The emerging nation India is building Asia's largest imaging telescope at the foot of the Himalayan Mountains, northeast of New Delhi. It should be ready for use and set its focus on the universe over the northern hemisphere by 2012. With a 3.7 meter mirror made of the glass ceramic "Zerodur" from SCHOTT, the telescope developed by the Belgian company AMOS will rank among the world's top 30. ARIES, an autonomous research institution under the Department of Science and Technology of the Government of India, is the nodal organization for this international project.