From Sharma to Shukla, night lights reveal India's transformation over the years

New Delhi,UPDATED: Jun 27, 2025 14:18 IST

In April 1984, when Rakesh Sharma stayed in space for around a week, he saw India from up there like no other Indian had before him. Forty-one years later, when Shubhanshu Shukla looks at India from the International Space Station, he would have an entirely different view of the country, especially of the night-time lights.

During a live broadcast with then Prime Minister IndiraGandhi, when asked how India looked from space, Sharma replied: "Saare Jahan Se Achcha".

That India looked better than the rest was a patriotic expression that is remembered to this day. But if Sharma happened to travel to space today, his pride would shine like the night-time lights now do across India.

Night-time satellite images of India have been publicly accessible since the 2000s, as earlier satellite cameras were not advanced enough to capture such imagery.

Night-time lights, as captured from space, represent the intensity of artificial lights on the earth's surface. They are an indication of development activities and socio-economic changes, including urbanisation.

In the 1980s, when Sharma went to space aboard the Soyuz T-11 spacecraft, cameras weren't as evolved as they are today. Eyes in the sky that would capture the earth's images were few and far between.

That is why there aren't many images of night-time India as seen from space from that era. However, images from the last two decades are available, and show how India has transformed.

One such study was carried out by the Indian Space Research Organisation's (Isro's) National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC).

The NRSC carried out a 10-year trend analysis of such a change and depicted it in an atlas titled 'Decadal (2012-2021) Change of Night Time Light over India from Space'.

Overall, a 43% increase was observed in the radiance of night-time lights (NTL) in 2021 from 2012. "Significant increase was observed in Bihar, Manipur, Ladakh and Kerala," according to the NTL atlas released in November 2022.

The radiance of night lights as observed from space doesn't just show developments, it also marks disruptions.

"In most of the states, a fall in NTL cumulative radiance was observed in the year 2020, and this could be the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic," according to the NTL atlas.

INDIA LOOKS AMAZING FROM SPACE: SUNITA WILLIAMS

Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams shared that India's diverse terrain looks "amazing" from space.

Williams ended up staying in space for months against the planned 8 days as her ride back -- Boeing's Starliner -- malfunctioned.

"India is amazing," she said in April, adding, "Every time we went over the Himalayas, we got incredible pictures. It happened like a ripple and flows down into India."

She highlighted the rich colours visible from orbit, particularly as the landscape transitions into Gujarat and Mumbai.

During the day, large cities like Delhi, Sao Paulo, or Lagos show greyish patches due to concrete and asphalt.

Though day-time images also reveal urban sprawl and changes in land-use patterns, the shining brilliance of transformation is better visible in images of night-time lights.

Satellite images from 1984 to 2022 show Delhi's rapid urban expansion, with the bottom-left revealing Indira Gandhi International Airport's transformation from a single runway to a four-runway hub. (Video: Google Earth Engine/Screengrab)

HOW INDIA LOOKS FROM SPACE AT NIGHT?

Satellites, which send back the images, are either stationed or orbit the earth at a greater distance than the ISS, where Shubhanshu Shukla is stationed for 14 days.

The ISS, just like the Salyut 7 where Rakesh Sharma carried out experiments, is in the lower earth orbit (LEO). The Salyut 7 was the last space station in the Soviet Union's Salyut program before the launch of the Mir space station.

Night-time satellite images available in the public domain from 2012 show a massively transformed India.

It would be safe to assume that the biggest transformation would have come after the 90s, when India opened up its economy.

Though we can only guess how night-time India must have looked to Rakesh Sharma, images are available to show how the country would be visible to Shubhanshu Shukla. The two images of India -- a country that is Saare Jahan Se Achcha -- would be starkly different.

- Ends

The photos were curated by Rahul Kumar, Senior Photo Researcher at India Today Digital.