LIVE: PM To Virtually Inaugurate Skyroot’s Infinity Hyderabad Campus, Unveil Vikram-I Orbital Rocket

Video from the channel CNBC-TV18 about Vikram-I, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 33:21. Video type: Livestream.

CNBC-TV18 broadcast of the event in which Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually inaugurated Skyroot Aerospace's Infinity campus in Hyderabad and unveiled the Vikram-I orbital rocket. The company's two co-founders, Naga Bharath Daka and Pawan Kumar Chandana, take part, a video about the factory and the rocket is screened, and the event closes with a speech by the Prime Minister in Hindi. Among the attendees mentioned are Minister G. Kishan Reddy and IN-SPACe chairman Pawan Goenka.

Daka reviews the company's history: on 18 November 2022 Skyroot launched the Vikram-S, India's first private rocket, and the Vikram-I, designed and manufactured entirely in the country, was due to fly within the following two months with support from IN-SPACe and ISRO, which would place India among the three countries where a private company can put a satellite into orbit. Chandana presents Infinity as India's largest private rocket factory, capable of building and integrating one Vikram a month, and explains that the rockets use advanced carbon-fibre composites and 3D-printed engines. According to him, the company has created more than 1,000 high-tech jobs and plans to invest more than 1,000 crore rupees. The video recalls that Skyroot was founded in 2018. At the host's request, Modi presses the button that inaugurates the campus and the Vikram-I is unveiled.

In his speech, Modi links the event to reforms in the space sector: opening up to private enterprise, the new space policy, the creation of IN-SPACe and startups' access to ISRO facilities and technology. He puts the number of space startups in the country at more than 300, places India as the world's third-largest startup ecosystem, with more than a million and a half registered companies, and announces the opening of the nuclear sector to private capital, with small, advanced modular reactors. He also cites a research fund of one lakh crore rupees and the Atal Tinkering Labs network, with more than 10,000 labs and another 5,000 planned.

The campus is inaugurated and the Vikram-I is publicly unveiled. Skyroot commits to the national goal of 50 launches a year by 2030, and Modi recalls the goal of five new space unicorns emerging within five years. The final seconds of the recording show an unrelated clip from another broadcast by the channel.