Space Chief of Sweden, Mr Peter Egardt called on Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh here yesterday.Dr Jitendra Singh shared with Mr Peter Egardt the details regarding the various on-going and perspective programmes to be taken up jointly by Indian Space Research Programme (ISRO) and Swedish National Space Board (SNSB).Referring to three decades of space technology collaboration between the two countries, Dr Jitendra Singh told Mr Peter Egardt that during the last three years, under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, India’s space programme has received a special impetus which is now being acknowledged even by the countries like USA and Russia which were amongst the earliest to venture into space missions. He disclosed that pictures received from the “Mangalyaan” are now being obtained by even NASA, whereas the South-Asian satellite launched recently is offering vital inputs to all the countries in the region.
He also informed that under the current Government, India’s space programme has been made applicable to a wide range of infrastructural development projects including building of roads and bridges as well as mapping of soil etc. in the agriculture sector.Dr Jitendra Singh appreciated the Swedish Government’s initiative in having sent a high-level delegation of Swedish National Space Board (SNSB) to ISRO in January last year with the motive of exploring new areas of innovation through launch services, cross utilization of ground stations, satellite navigation, atmospheric research and future exploration missions. As a follow up to this visit, he recalled that in May last year, Chairman ISRO Shri A. S. Kiran Kumar had written to Swedish Ambassador in India for proposals for some of the common areas of interest including green propulsion technologies and GNSS remote sensing.Mr Peter Egardt appreciated the warm response and enthusiastic interest shown by Dr Jitendra Singh to make the space programme much more wider based with universal applications. He also extended to Dr Jitendra Singh an invitation to visit Sweden and spare some time to interact with scientists at Swedish Space Centre (SSC).