November 22: Four companies have been shortlisted for carrying out the study required for placing Nepal's own satellite into the orbit.    
Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) shortlisted four out of eight international companies that had presented technical and financial proposal last month.    
The shortlisted companies are Euro Consult of France, Turksat of Turkey, S3Tel Inc of the UAE and Thailand's Thaicom. Based upon the technical and financial proposal presented by the shortlisted companies, one company will be selected to work towards launching Nepal's satellite, said NTA's spokesperson Santosh Poudel.    
The government has set the target of operating the country's own satellite within 2022 and has already released a policy for it last July.    
Earlier, 22 companies from 12 different countries had submitted their expression of intent for putting into orbit Nepal's satellite. -- RSS