STATE TIMES NEWS
NEW DELHI: India’s G20 Presidency coincides with India’s glory in Space, said Dr Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Space and Atomic Energy.
“G20 Summit is happening in India at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi has emerged as the tallest leader of the world. The Summit is taking place at a time when India’s flag is flying on the South Pole of Moon, the first time any spacecraft has landed on the farther side of the Moon and the nation’s achievements in Science & Technology, including the pioneering R&D success story in Covid vaccine, are being hailed across the globe,” the Minister said.
True to the spirit of ‘Vasudeva Kutumbakam’, the theme of the G20 Summit in New Delhi, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the world today acknowledges PM Modi’s mantra of ‘One Earth, One Family, One Future.’
In an exclusive interview during “Doordarshan Dialogue G20” on the eve of G20 Summit here, Dr Jitendra Singh said that India is ready to lead the world in more ways than one. For any future science endeavour, including in the Space sector, all the stakeholder nations of the world would need to come together, he added.
“If we have to go beyond this, we have to move on collectively, because we are part of the global world. So any further growth has to happen in a much, much extended integration. The main characteristic of the growth from here onwards would be that it would be largely technology driven,” said Dr Jitendra Singh.
Pointing out that India’s Space programme is now at an equal pace with the world’s leading Space agencies, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the NASA might have been the first to land on the moon, but it was India’s Chandrayaan-1 that picked up possible evidence of water molecules on the Moon and now Chandrayaan-3 has for the first time landed on the South Pole of the moon.
“Chandrayaan is being looked up by the entire scientific community across the globe because they expect some new inferences being gathered from there, most from Chandrayaan-3 because it’s gone into a virgin area. So obviously, the inputs, inferences that would be forthcoming from there would be of utility to all the other Space agencies as well for their future projects and planning,” he said.
Dr Singh recalled that all the agreements signed during the recent visit of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi to the United States were technology driven, – right from the Artemis Accords to Joint Expedition to the International Space Station and India signing up to the Semiconductor Consortium.
Dr Jitendra said ISRO has launched more than 380 foreign satellites, earning more than 250 Million Euros and more than 170 Million US Dollars by launching European and American satellites respectively.
“India’s overall Space economy today stands at about $8 billion, viz 2% of the global (market share) but the entire world is recognizing increased pace and that’s why the conservative projections are $40 billion by 2040, but later we had the ADL (Arthur D Little) Report, which has projected India’s Space economy to grow up to $100 Billion by 2040. So we’ve started moving very fast, we are still conservative in our evaluation of ourselves, but the others’ assessment is much, much more, which means that we have indeed arrived,” he said.
Dr Singh said Space Applications is being utilised in almost all sectors such as Smart City project, Railway Tracks & management of unmanned Railway Crossings, Roads & Buildings, Telemedicine, Governance, and most importantly, the ‘Svamitva’ GPS land-mapping.
Dr Jitendra said that during PM Modi’s tenure of nine years, India’s disaster capabilities have become world class and we are providing Disaster Forecasts for neighbouring countries as well.
“Applications of Space Research in Disaster Forecasting & Management have helped save more than the investments made in the Space Missions,” he said.