in March this year, the Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Russian Navigation Information Systems (NIS) GLONASS signed a ‘Memorandum of Cooperation’. Later, representatives from NIS-GLONASS and ISRO’s commercial arm, Antrix Corporation, agreed to set up a joint venture providing navigation and information services on the GLONASS/GPS platform.