New Delhi, Oct 27 (IANS): Union Minister of State for Electronics & IT, Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Thursday said that the Centre is undertaking various collaborative measures to enhance "underlying technologies like microelectronic and semiconductor to increase Internet penetration".

Addressing the India Space Congress 2022, organised by Satcom Industry Association, Chandrasekhar said: "SatCom is key for delivery of quality Internet. It will play an important role to enable Internet connectivity to 1.2 billion Indians by 2025-26."

The Minister further said that bandwidth and latency of the Internet is the core for economic development.

"Internet is accelerating the digital economy with satellite playing an important part," he added.

Speaking at the conference, R. Umamaheswaran, Director of Human Space Flight Centre, ISRO, said: "We are working on our first human flight to space by end 2024 or early 2025, for which astronauts are undergoing training in Bengaluru.

"The opening up of the space industry post the reforms have seen an increased participation by private players in the space industry. However, we need to keep in mind the growth of the electronics industry is key to the growth of the space industry."