Isro was rapped on its knuckles by CAG for allowing a foreign private satellite service provider to park its satellite in an orbit slot meant for Indian satellites in violation of the nation’s SATCOM policy thereby benefiting a foreign firm.
CAG singled out Intelstat, an international private satellite organisation for censure, pointing out that Isro had allowed this company to place their satellite at 55 E in an orbital location that should have been given to Indian satellites.
CAG stated that Isro had leased 16 transponders from Intelsat for one year from Feb 2003 to February 2004 as a stop gap arrangement to ensure continuity of services of the Indian Communications satellite INSAT 2DT which had stopped functioning from 2003. It was then that the foreign satellite was allowed to shift its orbit but even after INSAT 2D was launched in September 2003, the Intelsat satellite continued to function from the same location.
The panel also observed that Isro signed another agreement with Intelsat in March 2004 as a back up to INSAT 3E free of charge.”Intelsat was allowed to use INSAT’s ITU filings for non-Indian coverage. The agreement, initially was valid for five years up to March 2009.