ISRO inks pact with Oppo, even as India faces Chinese aggression from Ladakh to Arunachal

At a time when India is facing incursions by the Chinese Red Army from Ladakh to Arunachala Pradesh, it has come to the fore that India’s national space agency Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has inked a business pact with the Chinese mobile maker company Oppo.

Experts believe that the pact may compromise national security as the research team of the Chinese company is based in China and, following the pact, they will be able to access the data collected by the ISRO.

Founded by the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru with an aim to enter the elite space research, ISRO operates under the Department of Space (DOS) which is directly overseen by Prime Minister Modi.

ISRO is one of the six government space agencies in the world which possess full launch capabilities, deploy cryogenic engines, and launch extra-terrestrial missions.

“Harness space technology for national development, while pursuing space science research and planetary exploration,” envisions ISRO.

Though clauses of the pact have not been shared by the government, the Chinese company which is based in Dongguan (China) announced on Twitter that it will help ISRO in the research and development of NavIC messaging to support the vision of Atmnirbhar Bharat mission.

As per information, the Chinese mobile company, which has a share of around 11% in the Indian smartphone market, will build ready-to-use end-to-end application-specific solutions for its users by integrating NavIC messaging services with its mobile, following the pact.

NavIC is a regional satellite navigation system that generates accurate real-time positioning and timing services. Two people who are in the know of the development refused to speak on the issue citing the “sensitive nature” of the pact.

We contacted scientists also, but they refused to talk about the pact, saying it would be premature to comment about a pact that is not in the public domain.

When contacted, Office of Media and Public Relations (OMPR), ISRO said, “Pact was finalized by the high ranked officials. We are not in a position to comment.”

Surprisingly, neither the Modi government nor the ISRO has said a word about the pact. Instead, it was the Chinese company, Oppo, which announced the pact, that too on Twitter.

It is worth noting here that the initiative to build a navigation system to prevent the Kargil-like situation was taken by the UPA Manmohan Singh government in 2013. During the time of the Kargil war, requests to access foreign government-controlled global navigation satellite systems were denied.