Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh, on Saturday, said that India will launch its first privately developed rocket, Vikram S, from the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO’s) launch pad at Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota in a couple of days.

He said Vikram S is developed by Hyderabad-based Skyroot Aerospace and it will carry two Indian and one foreign customer payloads in a sub-orbital mission.

Addressing an event of BJP’s student wing ABVP here, Dr Jitendra Singh told the youth to embrace boldly the fast paced changes as today is an era of innovation. He said, they are lucky to have a government at the Centre, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which wholeheartedly supports the new scientific endeavours and through policy interventions enabled the youth of India to dream big.

Dr Jitendra Singh said his generation was born and brought up in technology-transition world, as newer innovations were happening at at very slow pace.

He said 102 Start-ups are working in the space sector in cutting-edge areas of space debris management., nano-satellite, launch vehicle, ground systems, research etc.

Dwelling on a number of policy initiatives and support system by the Centre to promote alternate sources of livelihood, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the youth must come out of the government job mind-set which is hampering the blooming of their full potential. Giving the example of the ‘Purple Revolution’ originating from Jammu & Kashmir, the Minister said, it offers attractive StartUp avenues and those who have entered the lavender sector are making a fortune out of it.

Dr Jitendra Singh said that Himalayan States like Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and North-Eastern States are going to make a significant value edition to build India’s future economy in the next 25 years of Amrit Kaal, because these are the territories whose resources have remain under-utilised in the past. Similarly, he said that India’s 7500 km-long coastline will play a vital role in shaping up India’s Vision @ 2047 and added that we need to leverage our underutilised oceanic resources in order to advance the economic growth of our nation.