AFRIKASOURCES

A one-day workshop on “Mauritius, Your Business Passport to Africa” would be held on 14 June 2012 at the Royal Overseas League in London.

High-profile speakers, including Mr Omari Issa, Chief Executive Officer, Investment Climate Facility for Africa, Mr Adrian Winstanley, Director General, London Court of International Arbitration and Dr Mohan Kaul, Chairperson of the Commonwealth Africa Focused Fund, will facilitate the workshop.

The event will target high level executives of British companies who are considering to launch or expand their businesses in Africa, as well as Chief Executive Officers of accountancy firms, financial services institutions, consultants and other professional advisors on Africa business.

The workshop will provide a strong signal to UK investors on the growing advantage that Mauritius holds as the natural gateway for cross border investment into Africa.

It is also proposed to hold similar investor workshops in Paris and Brussels later this year.

The Indian Space Research Organization launched yesterday the second radar imagery satellite, and the first indiginously built by the country’s space research organization (ISRO). The satellite named Risat-1 successfully deployed into a polar orbit at an altitude of 480 km and orbital inclination 97.552 degrees.

RISAT-2 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Risat-1 has an expected life span of five years. The satellite will provide high resolution radar images, obtained in day and night and also through clouds, enabling the country to continue monitoring areas of interest during the monsoon season.

The satellite was launched at 5.47 a.m. on the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle C19 (PSLV-C19). At around 17 minutes into the flight, PSLV-C19 delivered Risat-1 into an intermediate polar orbit at an altitude of 480 km and an orbital inclination of 97.552 degrees. Over the weekend the satellite will be elevated to its final intended orbit at an altitude of 536 km.

With Thursday’s launch the PSLV rocket has launched successfully 53 satellites out of 54 it carried – majorly remote sensing/earth observation satellites both Indian and foreign – and has been a major revenue earner for ISRO. The ISRO-made Risat-1 is the heaviest luggage so far ferried by a PSLV since 1993.

India currently has 11 remote sensing and earth observation satellites in orbit, providing imagery at different resolution levels, from 500 meters to about one meter resolution. These spacecraft include the TES, Resourcesat-1, Cartosat-1, 2, 2A and 2B, IMS-1, Oceansat-2, Resourcesat-2 and Megha-Tropiques. Risat-1 joins Risat-2 in orbit, an Israeli SAR satellite launched in 2009. Both satellites carry synthetic aperture radars (SAR). Risat-1 operates in C-band while Risat-2′s SAR works in the X-band.

Related articles

• Risat-1 satellite raised to its final intended orbit (spacedaily.com)
• India’s spy satellite to be launched in April (ibnlive.in.com)
• India launches all-weather RISAT-1 (news.in.msn.com)