The Centre would like to use Hyderabad’s startup culture and infrastructure to enrich and promote the country’s space technology sector, Union Minister of State for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh said.
Mr Singh was, on Friday, speaking at the 24th National Conference on e-governance, where he said that the ‘unlocking’ of the country’s space sector has begun, and that private entities are also being involved in this initiative.
“We are in the process of opening up centres and other venues, other locations. Certainly, Hyderabad would also be in the queue, in waiting for that, because the kind of infrastructure they have, the kind of startup culture which already exists in Hyderabad, we would like to use it for the enrichment of the promotion of space technology in the country,” Mr Singh said.
Referring to Telangana IT Minister K.T Rama Rao’s suggestion to establish an Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre in the State, Mr Singh said he would ‘carry back the suggestion’, and work on in. With India making efforts to “match global benchmarks”, he shared his views on how Telangana could play an important role.
“And in a situation like this, Telangana is going to have a very major role to play. So, I just request the State government also to be on board with us. And we shall be on-board with you, so that we can ultimately achieve the objective of global excellence. You, in Telangana, deserve this, and you must seek this, and we are there to stand by you, and assist you,” the Union Minister said.
Speaking at the event, Mr Rama Rao described the State as ‘progressive’ and Hyderabad as an important centre for aerospace. He buttressed this point by saying that over 30% of components of the Mars Orbiter Mission were made in Hyderabad.
Mr Rama Rao requested Mr Singh to issue clearance for setting up a centre of excellence is space research. “I urge you, sir, in the new age of brilliant startups, such as Skyroot and Dhruva, which are headquartered here and have been making waves in the Indian spacetech industry, to grant an IN-SPACe centre in Hyderabad, and I urge you to consider that in your personal capacity also, sir,” Mr Rao said.
He also urged that the Centre ‘relook’ withdrawal of Hyderabad as Information Technology Investment Region, and sanction two more electronic manufacturing clusters in the State.
