The Department of Space has been given a marginal hike of Rs 338 crore in budget allocation, while the Department of Atomic Energy's allocation declined by Rs 240 crore at a time when the two strategic organisations are executing high-ticket projects such as manned space mission Gaganyaan and construction of new nuclear power plants.
The DAE and the DoS come under the Prime Minister's Office.
The DAE has been allocated Rs 16,725 crore in 2019-2020, of which its allocation for power projects is Rs 4,547.18 crore.
Currently, over 15 nuclear power projects are under construction in various parts of the country.
The allocation for DoS for 2019-2020 was Rs 11,538 crore, whereas in 2018-19, it was Rs 11,200 crore. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) plans to launch India's first human space mission project 'Gaganyaan' by 2020 and the project is estimated to cost nearly Rs 10,000 crore.
In his Budget speech, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal laid out 10 "most important dimensions" in 2030.
One of the dimensions mentioned by him was the vision for outer skies and making India a launch-pad of satellites globally.
"Our space programme Gaganyaan, India becoming the launch-pad of satellites for the world and placing an Indian astronaut into space by 2022 reflect this dimension of our vision," he said.
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