Modi, Belgian PM remote-activate telescope in India

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Belgian counterpart Charles Michel on Wednesday jointly remote activated Asia’s largest optical telescope, ARIES, located in India.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Belgian counterpart Charles Michel on Wednesday jointly remote activated Asia’s largest optical telescope, ARIES, located in India.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with his Belgian counterpart Charles Michel at a meeting in Brussels. (PTI Photo)

“ARIES project is not just a government-to-government initiative,” Modi said after the activation from Brussels. “It is a win-win collaboration between private sectors as well,” he said.

He said even the sky was not the limit for the project.

Located at the Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES) at Devasthal near Nainital, it is a 3.6-metre telescope.

India has collaborated with a Belgian company called AMOS to produce this infrared steerable optical telescope which is the first of its kind in the whole of Asia.