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Time of India
27-07-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Mann ki Baat: PM Modi hails Shubhanshu Shukla and Chandrayaan 3; top quotes from 124th episode
NEW DELHI: NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday addressed key issues including science and culture during his 124th episode of his monthly radio programme, Mann ki Baat . PM Modi also talked about astronaut Sudhanshu Shukla's recent visit to the International Space station. Here are the top quotes "We will talk about successes, achievement, in last few weeks, many things have happened in science, culture. Astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla came back from space. When Chandrayaan 3 was success, there was excitement in the country. Space startups are increasing. on August 23, there is National Space Day, you should send suggestions on Namo App," the Prime Minister said. "In 1908 in Muzaffarpur, a youth was to be hanged. He was not in fear, his face was full of confidence, he was Khudiram Bose, at the age of 18, he had shaken the country. After many such sacrifices, we had got the freedom. The month of August is a month of revolution. On August 15, we remember our freedom fighters," PM Modi said. A new revolution started on 7 August 1905. The Swadeshi Movement infused new energy into local products, particularly handlooms. In this memory, the country celebrates National Handloom Day on 7th August every textile sector is becoming a strength of the country. Kavita Dhawale from Mahrashtra's Paithan village used to work in a small room with no space and facilities. With the government's help, she earns a living by selling self-woven Paithani sarees... In Odisha's Mayurbhanj, there is a similar story. Tribal Women gave a new life to Santhali achievements of Naveen Kumar from Bihar's Nalanda is also inspiring,"PM Modi said. India is moving ahead for Olympics and Olympiad. UNESCO has recognised 12 forts in Maharashtra. These are witness to the history... I had gone to Raigad sometime back, the experience will remain with me. These forts exhibit our self-respect. There are many forts across the country... I urge the people to visit these forts," the Prime Minister said. "Women are reviving Santhali Sarees... Textiles sector is our cultural heritage. More than 3,000 startups are there in the country. The dream for Viksit Bharat by 2047 is very much related to Atmanirbharta, vocal for local is required. The folk songs exhibit the culture of our country," PM Modi said. "We need to scripts of present and past, we need to conserve them. There have been people who made this job their life... Mani Maaran from Tamil Nadu is teaching 'pandulipi', research is happening. If it is translated across the country, the old knowledge will become relevant in present times," PM Modi said. Something remarkable is happening in Odisha's Keonjhar. There is a group called 'Radha Krishna Sankirtan'. Along with devotion, this group also chants mantras promoting environmental conservation. The inspiration behind this step is Pramila Pradhan. Her group visited many villages and spread awareness about forest fires," the Prime Minister said "If I ask about birds in vicinity, you would say that 4-5 species you spot, but we need to know about birds in vicinity. At Assam's Kaziranga National Park, there are grassland birds, there are more than 40 species, technology helped, census team recorded voices, used AI, to recognise the species. When technology and sensitivity come together, everything becomes easy," PM Modi said. "Sports is being promoted in the country. The government will be supporting. There are many startups, imagine, our youth playing with indigenous equipment," he said.
New Indian Express
14-06-2025
- Business
- New Indian Express
Smelling cash in the space race
Space has an odour. Visitors to the Goddard Space Flight Centre in Maryland, US, can smell it by pressing a button to inhale a puff of air that smells of space. Space is airless by definition, but the workaround is essential because we can't inhale 'space' without fatal consequences. Despite this logical complication, the experience is evocative and surprising. Space smells of long-distance travel. It smells of Indian highways far from big cities. It smells like the world did long ago on the railways, when almost everyone travelled without air conditioning. But hereafter, space could smell a little different. From the beginning of the space race, it has smelled of Cold War rivalry, military-industrial complexes and technology-based diplomacy. These metallic notes will remain; but from here on, space will also smell overwhelmingly of commerce, of paper money. Gold is economically and chemically stable. It has no smell, unlike space. The countdown of the Axiom-4 mission to the International Space station has been aborted twice but soon, astronauts from India, Poland and Hungary could be back in space after 40 years and more. In anticipation, their national media have already declared it to be a turning point for their domestic space programmes. But the composition of the Axiom-4 mission also indicates that the whole world has passed a turning point. The crew led by American Peggy Whitson will be taken to orbit on Elon Musk's commercial Dragon launch vehicle, and the project is a collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency, ISRO and the Houston firm Axiom Space, whose most ambitious project is the first commercial space station. The purpose of the collaboration is to facilitate a range of commercial activities in space, from scientific research to space tourism. Space is about to be opened up commercially, just like the world was opened like an oyster by the European Age of Exploration. About 40 years ago, when India, Poland and Hungary last sent their citizens into space, it was a domain where national governments showed off their technological prowess to compete for geopolitical gains. These three countries made a place for themselves in space under the aegis of Interkosmos, a Russian state programme launched in 1967 to help satellite nations of the USSR and other socialist nations like Afghanistan and Cuba reach space. Non-aligned nations Syria and India were also under its umbrella.
NDTV
07-06-2025
- Science
- NDTV
"May Not Look, Sound Like Us": Axiom-4 Mission Chief On Extraterrestrial Life
New Delhi: Likening a visit to the space station to a camping trip, former NASA astronaut and Axiom-4 mission commander Peggy Whitson said the orbital station has enough food, water and other supplies to sustain the daily lives of those on board. "We have wet towels that we can use every day to clean ourselves. And we have enough resources from food and water perspectives that we can provide for ourselves. So it isn't like going to some ultra-rich hotel spa or whatever. It is very much a bit of a camping trip. But it's a lot of fun," she told NDTV. Days ahead of the mission's June 10 launch, Dr Whitson said that the most "special part" would be the integration of her team of four with the seven astronauts already on board the International Space station (ISS). The orbital station, she said, is equivalent to inter-connected bus-sized modules of various sizes with four pull-up laboratories, a toilet, exercise hardware and life support systems. "There's actually a lot more space than you think. But obviously, by increasing the crew size by four, it will be a challenge for us to all integrate and work together," she said when asked if the ISS will become crowded when the Axiom-4 team enters it. Should the Axiom-4 mission launch be successful, Dr Whitson and her team members Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, European Space Agency project astronaut Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland, and Tibor Kapu of Hungary will be seen floating around the orbital lab amid its screens, plugs, wires, switches, pipes and knobs. But what she is confident of is life far beyond among the billions of galaxies that unfold outside the space station's portal windows. "I haven't seen any (extraterrestrial life) with my own eyes. But what I have seen is just billions and billions of stars. And this is just our little galaxy. And there's billions and billions of galaxies. And I know, I know there has to be other life out there, because it is so expansive. I'm sure it exists, it may not look or sound like us," Dr Whitson said. That, she said, is the what pushes the idea of exploration and drives the continuous development of technologies further and further to find out about life beyond Earth. Dr Whitson and her colleague Mr Shukla, who is called "Shux" by the team, will especially look at India from space. "All of planet Earth is beautiful. India is special as well. It's relatively easy to pick out India because of the geography. I'm looking forward to seeing it again," she said. The Axiom-4 mission will launch on June 10 at 5.52 pm IST on board SpaceX's Falcon-9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. Mr Shukla will be the second Indian to travel to space four decades after Rakesh Sharma's iconic spaceflight onboard Russia's Soyuz spacecraft in 1984. Once docked, the astronauts plan to spend up to 14 days aboard the orbiting laboratory, conducting science, outreach, and commercial activities. The Axiom-4 astronauts will perform around 60 scientific studies and activities representing 31 countries during their 14-day stay at the ISS. Mr Shukla is set to conduct exclusive food and nutrition-related experiments developed under a collaboration between the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), with support from NASA. The experiments aim to pioneer space nutrition and self-sustaining life support systems, vital for future long-duration space travel. ISRO has lined up a set of seven experiments for Mr Shukla, who will also participate in five joint studies planned by NASA for its human research programme. It has drawn up plans to focus on India-centric food for carrying out experiments on the ISS, including sprouting methi (Fenugreek) and moong (green gram) in microgravity conditions.
