BENGALURU, 20 NOV

Astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla on Thursday called upon people to take up the responsibility to realise the dream of ‘Viksit Bharat’ (Developed India) by 2047.

Shukla said this while addressing a gathering on the last day of the Bengaluru Tech Summit on Thursday. The summit began on 18 November. 

Group Captain Shukla, an Indian Air Force officer and test pilot and three other astronauts have been selected and trained to go to space in India’s first manned mission ‘Gaganyaan’, expected to take place in 2027.

He said, "India will soon have its citizens going to space on an Indian launch rocket in an Indian capsule from Indian soil…… have to come together and contribute….how can you enable this to happen – from developing a simple straw to developing a complex life support system..." Shukla said that India already has 300-plus startups actively working in the space domain.

According to him, the number of startups is going to grow rapidly, and it will take the effort of the entire nation to make this mission happen in the future.

He said from space India is seen to be surrounded by the Bay of Bengal, the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea.

Shukla completed his maiden space voyage as part of the Axiom-4 mission. 

He showed a small video clip showing how bright Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad and other big cities look from space in the night sky.

He concluded by saying, "Sky was never the limit, not for me, not for you and not for Bharat."