Russia and India sign satellite navigation deal

MOSCOW: Indian and Russian companies signed a deal that will see Indian buses guided by a Russian satellite navigation system, the news agency Interfax reported on Saturday.

India's HBL Power Systems and Russia's Navigation Information Systems ( NIS) agreed on the Russian programme, based on the Glonass and GPS satellite systems.

They are to be delivered to HBL at a date still to be specified.

Indian buses will also be equipped with automatic control technology, and means of programming and changing set routes and analysing efficiency.

The Glonass system, operated by the Russian defence ministry, was developed in the eighties by the Soviet army to compete with the GPS satellite navigation system used by the United States.