Union Cabinet approves ISRO's Gaganyaan program; Rs 10,000 crores to be allocated

New Delhi, Dec 28: The Union Cabinet on Friday approved India's first indigenous human spaceflight programme- Gaganyaan. The cabinet has approved funds of Rs 10,000 crore for the ambitious project which woud carry three member crew for minimum seven days in space.

Prime Minister Modi on August 15 this year announced that an Indian astronaut would go into space by 2022. He had said from the ramparts of Red Fort that when India celebrates 75th year of Independence in 2022, "and if possible even before, an Indian son or daughter" will undertake a manned space mission on board 'Gaganyaan' "carrying the national flag".

If ISRO executes Gaganyan perfectly, then there would be a paradigm shift in the way world looks at India's capabilities in terms of space exploration. ISRO has undertaken a number of space programmes with great success rate, but sending a human being to space is a different ball game altogether. It is far more complicated than even Chandrayaan and Mangalyaan.

There are a number of new technologies that ISRO has to develop to successfully carry out Gaganyan and several of these technologies are being tested.

Here are the other decisions taken at the Union Cabinet meeting today:

• Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs (CCEA) approves hike in Minimum Support Price (MSP) for Copra by more than Rs.2000 per quintal for 2019 season. The MSP of Milling Copra to be Rs 9521 per quintal and that of Ball Copra to be Rs 9920 per quintal.
• Cabinet acts to make punishment more stringent for committing sexual crimes against children; approves amendments to the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.