Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi launched Mission DefSpace in Gandhinagar on Wednesday.
The initiative is aimed at developing innovative solutions for the defence forces in the space sector.
“Space technology is an example of what security will mean for any strong nation in the future. Various challenges in this area have been reviewed and identified by the three services. We have to work fast to solve them,” Modi said.
Under Mission DefSpace, 75 challenges in the space sector have been identified for private firms to work on.
New Frontiers
As national defence has always been a top priority of the government, the Indian military is expanding beyond land, water and sky towards deep-sea and space programs, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said.
Pointing to the increasing importance of space technology, PM Modi said it is shaping new definitions of India’s space diplomacy and that the country is currently sharing its space science with more than 60 developing nations.
“The South Asia satellite is an effective example of this. By next year, ten ASEAN countries will also get real-time access to India's satellite data. Even developed countries like Europe and America are using our satellite data,” he added.
