PM launches India’s first pvt space association
NEW DELHI: India will soon have policies on space communication and remote sensing, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday while launching the Indian Space Association, a lobby group formed to promote space technology.
The draft policies, which are being finalised, are expected to enable commercialisation of space technology and facilitate private investments in India’s space sector.
“The government’s approach to space reforms is based on four pillars,” the Prime Minister said. “First, the freedom of innovation in the private sector. Second, the role of the government as an enabler. Third, preparing the youth for the future. And fourth, to see the space sector as a resource for the progress of the common man.”
The new association counts private companies such as Bharti Airtel, Larson & Toubro, Tata Group’s Nelco, MapmyIndia and Alpha Design Technologies as members, besides the state-owned Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro).
“For India, the space sector means better mapping, imaging and connectivity facilities for the common people,” Modi said. “Also, the space sector means better speed from shipment to delivery for entrepreneurs. It also means better security and income for fishermen and better forecasts of natural calamities.”
The opening up of the space sector is in sync with the government’s overall reforms policy, Modi said.
In the past seven years, space technology has been converted into a tool of last-mile delivery and leakage-free, transparent governance, Modi said, providing examples of the use of geotagging in houses for the poor, roads and infrastructure projects.
According to estimates of the space industry, 95% of the $366 billion earned in the sector was from what is called the spacefor-earth economy. This include goods or services produced in space for use on earth, such as telecommunications and internet infrastructure, earth observation capabilities, and national security satellites.
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will virtually join the G20 extraordinary leaders’ summit on Afghanistan on October 12 that will discuss a response to the humanitarian crisis in the war-torn country and the fight against terrorism.
The summit has been convened by Italy, which holds the rotating presidency of the grouping of 20 of the world’s major economies. Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi has discussed Afghanistan with world leaders such as Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping as part of efforts to organise the special meeting to forge strategies to confront the crisis.
The agenda of the meeting will include a discussion on the response to the humanitarian needs of Afghanistan and access to basic services and livelihood, security and the fight against terrorism, and also mobility, migration and human rights, the external affairs ministry said.
Earlier, Modi participated in a virtual format in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)- Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) outreach summit on Afghanistan on September 17, when he cautioned the international community against rushing to recognise the Taliban setup in Kabul as the change of power in Afghanistan was not inclusive and was done without negotiations.
External affairs minister S Jaishankar participated in a meeting of G20 foreign ministers on Afghanistan on the margins of the UN General Assembly in New York last month.
G20 is an important platform to build international consensus and facilitate a coordinated approach between multilateral organisations, including the UN and its agencies, and global and regional actors to address the worsening humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, the external affairs ministry said.
“We have to see whether there are shared objectives among the G20 nations... we have reached a point where we only need to worry about saving lives,” Draghi told media last month.
The G20 meeting on Afghanistan will be held a few weeks before the grouping’s summit in Rome during October 30-31.