Pariksha SaathiMoD signs Rs 4,106 crore contracts for GSAT-7C satellite for IAF and Varunastra torpedoes for Navy
The Ministry of Defence on 15 October 2026 signed two contracts worth about Rs 4,106 crore in New Delhi, in the presence of Additional Secretary and Director General (Acquisition) A. Anbarasu. The first, worth Rs 2,563 crore with New Space India Limited (NSIL), Bengaluru, is for GSAT-7C, a dedicated communication satellite for the Indian Air Force that is indigenously designed, developed and manufactured and is meant to give IAF assets secure, resilient and seamless communication. The second, worth Rs 1,543 crore with Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL), Hyderabad, is for Varunastra heavy weight torpedoes for the Indian Navy: an indigenous ship-launched anti-submarine torpedo developed by the Naval Science and Technological Laboratory (NSTL), capable of engaging enemy submarines at long range. The ministry placed both contracts under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat and Make in India push for domestic defence manufacturing.
Drafted with AI assistance from the official PIB release linked above and checked against it by a second AI pass. Not line-edited by a human.
Learning context
The Naval Science and Technological Laboratory (NSTL) is a Visakhapatnam-based laboratory of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) that works on underwater weapons and systems. New Space India Limited (NSIL), incorporated in March 2019, is the commercial arm of ISRO under the Department of Space. Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL), Hyderabad, is a defence public sector undertaking founded in 1970 that makes missiles and torpedoes. The GSAT-7 series are dedicated military communication satellites: GSAT-7 (Rukmini, 2013) serves the Navy and GSAT-7A (2018) the Air Force.
Reference: DRDO page on the Naval Science and Technological Laboratory
Check yourself: is NSIL the maker of the Varunastra torpedo?
No. NSIL is ISRO’s commercial arm and holds the GSAT-7C satellite contract; Varunastra was developed by DRDO’s NSTL and is produced by Bharat Dynamics Limited.
Revision task: from this release, note the two contracts with their values, suppliers and users (Air Force and Navy), and keep them apart from the standing facts about NSTL, NSIL and BDL above.
Test yourself
The Varunastra heavy weight torpedo, for which the Ministry of Defence signed a contract on 15 October 2026, was developed by which organisation?
Show the answer
Answer: Naval Science and Technological Laboratory (NSTL)
Varunastra is an indigenous ship-launched anti-submarine torpedo developed by NSTL; the Rs 1,543 crore production contract went to Bharat Dynamics Limited, while NSIL received the Rs 2,563 crore GSAT-7C satellite contract.
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