BAKU, Azerbaijan — The Indian government is constant a series of reforms aimed toward increasing private involvement within the space sector and attracting global capital.
“A transition is occurring in India. We’re moving from ISRO being the only player within the space sector to the private sector taking up a more meaningful role,” Pawan Goenka, chairman of the Indian National Space Promotion Authorization Center (IN-SPACe), said at a forum on the 74th International Astronautical Congress in Baku, Oct. 5.
The Indian government approved the Indian Space Policy 2023 in April this 12 months, which follows numerous developments lately.
“What the Indian Space Policy did was take all the things to do with space — satellite communication, distant sensing, space operations, transportation, navigation, all the things — and put it into one comprehensive document only 12 pages long,” Goenka said.
The reforms define clearer roles for the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), IN-SPACe, and NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), while also removing barriers to participation for non-government entities. ISRO will proceed as a civil space agency, specializing in research and development of advanced space technologies and areas including human spaceflight, while IN-SPACe will regulate and authorize space activities in India, nurture startups and facilitate cooperation with ISRO.
The policy has removed just about all restrictions on the private sector to take part in the space sector in India, which was earlier almost inaccessible. Constructing rockets, launching, owning and operating satellites, developing services and acquiring and disseminating Earth statement data are actually all permissible.
Moreover, India can also be set to finalize a brand new foreign direct investment (FDI) policy for the space sector. This is anticipated to liberalize rules for foreign ownership in a bid to draw global investment, and can affect areas including satellite manufacturing, ground segment, launch vehicles, subsystems and more.
While these measures are broad in scope, India has specific areas in mind by which the country can look to construct, in response to Goenka.
A decadal vision and strategy for the Indian space economy is ready to be released in the approaching days. It will set a goal for where India sees itself in 10 years by way of space economy, and where the main target of efforts will likely be put.
“Currently, the Indian Space economy is measured at about eight billion dollars, which is simply about 2% of the worldwide space economy,” says Goenka. He nonetheless states that the country has aspirations to extend that multifold.
“There are a number of things that we predict India can have a competitive advantage in. The primary one in manufacturing, which is that India can turn out to be a small satellite manufacturing hub.”
Goenka also says the country can turn out to be “pretty big in small launch vehicles,” and in launching low Earth orbit constellations. He also noted ground station services, Earth statement data and space applications as other areas of potential growth.
Goenka enumerates several benefits that may bolster India’s position in these areas: latest institutional support, state-level policies, an unlimited domestic market, a high variety of STEM graduates, and competitive labor costs. These he says can ultimately grow India’s share of the worldwide space economy.