Pakistan "offered technical and monetary support"[9] which India rejected saying that it wanted the project to be a "gift" and multi-national collaboration would be time-consuming.

It is also equipped with remote sensing state of the art technology which enables collection of real-time weather data and helps in observations of the geology of the South Asian nations.

[17] India is only South Asian nation with orbital launch capability and builds and operates one of largest fleet of artificial satellites in world.

[18] The announcement of the satellite was generally met with favourable views by the SAARC nations that supported the program, specifically from Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

[24] On 23 March 2016, Vikas Swarup, official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs of India said "Pakistan has decided to opt-out of the satellite project.

[30] In November 2015, ISRO chairman A. S. Kiran Kumar stated that the satellite could be launched within 18 months of receiving approval from the SAARC member nations.

[14][31] It was proposed to build a satellite for the SAARC region with 12 Ku-band transponders (36 MHz each)[27] and launch it with the Indian GSLV Mk-II.

It carries only 25% of the normal chemical fuel package compared to other Indian satellites, a xenon based electric propulsion system is used for orbital functions of the spacecraft.

[2][37] The launch was followed by a series of orbit-raising operations (using an on-board LAM and chemical thrusters) to place the satellite in the intended geostationary orbital slot.

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena congratulated Modi using satellite technology and claimed that it would help uplift the standards of people.