IN-SPACe will accelerate major reforms in space sector: President
In his address to the joint sitting of the two houses of Parliament, the President said that ISRO scientists are working on important missions such as Chandrayan-3, Gaganyaan, and Small Satellite Launch Vehicle.
The formation of the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) will accelerate major reforms in the space sector, President Ram Nath Kovind said on Friday.
In his address to the joint sitting of the two houses of Parliament, the President said ISRO scientists are working on important missions such as Chandrayan-3, Gaganyaan, and Small Satellite Launch Vehicle.
"The formation of Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre - IN-SPACe will accelerate major reforms in the space sector," he said.
IN-SPACe has been created under the Department of Space as a separate vertical to take independent decisions with respect to permitting and regulating space activities of the private sector.
The President said that in the field of nuclear energy also the country is moving rapidly towards achieving self-reliance.
A few months back, the country's first indigenous pressurised heavy water reactor was successfully tested at Kakrapar, added Kovind.
He was referring to the first 700 MW Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor at Kakrapar, Gujarat, KAPP-3, which achieved criticality (controlled self-sustaining nuclear fission chain reaction for the first time) on July 22 last year.
It was a landmark event in India’s domestic civilian nuclear programme given that KAPP-3 is the country’s first 700 MWe (megawatt electric) unit, and the biggest indigenously developed variant of the pressurised heavy water reactor (PHWR).
The PHWRs, which use natural uranium as fuel and heavy water as moderator, are the mainstay of India’s nuclear reactor fleet.
The KAPP-3 is the first 700 MW capacity PHWR, a technology mastered by Indian nuclear scientists and engineers. All future sanctioned PWHRs are of 700 MW.
Kakrapar also has two PHWRs of 220 MW each. The fourth nuclear power reactor of 700 MW is also coming up.
(Disclaimer: Additional background information has been added to this PTI copy for context)
Edited by Lena Saha
