India has made quantum jump in space in the past 9 years, says Union Minister Jitendra Singh

BENGALURU — India has made a quantum jump in the field of space in the past nine years, and efforts have been made to diversify space applications, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said on Thursday.

He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has painstakingly made an effort to diversify the applications of space.

“Space technology has virtually entered every household in one way or the other,” the Minister of State for Space told the fourth edition of the G20 Space Economy Leaders Meeting (SELM), under the G20 Presidency of India, here.

“…in the last 8-9 years, under Prime Minister Modi, India has actually made a quantum jump (in the field of space)…,” Singh said.

In the past three years after reforms were introduced in the space sector, India now has more than 140 “active and successful” startups in this field, the minister said.

Union Minister of State for External Affairs and Education Rajkumar Ranjan Singh, G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant, Secretary of the Department of Space and Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation Somanath S and Chairman of Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) Pawan Kumar Goenka also addressed the inaugural ceremony.

Singh said though India began its Space journey several years later compared to some other countries, the country today is offering “vital clues and inputs” for the benefit of world’s leading space agencies.

The minister said global cooperation and alliances are vital in light of the growing ambition of humans to explore outer space. “An alliance of responsible space faring nations for enhancing the share of space economy in the global economy is the need of the hour”.

Since space technology integrates various pillars of the economy under one umbrella, the investments made in this sector will have a multiplier effect on the overall development of countries and economies, Singh said.

According to him, studies have forecast that the (global) space economy will be the next trillion-dollar sector in the coming decades. Considering the importance of space in the economy, India has embarked upon various measures to open up, integrate our space economy and develop alliances with other countries, he said.

“Considering the fact that G20 countries, along with partner countries, represent approximately 85 per cent of global GDP, 75 per cent of world trade and two-third of the world’s population, the decisions we take here will have a far reaching impact on the future of the space economy,” he said.