B'lore gets glimpses of Carla, Sarko

Strategic alliance expected to bring in Rs 200 crore a year to ISRO

Four hours after their arrival here, the couple left for Agra. Even the media couldn’t meet them, save for a wave of the hand by Carla, Sarkozy’s glamourous ex-model wife in a flowing beige outfit.

Sarkozy tried to connect with Bangalore right away, as he told the audience at ISRO: “I praise the exceptional success of Bangalore, its citizens and its companies which have transformed this metropolis into a world class city, one of the major focal points of modern trade.”

The French president hailed the success of ISRO, which is jointly developing Megha-Tropiques and Saral satellites with its French counterpart CNES. “The CNES and ISRO will develop a new research programme together,” he said.

ISRO Chairman K Radhakrishnan chose the presidential visit to announce the renewal of the organisation’s five-year agreement with the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) Astrium for commercial collaboration on launching of satellites.

ISRO and the EADS have already collaborated on development, fabrication and launching of two satellites—Eutelsat W2M and Highly Adaptable Satellite (HYLAS)—under an agreement signed in 2005. The strategic alliance is expected to bring in at least Rs 200 crore a year to ISRO.

It was also announced that the French company Arianespace, which had launched 12 satellites for ISRO on a commercial basis, would launch two more satellites—GSAT-8 in 2011 and GSAT-10— in 2012.

Another Indo-French collaboration, Satellite with Argos and Altika (SARAL), for oceanic research will be launched in December 2011.

Sarkozy, Carla and the rest of the delegation then visited an exhibition at ISRO’s satellite centre. They also saw the Indo-French collaboration, the Megha-Tropiques satellite for atmospheric research, expected to be launched in May 2011.

On their arrival at HAL Airport, the French dignitaries were welcomed by officials of the state government and Ministry of External Affairs. There were no state politicians. Even, the mayor was not even invited. 

The French team included 50 businesspersons, bureaucrats and three ministers, including Michele Alliot Marie, Christine Lagarde and Valerie Pecresse.

The huge posse of waiting mediapersons had no access to the French team. They could only watch the French team cruising from the airport to the Leela Palace Hotel, to the ISRO Satellite Centre and back to the airport.

The heavily guarded convoy had some 35 vehicles, including two ambulances. Security was tight at the Leela, too. Visitors could catch a glimpse of the couple as they got off their vehicle.

The duo spent two hours at the hotel, before leaving for ISRO. Police sources later told Deccan Herald that the couple had a half-an-hour meeting with some unidentified people over brunch at the hotel.