‘The day is not far’: PM Modi sets big space ambition, says India will soon have its own space station

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday announced that “India will soon have its own space station,” setting out big goals for the country’s space programme.Speaking at the ET World Leaders Forum 2025, PM Modi said “the day is not far when India will establish its own space station.””You will be happy to know that in the last 11 years, more than 60 space missions have been completed. There are many missions lined up,” he added.PM Modi highlighted India’s latest progress in space technology, saying, this year, we have also achieved the capability of space docking.”This is a big achievement for our future missions. Now India is preparing to send its astronauts to space through the Gaganyaan mission, and in this, we are going to get a lot of help from the experience of Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla,” he said.PM Modi further underlined that India is not aiming for incremental change but a “quantum jump”. “We are not looking for incremental change. Rather, we are moving ahead with the goal of a quantum jump and reform is neither compulsion nor crisis-driven for us. This is our commitment, our conviction,” he noted.The Prime Minister also pointed out the rapid rise of the private space sector. “Today, India is home to more than 300 space startups, compared to just one in 2014,” he said. PM Modi said that India is guided by the mantra of “Reform, Perform, Transform,” is well placed to drive global growth. He also revealed that semiconductor factories are coming up in the country and “by the end of this year, the first Made in India chip will come in the market.”Earlier, at the National Space Day programme at Bharat Mandapam, Union science & technology minister Dr Jitendra Singh said that by 2040, “an Indian will announce Viksit Bharat 2047 from the surface of the Moon, and this will send a message around the universe that India has arrived.””India is no longer a follower; today, other nations look to India to add value to their missions,” he added.