IIA Marks 10 Years of UVIT Operations on AstroSat

05 Dec 2025 CW Team

The Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) has recently celebrated 10 years of operation of the UltraViolet Imaging Telescope (UVIT), the primary payload aboard AstroSat, India’s first dedicated space observatory. Launched on 28 September 2015, AstroSat hosts five instruments capable of observing from ultraviolet to soft and hard X-ray wavelengths.

Designed, assembled and tested at IIA’s Hosakote campus, UVIT began science operations on 30 November 2015. To commemorate the milestone and discuss future ultraviolet missions, IIA organised a one-day academic workshop on 4 December 2025. IIA Director Annapurni Subramaniam noted that UVIT is the only operational far-ultraviolet telescope apart from the Hubble Space Telescope, enabling observations otherwise impossible from the ground.

UVIT comprises two telescopes observing in near-ultraviolet, visual and far-ultraviolet bands, offering a large field of view and spatial resolution better than 1.5 arcseconds—surpassing NASA’s GALEX mission. Its development involved a national consortium led by IIA, with contributions from IUCAA, TIFR, several ISRO centres and support from the Canadian Space Agency.

Speakers highlighted UVIT’s scientific contributions, including discoveries of compact companions to Be stars, extended UV disks in dwarf galaxies, novae in Andromeda, young star formation patterns, and emission from distant galaxies at redshift 1.42. Over the decade, UVIT has observed 1,451 targets, contributing to around 300 research papers and 19 PhD theses.

IIA also outlined plans for the next-generation ultraviolet mission INSIST (Indian Spectroscopic and Imaging Space Telescope), building on decades of expertise gained through UVIT.

Infrastructure Transport

10 Jul 2026

Uttar Pradesh unveils infrastructure-led growth roadmap at RAHSTA

Mumbai, 9 July 2026: Uttar Pradesh’s ambitious infrastructure-led growth strategy took centre stage on Day 2 of the 16th RAHSTA Expo, where senior government officials outlined how expressways, industrial corridors and technology-driven governance are transforming the state into one of India's most attractive investment destinations.Delivering the keynote address, Srihari Pratap Shahi, IAS, Additional Chief Executive Officer, Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA), highlighted the state's long-term vision of integrating world-class expressways with industrial dev..

NCW closes PRIME Offices Fund at Rs 40 billion

Nuvama and Cushman & Wakefield Management (NCW) has announced the final close of its flagship PRIME Offices Fund at approximately Rs 40 billion, exceeding its original target of Rs 30 billion following strong investor demand.The fund was launched to provide Indian investors with access to institutional-grade commercial office assets across key office markets in the country. According to NCW, the increase in the fund size was supported by strong investor participation and the availability of investment opportunities in India's office sector.The fund has already committed around 45 per cent ..

Mayfair Housing adopts Autodesk Forma for digital project planning

Mayfair Housing has entered into a three-year strategic partnership with Autodesk to deploy Autodesk Forma, an AI-enabled cloud platform, as part of its digital transformation programme aimed at improving project planning and execution across its development and redevelopment portfolio.The platform will be integrated into the company's Building Information Modelling (BIM) workflow to support architects, planners and project teams during the early stages of design and development. Autodesk Forma combines real-world data, environmental simulations and collaborative workflows to facilitate data-d..