Bangalore: President A P J Abdul Kalam today (Apr 21, 2004) predicted that the planet Mars would become a home for human habitation in the next three decades and Moon a major space industry base.

"Mars might become a base for human habitation after 30 years and the Moon would be a powerful space industry base," he said interacting with BEL employees from New Delhi over video conference during the golden jubilee celebrations of the public sector giant.

"You are already in Mars...In our planet (earth), we have a population of six billion and by 2020 it would reach eight billion. We might face shortage of minerals, which we probably are going to source it from other planets," the President said to a query by a BEL employee.

Urging the nation to gear up to capture a slice of the potential $ 300 billion nanotechnology market, Kalam said, "India should gear up itself in terms of research, design and development...this is going to be an important field in another 20 years and it even might replace micro-electronics."

Appreciating the dreams of political leaders of India turning into a developed country, he said, "Everyone with whom I have interacted want to see India become a developed nation and people should become economically stronger besides value system. While the objective of all political leaders was same, the method to achieve it might be different."