Who Owns or Controls the Bangabandhu-1 Satellite?

Who Owns or Controls the Bangabandhu-1 Satellite?

This was a notable week, as Bangladesh formally entered the space age by effectively propelling into space its first geostationary interchanges satellite, the Bangabandhu-1. 

Be that as it may, instead of recognizing this noteworthy innovative progression, which involves national pride and additionally being an improvement turning point, the most senior pioneers of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), including its Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, have set out on a spreading battle against the satellite. 

While all the significant specialists, industry insiders, policymakers, and faculty drew in with the satellite task collectively concur that the satellite opens up gigantic innovative and budgetary open doors for the nation, BNP has endeavored to dilute its effect and regularly guaranteed the precise inverse. After unsuccessfully assaulting its viability, BNP has now depended on scrutinizing the responsibility for satellite, with Mirza Fakhrul saying that 'the responsibility for satellite has passed on to two individuals'. The onus is on Mirza Fakhrul and his gathering to clarify and open up their announcements. Meanwhile, we can fall back on openly accessible records and data to check with regards to the status of possession as well as control of the satellite. 

The main thing to note in such a manner is that Bangladesh claims and works the Bangabandhu-1, and not France nor the USA nor Russia, regardless of their noteworthy association in the task. The French organization Thales Alenia was appointed by the Bangladesh Government to develop the satellite and its important framework like the ground stations. The US organization SpaceX, thus, was contracted to dispatch the satellite into space utilizing its rocket and important dispatch framework. While the Russian organization Intersputnik has basically rented an orbital space to Bangladesh for installment. The proprietorship and control of the satellite and its vital framework like the ground stations rest with the Government of Bangladesh. 

Second, the Government has framed a different organization called the 'Bangladesh Communication Satellite Company Limited (BCSCL)' for working the Bangabandhu-1 satellite. The BCSCL was set up on 15 August 2017 with an approved a capital of TK 50 billion and paid up capital of TK 5 billion. Each offer is being esteemed at TK 10 at first and every executive has been furnished with 200 offers each. The development of BCSCL came because of a Cabinet choice led by HPM Sheik Hasina in July 2017. 

The leading body of BCSCL comprises of 11 individuals, with the Telecommunications Secretary as the Chairperson and Managing Director of the BCSCL as the Member Secretary of the organization. Whatever is left of the board individuals are likewise Government workers, including an Additional Secretary of the Post and Telecommunications Ministry, delegates of the Ministries of Finance, Information and Defense, an agent of the Armed Forces Division, the Chairman of Bangladesh Space Research and Remote Sensing Organization, the Director General of Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Ltd (BTCL) and two different people to be selected by the Government. 

Additional data about this organization can be found on their site at http://www.bcscl.com.bd 

In both hypothesis and practically speaking, the satellite, for all aim and reasons for existing, is claimed and controlled by the Government of Bangladesh. Therefore, it is tragic that having neglected to recognize the nation's entrance into the space age, and after that having neglected to assemble footing in besmirching it by calling into questions its advantages, BNP is currently spreading untruths and deception about the possession and control of Bangladesh's first satellite. 

Shah Ali Farhad is a legal counselor, specialist, and political dissident. He is as of now serving the Center for Research and Information (CRI) as its Senior Analyst.