NEW DELHI: The Centre on Wednesday approved a slew of Cabinet proposals including two key space missions — another mission to the Moon called Chandrayaan-4 and a mission to Venus by March 2028. Other proposals include subsidy on phosphatic and potassic fertilizer, establishment of the National Centre of Excellence (NCoE) for animation, visual effects, gaming, comics and extended reality (AVGC-XR) as a Section 8 company under the Companies Act, 2013.Briefing the media after the meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Information & Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said Chandrayaan-4 will develop and demonstrate technologies to return to Earth after successfully landing on the Moon and will also collect lunar samples for analysis.On the other hand, the Venus Orbiter Mission (VOM) will be a significant step towards the government’s vision of exploring and studying Venus, he added.The total fund requirement for “Chandrayaan-4” is Rs 2,104.06 crore, as the cost includes spacecraft development and realisation, two launch vehicle missions of LVM3, external deep space network support, and conducting special tests for design validation, finally leading to the mission of landing on the lunar surface and a safe return to Earth with the collected lunar samples.The total fund approved for the “Venus Orbiter Mission” is Rs 1,236 crore, of which Rs 824 crore will be spent on the spacecraft. The cost includes the development and realisation of the spacecraft, including its specific payloads and technology elements, global ground station support for navigation and network, as well as the cost of the launch vehicle.Meanwhile, the Union Cabinet also approved Rs 24,474.53 crore subsidy on nutrient-based phosphatic and potassic fertilisers for the rabi season of 2024-25 to ensure supply of crop nutrients to farmers at affordable rates.
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