Large scale poverty is the foremost challenge facing our country. The unfortunate truth is that the fruits of our growth are not equally shared among different segments of our society. We have to be acutely conscious of regional disparities and imbalances within the country, and address the inequalities that exist.
Space based applications are a very potent means of bridging these divides in our society. It is therefore necessary that we work towards reducing the cost of access to space. This requires expediting the development of heavy lift launchers, advanced propulsion systems, including the cryogenic stage, and recoverable and reusable launch systems. We should pay greater attention to the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Programme.
As our economy expands, there will be growing pressure on our resources, whether it is land, water or minerals. Remote sensing applications for such purposes will be critical. Simultaneously, the processes of urbanization will gather speed and we will have to face the challenge of management of urbanization.
Food security and self-sufficiency in agriculture, particularly paying special attention to the needs of the small and marginal farmers, remains yet another fundamental goal.
In such a scenario, managing the environment and tackling climate change will be major challenges. Our disaster warning and response capabilities will have a major impact on livelihood security for our people. The role of space based observation systems, development of newer class of environment and monitoring sensors and study of weather related phenomena assume great importance in this regard.
Taken together, the space programme has a vital role to play in making the concept of sustainable development a reality.
The other major goal before us is the socio-economic empowerment of our people. The Satellite Instructional Television Experiment, which was the brainchild of this Centre, demonstrated for the first time how space technology could be used for broadcasting and for reaching the benefits of education to the village level. Although we have come a long way since then, there is much more that needs to be done. Tele-education, tele-medicine and Village Resource Centre services deserve high priority. ISRO’s contribution to the monitoring of programmes like the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, the Accelerated Benefit Irrigation Programme and Bharat Nirman for regeneration of our rural economy is laudable.
Empowerment requires that we ensure space services are available to all sections of society. Access to information should be easy. In the years ahead ISRO should make a conscious effort to reach out to beneficiaries and consumers of space products so that they can extract maximum advantage from the technology that is available in the country.
The information and communications revolution is upon us. It is changing the lives of millions of our people across cities, towns and villages faster than we could have imagined. This transformation has been made possible in large measure due to the space infrastructure you have built. We should aim to master newer technologies for more sophisticated communication satellites. For example, satellite based broadband internet services could bring about a new technological revolution that directly benefits rural and remote areas.
ISRO is aiming to achieve self-reliance in the area of navigation through the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System. This will enable secure transport and better air traffic management and search and rescue operations.
There have been some aberrations and setbacks in the space programme in the recent past. These are being dealt with in accordance with laid down procedures. It is however important that you work with renewed dedication, sincerity and zeal to fulfil the high expectations we have from our space programme.
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