Dr Jitendra Singh | Quantum jump in India’s Space journey

Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh today said that under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, last 9 years had witnessed a quantum jump in India’s Space journey and India now stands at par with countries like the USA which had begun their Space journey several years or decades before us.

In an interview to a popular private digital outlet, Dr Jitendra Singh said that though the Indian space journey started off much later, after Prime Minister Modi came in, he gave a special boost to the Space sector and opened it for public private participation with an increasing number of StartUps. Today the situation is such that the earliest and the premier space organisations like America’s NASA are collaborating with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and even seeking expert inputs from us.

The Minister said that before 2014, ISRO used to undertake launches now and then, but  after Prime Minister Modi opened the doors of the space sector to private sector participation, today ISRO is working with nearly 150  private StartUps.

Recently ISRO launched a record 104 satellites aboard PSLV-C37 from Satish Dhawan Space Center, Sriharikota of which 101 belongs to international customers, signifying India’s increasing presence in the global space industry.Moreover, the indigenous human space mission Gaganyaan is almost ready to carry Indians into space. If successful, India will be the fourth country to have sent a human to space, the other three being the US, Russia and China. he added.

Talking more about India’s StartUp revolution, the Minister said that before 2014, there were just around 350 StartUps, but after Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave the clarion call from the ramparts of the Red Fort in his Independence Day address and rolled out special StartUp scheme in 2016, there has been a quantum jump in StartUps to more than 90,000 with more than 100 Unicorns. India also has the world’s third largest StartUp ecosystem and has leapfrogged from 81st to 40th in the Global Innovation Index 2022. Similarly before 2014, India’s Bio-economy was valued at $10 billion. Now it’s over $80 billion. Biotech Startups have grown 100 times in the last 8 years from 52 odd startups in 2014 to 5300 plus in 2022, the Minister said.

Talking about Agri tech StartUps, Dr Jitendra Singh said that before 2014, no one knew about Aroma mission or Purple revolution. But today lavender cultivation has led to the boom of Agri tech StartUps. Similarly before 2014, there was no concept of Preventive Healthcare in India, but today that same India is being recognised as the Vaccine Hub of the World. Before 2014, the mandate of the Ministry of Earth Sciences was not clearly defined. But through the Samudrayaan project under Deep Ocean Mission, India is ready to explore the vast resources of the Indian ocean, he added.

Dr Jitendra Singh underlined the need for sustaining the start-up movement and urged the industry to become equal stakeholder in the rapidly rising sector. The Minister also laid stress on integration of start-up, research, academia, and industry for a win-win proposition for all.

Dr Jitendra Singh advised the budding StartUp entrepreneurs to look beyond the IT, Computer and Communications sectors to the most unexplored and the richest farm sector, which is awaiting a huge Tech revolution after the Green revolution. Calling for promoting Agri-tech start-ups in a big way, the Minister said, Agriculture is one of the important pillars of the Indian economy as 54 percent of the Indian population depends directly on agriculture and it accounts for around 20 percent of GDP.

The Union Minister said that the focus of the government in the last 9 years has been on employment generation and capacity building of our youth. The Union Minister further said that hard work being done for the people has led to faith in the leadership of India. He added that this new modus-operandi and a new culture of our polity have been endorsed by our citizens who have reposed their faith in the government.

Underlining that 2023 is an important year for India having assumed the G20 presidency, Dr Jitendra Singh said that in 2023, under the Prime Minister’s leadership, India has taken up some path breaking initiatives like LIGO, India Space Policy 2023 and National Quantum Mission making India part of the elite club of nations who possess Quantum technology.

In conclusion, the Union Minister said that this tremendous growth in StartUps and other sectors is a recognition of liberation of youth from the “SarkariNaukri” mind-set and added that Government is working hard to provide an enabling milieu for the younger generation to realise their potential, serve the nation and be the chief architects of India@2047.