SHILLONG:
G20 Sherpa of India Amitabh Kant, on April 17, called Shillong an ideal place to host the G20 meeting on ‘Space Economy, Policy & New Space’ given the fact that the state houses the space centre — North Eastern Space Applications Centre (NESAC) in Umiam.
“Shillong is an idea place for this meeting… Shillong is important because we have the space centre here and because space technology has to play a critical role in the development of Northeast,” Kant said this on the sidelines of the precursor event of the 4th edition of the Space Economy Leaders Meeting (SELM) under GS Presidency of India held at Courtyard Marriot Hotel.
Kant said the meeting will deliberate on several constructive areas on how to use the space economy for the development of the countries, how to do manufacturing in space and how to use the energy of space for renewable energy.
“We are also looking at the use of space mining. Different countries are at different stages of development. In India, we have made a lot of progress and the space policy has recently come out and there are number of start-ups working in the space sector,” he said.
The G20 Sherpa said 500 startups have registered in the space sector and the Centre is ready to provide support to enable Indian start-ups to lead the space sectors in the country.