GSAT 9

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The South Asia Satellite (designated GSAT-9), formerly known as SAARC Satellite, is a geostationary communications and meteorology satellite operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) region. The satellite was launched on 5 May 2017. During the 18th SAARC summit held in Nepal in 2014, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi mooted the idea of a satellite serving the needs of SAARC member nations as a part of his neighbourhood first policy. Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka are the users of the multi-dimensional facilities provided by the satellite.
Pakistan "offered technical and monetary support" which India rejected saying that it wanted the project to be a "gift" and multi-national collaboration would be time consuming. Pakistan later on declined to participate in the project citing India's refusal to collaboration and security reasons. Afghanistan too was initially non-committal to the satellite which led to renaming of satellite from "SAARC Satellite" to "South Asia Satellite." As of 2019 with exception of Pakistan, the satellite is in service with all SAARC countries.
The South Asia Satellite provides crucial information on tele-medicine, tele-education, banking and television broadcasting opportunities. It is also equipped with remote sensing state of the art technology which enables collection of real-time weather data and helps in observations of the geology of the South Asian nations.

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