India’s Participation in the Thirty-Meter Telescope Project

Abstract

In 2010, the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Govt. of India, approved astronomers’ proposal of India joining the international consortium of the USA, Japan, Canada and China to build and operate the next generation mega ground based optical and infrared telescope known as the Thirty-Meter Telescope (TMT) after its aperture size of 30-meter diameter. Since then, India is engaged in many aspects of the TMT project, both at technical and policy levels. In this article, I confine to the description of India’s efforts leading up to the decision to join the consortium, and the progress made since then with respect to India’s technical contributions to the project.