Private odyssey: With government backing, private role in India’s space sector has taken off | 22 July 2023 | UPSC Daily Editorial Analysis
What's the article about?
- It talks about the rise of the private sector in India’s Space Ecosystem due to sustained support from the government.
Relevance:
- GS3: Achievements of Indians in Science & Technology; Indigenization of Technology and Developing New Technology; Awareness in the fields of Space;
- Essay;
- Prelims
Context:
- The successful launch of the Chandrayaan-3 underscores the rise of the private sectors in the Indian Space Ecosystem.
- Nearly 85% of the components of the LVM3, the rocket that carried India’s Moon lander and rover into space, were reportedly sourced from private firms, with many of the critical components developed in the GOCO (government-owned, companies operated) model.
Indian Space Sector:
|
Analysis:
- Rise of private sector:
- The government established the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) in 2020 as a link between the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the private sector.
- This has led to a boom in the number of private-sector space start-ups, from 21 in 2020 to 146 now.
- ISRO has transferred over 400 technologies to 235 industries, and has signed 620 tech-transfer agreements since the 1980s, and close to half of these transfers have happened in the past few years.
- Transfers with the intention of buying back—that is, products made by the private-sector tech-recipient finding application in ISRO programmes—give confidence to investors of a dependable market.
- Investors also see a less-costly alternative to European launchers that are grounded or under development, as well as access to a bustling manufacturing hub.
Opening up of ISRO facilities for testing, tracking, in-lab development also facilitate hand-holding of the private sector.
Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe):
|
- Indigenisation of the space technologies:
- The focus needs to be on expanding indigenisation in space operations.
Some materials and electronic components are still imported by Isro, with the share of imported components at around 10% for launch vehicles and 50-55% for satellites. - Critical components and materials must be “space qualified” for operations beyond 100 km above the Earth's surface.
- There is a need to cater to the end-use needs of various organizations in the public and private sectors, such as the earth sciences ministry, telecom department, media companies, and weather forecasting companies.
- The focus needs to be on expanding indigenisation in space operations.
- Need more investments:
- Development as well as acquiring space technologies needs a huge financing. To ease access to funding, the government is working on easing foreign direct investment in the sector (under the Space Policy announced in April).
- Investments in Indian space start-ups have been growing at an impressive pace; from $23 million in 2020, it climbed to $109 million in 2022.
Way Forward:
- The potential for the private sector in India’s space industry is huge—the satellite manufacturing market is expected to reach $3.2 billion by 2025, while the launch and satellite services markets are expected to reach $1 billion and $5 billion, respectively.
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