International telescope on India Inc radar

India Inc is gunning for a piece of the eye-on-the-sky business, literally.

A clutch of private tech and infrastructure firms is swarming scientific institutions in its quest to be the part of a $1 billion international Large Telescope Project (LTP).

India is expected to pick up a 10% stake valued at Rs 500 crore in at least one of three international telescope projects that will help advance astrophysical knowledge and allow detailed studies of planets around other stars, super-massive black holes, explore habitable zones in the universe, and perhaps, most importantly, answer the question - are we alone?

Companies making a pitch to be a part of this project include Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Larsen & Toubro (L&T), Persistent Systems, Avasarala Technologies and Walachandnagar Industries Ltd. They want to associate the consortium leader Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA).

The other members of the consortium -- all government agencies -- include Pune-based Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Raman Research Institute, Bangalore and Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences.

If successful, TCS and Persistent may develop the software, while engineering design company Avasarala Technologies and Walachandnagar Industries Ltd can provide engineering support while L&T could provide the infrastructure and hardware support for the project.

A senior Avasarala executive, on the condition of anonymity, said, "India's contribution to the telescope project will be in precision engineering and mirror support that would cost anywhere between Rs 300 crore and Rs 500 crore. We are going to supply critical components required for mirror support."

The three international LTP projects under consideration are the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT), slated to be built in Hawaii, the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), which will come in Chile, and the European Extremely Large Telescope (EELT), the location of which is yet to be finalised. The three consortia are being led by the California Institute of Technology, the European Southern Observatory and the Carnegie Institute respectively.

Participation in the project will put India in the big league as a stakeholder in one of the international projects allowing Indian astronomers to access the best ground-based observatories in the world, Siraj Hasan, director IIA, told DNA.

The Indian consortium and the Indian private players are hoping to provide the optics to the telescope along with software support and mechanical structure development. The institute has also signed a MoU with General Optics Asia Ltd, Puducherry, to supply optical lens for the project.

Meanwhile, on the home turf, IIA has begun spadework for the Rs 170 crore National Large Solar Telescope (NLST) that will shape up by 2013-2014. The institute has shortlisted three sites for its installation - Devasthal in Nainital, Hanle and Leh in Ladakh. The institute has tied up with German firm MT Mechatronics, which is preparing the design blueprint of the two metre telescope.