Indian Space Research Organisation the Himalayas. The Rangpur Observatory was set up in 1957 at Osmania University, Hyderabad. Space research was further encouraged by the technically inclined Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru. In 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1 and opened up possibilities for the rest of the world to conduct a space launch. The Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR) was set up in 1962 by Jawaharlal Nehru, first Prime Minister of India. The prime objective of ISRO is to use space technology and its application to various national tasks. The Indian space programme was driven by the vision of
Prime Minister of India National Highways Development Project (NHDP) and the "Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana" (PMGSY; IAST: ; Prime Minister Rural Road Scheme), for the development of roads. But during his reign, the 2002 Gujarat communal riots in the state of Gujarat took place; resulting in the death of about 2,000 deaths. Prime Minister Vajpayee's tenure as prime minister came to an end in May 2004, making him the first non-Congress PM to complete a full five-year tenure. In the 2004 election, the Congress emerged as the largest party in a hung parliament; Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA)—with outside support from the Left