On August 15, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that in 2022 the country could launch a manned space flight. He said that India will become the fourth country after Russia, the United States and China to achieve such a feat. A few days ago, we checked a space capsule that would transport Indian astronauts.
Rakesh Sharma became the first Indian to go into space aboard a Soviet rocket in 1984. As part of its own space program, active since the 1960s, India sent many satellites for itself and other countries, and also successfully placed one near the Martian orbit in 2014.
The country hopes to demonstrate its technological ability to explore the solar system, as well as use research to solve the problems of the home planet. The cost of the $ 1 billion space program has already helped develop satellite communications and remote sensing technologies that were used to estimate groundwater levels and forecast weather in a country prone to drought and flood cycles. India gained independence from the British colonialists in 1947. Modi expressed his thoughts on space in an 80-minute speech a few months before the national elections.
Modi listed the achievements of the government over the past 4 years in reforming the country's economy, reducing poverty and corruption. He announced a health insurance scheme for 500 million poor people. Modi believes that India will become the driving force of the global economy, because the “sleeping elephant” has earned against the background of structural economic reforms.
He also said that until 2014 the economy was perceived as fragile, but now it is attracting investment. India ranks 6th in the global economy and international institutions see in the country a force that gives strength to the global economy for the next 30 years.
Modi became prime minister when his Indian nationalist party won the 2014 election. He plans to win the next 5-year term in the next elections, which will be held in March-April 2019.
