India one of Asia's `space tigers'

India one of Asia's `space tigers'
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

WASHINGTON, DECEMBER 15: India has been clubbed with powerful nations China and Japan as Asia's ``space tigers who could fulfil an important role next millennium as alternatives to the better known systems from Europe, Russia and the US''".

Lauding Indian achievements in space technology and viewing the country as Asia's one of the three `space tigers', US science magazine Aviation Week and Space Technology, said ``India could be the region's sleeper. Using a low-key, low-cost approach, it has earned respect for its satellite development programme, especially in imaging systems..."

It said India's space budget for 1997-98 was just $303 million in comparison to $2.8 billion of Japan whose engines' failures were likely to put its H-2A, the commercialised H-2, at least three years behind schedule.

The weekly said like China and Japan, India's main goal in developing the geostationary satellite launch vehicle (GSLV) and the smaller PSLV was an independent launch capability, adding that making the programmescommercial was a secondary goal for the Indian Space Research Organisation.