Sachin Tendulkar to Join Space Icons at Mumbai Climate Week

MUMBAI, Feb. 16 -- Batting legend Sachin Tendulkar will share the stage with India's first man in space, Rakesh Sharma, and astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla, who became the second Indian to travel to space in June 2025, at the inaugural edition of Mumbai Climate Week (MCW), which begins on February 17.

The three-day global climate dialogue will be held at the Jio World Convention Centre and is an initiative of Project Mumbai, supported by the Government of Maharashtra, MMRDA, and the BMC. A key highlight will be a conversation on February 18 titled 'Saarey Jahaan Se Accha,' echoing the historic televised conversation in 1984 when the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi asked Sharma how India looked from space. Sharma, who was aboard the Soviet Soyuz T-11 spacecraft, famously replied, 'Saare Jahan Se Achha' (better than the entire world). The session will bring together Sharma and Shukla to reflect on Earth's fragility and the urgency of climate action.

'Humanity is experiencing life-threatening climate events caused by non-sustainable development and thoughtless overconsumption of Earth's limited non-renewable resources,' Sharma said ahead of the event.

Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, who returned to space last year after more than four decades, and became the first Indian to spend three weeks aboard the International Space Station as part of the private Axiom-4 space mission, said that spaceflight offers a transformative perspective. 'If there is one truth that becomes unmistakably clear from space, it is this- we share a single, fragile planet, and our destinies are deeply interconnected. From orbit, the responsibility to safeguard our planet for future generations is not an abstract ideal; it is an urgent and visible imperative.'

Among the prominent names expected to participate are former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, public health expert Soumya Swaminathan, and sustainability leader Esther Finidori, along with Union Ministers and international representatives. Organisers said more than 100 institutions and 400 speakers from India and across the world will take part in the event.