Finally, we have a roadmap to bring in much-needed reforms in India’s space ecosystem. The Indian Space Policy (ISP) 2023 (bit.ly/3LlfCfn) announced by GoI last week covers all major aspects of the space sector, such as remote sensing, satellite communications, space transportation and deep-space exploration.
It also specifies the roles of agencies like the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), NewSpace India Ltd (NSIL) and the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) in steering India’s space effort. All these agencies will function under the department of space (DoS) to implement the policy, which will provide an overarching legal system for the country’s space domain.
The most important aspect of ISP is the recognition it gives to private industry as a key player in India’s space programme. As science and technology minister Jitendra Singh stated, ‘Industry will be feeling emboldened and enabled to have a larger participation due to the Indian Space Policy 2023.’ For this to happen, however, Isro must give up its decades-old identity as a producer of satellites and space launch systems and, instead, reassign these systems to industry and handhold it, so that private players can build new infrastructure in the sector.
IN-SPACe, for instance, already works with industry, including space technology startups. It will now follow the ISP directive to ‘periodically issue guidelines and procedures that would, among other things, promote ease of doing business’.
Isro’s partnership with the commercial space industry is not new. It began decades ago, and companies like Godrej & Boyce and Larsen & Toubro have even played key roles in India’s Moon and Mars missions. The Mangalyaan mission to Mars, for instance, was built in a record time of 15 months. It actually had two-thirds of its parts manufactured by domestic industry.
Read more at: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/epaper/delhicapital/2023/apr/25/et-edit/india-inc-watch-this-space/articleshow/99741685.cms
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