Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh Highlights India’s Space Technology Advancements

New Delhi, 18 September 2023:  Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Space and Atomic Energy, Dr Jitendra Singh has stressed that even while launching lunar, solar and other such cutting edge missions, India is using space technology and its applications in various sectoral development projects also.

Addressing a special session on “Emulating Chandrayaan-3 Success in Biomedical Sciences’ ‘, he noted that space technology has today entered virtually every Indian household. Space applications are being utilised in almost all sectors such as weather forecasting, disaster management, smart city project, infrastructure development, management of unmanned railway crossings, telemedicine, governance, and most importantly, land-mapping.

“It is in these last 7 to 8 years that we have shown the world how space technology & its applications could be used for sectoral development,” he said. He was addressing the session organised as part of Pancreas 2023, a global conference of International Association of Pancreatology in New Delhi.

Dr Jitendra Singh said the landing of Chandrayaan-3 on the virgin South Polar region of the Moon recently has demonstrated India’s technological capability and talent through cost-effective means. The evidence for the presence of mineral elements like Sulphur and Cobalt, besides Hydrogen and water molecules found by Chandrayaan-1 mission is being looked up by the entire scientific community across the globe because they expect some new inferences.

The Minister also pointed out that today India is laying down high targets such as the achievement of Net Zero emissions by 2070. Soon, India will be one of the major exporters of Hydrogen.

“We have actually proved to the world that  we can meet you on your platform. We are now no longer taking lead from others, we are in a position to give lead to the rest of the countries. So India is now ready to lead, the world is ready to be led.”

Dr Jitendra Singh said India’s quantum leap in the Space sector has only been possible after Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi took the courageous decision to “unlock” it from a “veil of secrecy”.

Thanks to the unlocking, the common masses of the country have been able to witness the launch of mega space events like Chandrayaan-3 or Aditya. About 10,000 students and common people saw the Aditya launch and some 1,000 media persons witnessed the Chandrayaan-3 landing on the moon, he added.

“We had everything, but we were possibly waiting for an enabling milieu to happen. And that enabling milieu had to come from the level of the policy makers, from the level of the political leadership and that happened after Prime Minister Modi came in,” he said.

Dr Jitendra Singh, who is also a well known diabetologist, said the ‘Anusandhan National Research Foundation’ (NRF) that has been launched recently by the Union Government to provide a new thrust to the research ecosystem in the country will have 70-80% of its funding coming from non-government sources.