Last 11 yrs turned technology into India’s growth engine :Jitendra Singh

Minister of State for Science and Technology Dr Jitendra Singh has said that the last eleven years have turned technology into the engine of India’s growth story. Addressing a press conference on scientific achievement in eleven years in New Delhi on Monday, Dr Singh said, in 2014, there were only 50 biotech startups, which has increased to more than ten thousand startups. Emphasising India’s strength in unity in diversity, he called biodiversity as an exclusive resource vital for sustainable development. Dr Singh also spoke about the crucial role of science, innovation, and governance reforms in shaping a New India.
The Minister said that India has progressed from being the world’s 10th largest economy to the 4th. Dr. Singh said that as members of the scientific fraternity, it is the department’s responsibility to present a roadmap that will guide them to the top. He added that this roadmap must focus on exploring new frontiers, sectors and regions that remain untapped and which can add significant value, thereby enabling the country’s journey from 4th place to 3rd, and ultimately to becoming the world’s number one economy.
He highlighted the impact of key reforms such as the opening up of the space and nuclear sectors, which he said have had a multiplier effect on diverse fields including agriculture, education, defence, disaster management, land records, and e-governance.He lauded India’s rapid progress in space exploration, recalling the landmark Chandrayaan-3 mission that made India the first country to land on the Moon’s South Pole. Looking ahead, he said India’s participation in the upcoming Axiom-4 mission, with Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla as Mission Pilot, marks a new chapter of international collaboration in space. This mission will feature Indian-developed biotechnology experiments focusing on space nutrition and self-sustaining life support systems using microgravity-compatible biotech kits. “These kits, conceptualized and validated by Indian scientists, will lay the foundation for long-duration human spaceflight research,” he stated.
The Minister also projected robust growth for India’s space economy, estimating a rise from the current $8 billion to $44 billion in the coming years. He noted that India now has over 300 space startups, a remarkable leap from the single-digit count in 2014. Space medicine, he added, would be a key frontier in which India is already making strides. Highlighting the use of technology for citizen-centric governance, Dr. Singh cited innovations like face recognition technology for pension verification and the evolution of the CPGRAMS grievance redressal system, which now handles 26 lakh complaints annually, up from just 2 lakh in 2014.