Yuri Gagarin

Yuri Gagarin

India should build a monument to the first man who journeyed into outer space -- Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin -- and it should be in Mumbai as he had visited the city, said veteran Russian cosmonaut, Viktor Savinykh, here today. "It is important to have a monument in the name of Gagarin in India and in Mumbai, in order to further boost the Indo-Soviet relationship," said Savinykh (71), addressing a crowd of space enthusiasts here. "In Russia, we have many places named after Indian personalities, including Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, but in India there is no monument or even a road named after a Russian personality, and we would like it to happen," he said. Savinykh also spoke about his own space journeys of decades ago. A "world government" was needed to be established to solve the common problems of the planet through collaboration, he said. The planet was facing common problems such as climate change, ozone layer depletion, he said. Space scientists carry out a lot of experiments related to environment, human health, and biology, and these need support at a global level, he said. Savinykh added that several of the inter-planetary missions require collaboration of all the governments of the world. "No single country can do this alone," he said. Remembering the first Indian cosmonaut, Rakesh Sharma, Savinykh said this gave Indian space programme a boost, and today India has achieved such a tremendous growth in the space science that it can help other countries in their missions.