Modi announces space mission

NEW DELHI: India will launch its first manned space mission by 2022 and roll out a health insurance scheme from next month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said yesterday in his last Independence Day speech ahead of next year’s general election.

Modi, a powerful speaker who will seek re-election in the world’s biggest democracy early next year, used the speech to broadcast his government’s achievements, amid concerns about lack of jobs and rising violence against Muslims.

Wearing a flowing saffron turban, the Hindu nationalist leader also announced the plan to take the “Indian tricolour to space” in a manned mission that would make India the fourth nation to launch one, after the United States, Russia and China.

“India is proud of our scientists, who are excelling in their research and are at the forefront of innovation,” Modi said from the ramparts of the Mughal-era Red Fort here to a crowd numbering in the tens of thousands.

“In the year 2022, or, if possible, before, India will unfurl the tricolour in space.”

Months after Modi’s election in 2014, India became the first Asian nation to reach Mars when its first mission to the red planet entered orbit, at a cost of US$74 million (RM303 million), or less than the budget of the Hollywood space blockbuster Gravity.

Modi said his government would launch from Sept 25 a medical insurance scheme, dubbed “Modicare”, to give 500 million poor people annual health cover of 500,000 rupees (RM29,000) to treat serious illness.

In his 80-minute speech, Modi said the pace of building highways, electrifying villages and building toilets had increased since his landslide 2014 election win that devastated the main opposition Congress party.

Congress, which ruled India for decades, is trying to unify the opposition to challenge Modi, whose ratings remain high despite recent election setbacks.