India, which wants to become a niche player in the global space communications market, Thursday announced plans to launch up to one dozen satellites in the next four years.
Prime Minister Manmogan Singh's envoy Prithviraj Chavan told parliament that so far New Delhi had approved the construction of five satellites including two for communications and a remote sensing satellite and another with cartographic applications.
"An India-French joint mission for tropical climatic research is among the other projects," Chavan said in a statement to parliament's upper house.
In May, India for the first time launched two satellites via a single locally-built rocket.
India has grabbed headlines with its commitment to send a probe to the moon in two to three years.
