Jammu, Oct 14: The “sky is not the limit” for India’s space journey, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said on Saturday and added that the country’s “space economy” is projected to grow beyond USD 40 billion by 2040.
The Union Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office was delivering the inaugural-cum-keynote address at Central University of Jammu’s Campus Dialogues on Chandrayaan-3 under the theme “Viksit Bharat @2047”
“After the successful Chandrayaan-3 mission and the unlocking of the space sector by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the sky is not the limit for India’s space journey,” Singh said.
Singh is also the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for the Union Ministry of Science and Technology.
He said India’s quantum leap in space research, with the country’s space economy currently standing at USD 8 billion, was made possible by Modi’s “courageous decision” to unlock the sector from the “shackles of the past”.
Singh said, “India’s space economy is projected to grow beyond USD 40 billion by 2040 and, according to the ADL (Arthur D Little) Report, it has the potential to go beyond USD 100 billion by 2040 — which is going to be a gigantic jump.”
He also spoke on the Chandrayaan-3 mission and India successfully conducting the G20 Summit in New Delhi.
“India today is at par with countries such as the US, which commenced their space journeys decades before us,” he said
India has made a quantum jump in its space journey in the past nine years, the minister said, adding that the Modi government has created a supportive ecosystem.
Comprising the lander (Vikram) and the rover (Pragyan), the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Chandrayaan-3 touched down on the lunar south pole in August, propelling the country to an exclusive club of four and making it the first country to land on the uncharted surface.
Singh said the space sector has been opened for public private participation, with a swift increase in the number of start-ups.
The central government has embarked on a mission to open space technology teaching centres in higher education institutions, he said and pointed to the ISRO Teaching Centre established at the Central University of Jammu and NIT-Agartala.
Enumerating the salient features of the new National Education Policy, Singh said India’s youth are no more “prisoners of their aspirations” as the policy now empowers them to choose or change subjects freely, depending on their aptitude, skill and interest.
