India has made quantum jump in space in the last 9 years: Jitendra Singh

Bengaluru: India has made a quantum jump in the field of space in the last nine years, and efforts have been made to diversify the applications of space, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said on Thursday.

He said the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has painstakingly made an effort to diversify the applications of space.

"Space technology has virtually entered every household in one way or the other," the Minister of State for Space told the fourth edition of the G20 Space Economy Leaders Meeting (SELM), under G20 Presidency of India, here.

"...in the last 8-9 years, under Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi, India has actually made a quantum jump (in the field of space)...," Singh said.

In the last three years after reforms were introduced in the space sector, India now has more than 140 active and successful startups in this field, the Minister said.

Union Minister of State for External Affairs and Education, Rajkumar Ranjan Singh, G20 Sherpa, Amitabh Kant, Secretary in the Department of Space and Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation, Somanath S, and Chairman of Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe), Pawan Kumar Goenka, also addressed the inaugural ceremony.