According to a report in the Russia-India Report, Russia and India are on the verge of signing an agreement which will establish 3 GLONASS (Russian counterpart of U.S.’s GPS) ground stations in India
GLONASS (Globalnaya navigatsionnaya sputnikovaya sistema or Global Navigation Satellite System) is a satellite based navigation system, developed by Russian Space Agency, ROSCOSMOS. It is similar to U.S. Military’s GPS and is the only alternative navigational system in operation with global coverage and of comparable precision.
The system is comaparable to China’s Beidou Navigation System and India’s IRNSS. The major difference being that the Indian and Chinese systems are regional in nature, whereas GLONASS provides a global coverage.
Once a GLONASS delegation visits India in July, the agreement may soon be finalised between the two countries. As per Sergey Savelyev, deputy head of ROSCOSMOS, “After that, I hope, we will sign a joint protocol, and then we can start making concrete decisions on cooperation, including the placement of Russian GLONASS stations in India. “
India is already a user of GLONASS for the past few years. GLONASS satellites have been launched from the country and the Indian armed forces used GLONASS military signals.
Although India has been using GLONASS services, but it is now developing its own Regional Satellite Navigation System, the IRNSS, a constellation of 7 satellites which will be placed in the geostationary orbit to give maximum coverage of India and its neighbours.
