India to send first manned space mission by 2022

As India celebrates its 72nd Independence Day today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the country's first manned space mission would be sent by the year 2022 and set the launch date of an ambitious health care mission aimed at benefitting ten crore people from September.

"India has always advanced in space science but we have decided that by 2022 when India completes 75 years of Independence, or before that, a son or daughter of India will go to space with a tricolor in their hands, Modi said in his annual speech Independence Day address to the nation from the ramparts of the historic Red Fort here after hoisting the national flag, reports our New Delhi correspondent.

If successful, India will join Russia, the United States and China in sending manned missions to the outer space. "I extend my best wishes to the scientists and technicians of India for this endeavor," Modi said.  

The prime minister also announced the roll-out of the world's largest government-funded healthcare programme, called the Ayushman Bharat-National Health Protection Scheme, from September 25 which aims to provide coverage of Rs 5 lakh per family annually, benefiting more than 10 crore poor families, reports our New Delhi correspondent.

Modi's announcements came months before fresh national elections due early next year in which most opposition parties are trying to put up a united front against him.

Modi stressed the need for injecting a sense of fear among rapists and people "with demonic mindset" and called for giving wide publicity to the cases in which rapists were awarded the death sentence to deter people from committing such crimes. 

"The country, our society need to be rid off this demonic mindset," he said adding "the rule of law is supreme for us and there can be no compromise with this." 

Modi said the society needs to feel a million times more pain a rape victim endures and spoke about fast-track trial of rape cases where the convicts were condemned to death within days. He also asked the people to inculcate values and respect for women in their children.

In his speech, the Prime Minister listed the achievements ranging from the scaling of Mount Everest by tribal children to the expedition to South Pole expedition by Indian women and said "if we don't look at where we started, we will not be able to how far we have comes If we take 2013 as the base year, then you'll be surprised to learn the pace of progress," he added.

Today, compared to 2013, "twice as much roads being built, four times as many houses are being built, record-breaking mobiles are being manufactured, tractors are being sold, planes are being bought, new Indian Institutes of Technology, new All India Institutes of Medical Sciences are being set up, ….there is a deluge of startups in tier 2 and 3 cities," he said.

India's standing in the world has gone up Modi said. "Today, when any Indian goes anywhere, all countries of the world welcome them... The power of the Indian passport has increased," he said. 

Drawing a comparison between India's standing in 2013 under a Congress party-led government and today,  Modi said if the pace of the previous government's last year was maintained, it would have taken decades, centuries and generations for India to build as many toilets, distribute as many cooking gas connections among the poor and lay down as much optical fibre as his government has done.

Indians today across the globe are feeling proud as the country has become the sixth largest economy in the world, he said.

While decisions have been held back in the past due political and other compulsions, bold decisions like the nation-wide goods and services tax are being taken now, the PM said.

"The world was worried earlier about India as it saw the country among the fragile five, now it looks at us with hope," he said.

"The world earlier viewed India as a country hit by policy paralysis, delayed reforms, now it sees it as a multi-trillion dollar investment destination," he said, adding that his government also took the bold measure of announcing the minimum support price for grains at 1.5 times the cost to farmers.