Large parts of world admired India's successful Chandrayaan-3 mission, says Jaishankar

The successful soft landing of India’s ambitious Chandrayaan-3 mission on the lunar south pole was admired by a large part of the world, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Friday.

India’s strategy is to maximise the opportunities and minimise the risks as technology holds immense potential for leapfrogging development, he said at an event. ”I was at the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) meeting accompanying the prime minister (Narendra Modi) when the Chandrayaan-3 (mission) successfully landed on the moon,” the former bureaucrat said. ”I cannot tell you what an impact it made. There were African leaders and the kind of feeling a large part of the world had was admiration that you (India) did it,” he added.

Chandrayaan-3 was India’s third mission to the moon, and its second attempt to carry out a soft-landing on the lunar surface. India became the fourth country after Russia, the US and China to perform a soft landing on the moon and the first to touch down on its uncharted south pole. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) managed to place the Vikram lander on the lunar surface and roll out the robotic rover, Pragyaan.

Jaishankar was speaking at the 20th National Summit ”Take Pride 2023”, organised by Young Indians — the Confederation of Indian Industry’s youth wing. Observing that three Ts — talent, technology and tradition — comes to mind when people think about India, Jaishankar — referring to his another visit to Sweden for a business meet — said there were members of various Nordic countries and the discussion was on telecom.