He was inaugurating the educational seminar on `Evolution of Satellite Broadcasting' organised by the Broadcast Engineering Society (BES), Chennai Chapter and Anna University on Saturday. Vasagam had recently participated in the preliminary review committee for launching the satellite which would take two years to be completed.

The vice chancellor pointed out that there was a demand for 135 transponders for various purposes within the country. Acknowledging that most engineering students were allergic to microwave engineering, he said people tended to choose much easier components in studies. Scientists were extremely worried about the failure rate of certain devices in satellite engineering which were by far unexplainable, he added.

The speech of B K De, Engineer-in-Chief, Doordarshan, New Delhi was read out in his absence. It stressed the importance of digital satellite news gathering systems.