Afghanistan keen on using India's expertise in remote sensing

Hyderabad, Apr 11 (UNI) Afghanistan is very much interested in using India's expertise in remote sensing in taking telemedicine and tele-eduction to remote parts of his country, its President Hamid Karzai today said.

Impressed with the power-point presentation made by National Remote Sensing Agency(NRSA) Director K Radhakrishnan here, giving an overview of the Indian Space programme which touched the lives of all sections of people, the visiting President said ''as we move forward towards providing better education to our children in villages, we want to use the remote sensing technique.'' He expressed happiness over the fact that five doctors of the Health Minstry were provided training by the NRSA in telemedicine.

The NRSA Director informed the President that a workshop was planned at Kochi in coming August to further the cooperation in telemedicine.

Observing that remote sensing technique found application in all walks of life, Mr Karzai said he was keen on using the technique in improving farm productivity, disaster management and mineral wealth.

He noted that the NRSA was competitive when compared to such agencies in the USA and Europe.

The visiting dignitary, who was accompanied by a 80-member delegation, including Afghan Acting Minister for Higher Education Suraiya, Afghan Minister for Rural Development and Rehabilitation Mohd Hanif Atmar and Afghanistan Charge d' Affairs Abdul Hai Khurasani, were presented the NRSA Director satellite imageries of the Kabul airport as also the university in Himachal Pradesh where he aattained his post-graduate degree.

The NRSA had the capability to estimate natural resources, including snow cover and forest cover, Mr Radhakrishnan said adding that 50 engineering colleges and several schools were connected by satellite for providing teleeducation.

UNI SM ROY MSJ VC2002