NEW DELHI – India launched its 100th satellite, on Friday, as PrimeMinister Narendra Modi seeks to project the country as a global low-costprovider of services in space.

A total of 31 small satellites were launched into space on Friday. Morethan half of the micro and nano satellites were for the Unites States, andthe remainder India, Canada, Finland, France, South Korea and the UnitedKingdom.

“The launch of the 100th satellite by @isro signifies both its gloriousachievements and also the bright future of India’s space program,” Modisaid on Twitter.

India’s space program has a budget of around $4 billion and Modi’sgovernment hopes the latest launches will improve its prospects of winninga larger share of the more than $300 billion global space industry.

Modi’s government has been promoting a domestic space program as ademonstration of low-cost technology and last February launched 104satellites in a single mission, most of them for foreign customers.

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) used its workhorse PolarSatellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C40), part of an advanced remote sensingsatellite Cartosat-2 series or “eye in the sky”, for the Friday launch fromSriharikota in southern Andhra Pradesh state at 3:58 GMT.

The rocket weighs about 1,323 kgs, said a senior official at state-runISRO, who did not wish to be named.

India will use its latest satellites for better border surveillance andobtaining high resolution images of the earth.

“PSLV-C40 is a highly sophisticated surveillance tool to keep an eye onIndian borders and will help the government track progress ofinfrastructure projects,” said Pallava Bagla, a science writer andco-author of “Reaching for the Stars: India’s Journey to Mars.”

Two scientists at ISRO said images collected by the satellites will be usedby the Indian security agencies to track military activities in Pakistan,China, Bangladesh Sri Lanka and Nepal.