“Prime Minister Modi has broken the taboos of the past and sometimes I wonder why this couldn’t have happened earlier. At the same time, even at the physical level, it has increased funding, it has enthused the private sector and the industry. Within just 3-4 years we have more than 150 startups,” he said in an interview to a news channel.

Singh underscored India’s stellar track record in space commerce, citing the successful launch of over 380 foreign satellites, generating substantial revenues exceeding 250 million euros and $170 million from launching US satellites.

“Overall, India’s 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 the other day, about 2-3 days back, we had the ADL (Arthur D Little) Report, which mentions that we could have the potential of $100 Billion by 2040, which is going to be a gigantic jump. And that’s what the world is now expecting, because we’ve started moving very fast, our launchings are also very frequent,” he said.

The minister said the ambitious Gaganyaan will have its first trial flight by the first or second week of October following the launch of first Sun Mission “Aditya-L1″ on 2 September. In the second trial, possibly beginning of next year, a female robot named “Vyommitra” will be onboard the Gaganyaan before the first human mission which may include up to three astronauts, he said.

Denying that India is in competition with any other nation in space exploration, Jitendra Singh reiterated that India’s space research and atomic energy programmes are, as envisaged by the founding fathers, entirely peaceful and that the ISRO is collaborating with leading space agencies and has put into orbit several satellites of private foreign entities and educational institutions.

Referring to applications of space technology to different sectors like railways, highways, agriculture, water mapping, smart cities, telemedicine and robotic surgery, which brought ‘Ease of Living’ for the common man, Jitendra Singh said, space tech has touched virtually every household in India.

Updated: 30 Aug 2023, 06:28 PM IST