Disclosing this while delivering the 26th Annual Convocation address at the Gulbarga University here on Monday, ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair said VRC was a well-evolved concept to offer combined services of Insat and IRS satellites to provide information on natural resources, land and water resources management, tele-medicine, tele-education, adult education, vocational training, and health and family welfare programmes.
He said more than 335 VRCs have been established in the country and in Karnataka 41 have been set up in association with NGOs.
In Gulbarga district village resource centres have been set up at Kamalapur and Ratkal.
Referring to the rapid progress made in space technology Madhavan Nair said: “I feel proud to say that India has become a leading space-faring nation having acquired indigenous capability to design and develop sophisticated satellites and launch vehicles.’’
The ISRO chief pointed out that recently it conducted the test of a cryogenic upper stage which was highly complex and mastering the critical technology has catapulted India into the big league of space players.
In the absence of Governor Rameshwar Thakur, who is also the chancellor of the university, Vice Chancellor B G Mulimani presided over the convocation in which five eminent personalities- UGC Chairman Sukhdev Thorat, literateurs Vasanth Kushtagi, Geetha Nagbhushan, educationists Dr Syed Shah Khusro Hussaini, Channabasappa Halahalli and industrialist Galangalappa Patil- were conferred with honourary doctorates.