IN-SPACe: India’s Giant Leap in the Space Industry

India has announced some historic initiatives for its space sector, encouraging private player participation and new policies. The stage is being set for phenomenal growth in India’s space economy.

Space exploration and the space sector has witnessed significant growth since the 20th-century space race. The industry has undergone a number of shifts. Over the years, manned space missions have been on the decline, while rocket and satellite launches have gained traction. But with private players vying for a share of the nascent space tourism pie, the spotlight is back on sending the Homo sapien into space. Virgin Galactic, SpaceX, Blue Origin are some very familiar names with big plans to democratize space travel. The space economy environment in the US is starkly different from that in India and our contribution to the current $360bn space economy is only ~3%. However, things are set to change.

Till recently, India’s Department of Space (DoS) had three verticals - ISRO, autonomous bodies and PSUs. With the growing demand for space-based applications and services within the country across different sectors, ISRO is unable to cater to all the needs as a standalone entity. It would have to expand its current capacity by ~10 times in order to do so. Hence, some major changes have been instituted.

In March 2019, New Space India Limited (NSIL) was created as the commercial and marketing arm of ISRO with a ‘primary responsibility of enabling Indian industries to take up high technology space-related activities and to promote and commercially exploit products and services emanating from the Indian space programme.’ NSIL added a demand-driven approach to the existing supply-driven strategy followed by ISRO. Simply put, while ISRO used to market its existing technologies to clients, NSIL seeks to encourage ISRO to develop new technologies to solve a client’s problem.

In addition, in June 2020, the government approved the creation of the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe), a regulator and facilitator for private space endeavours. IN-SPACe will form the fourth vertical of the DoS and serve as a body that regulates and promotes rocket and satellite launch services in the country. Private players can apply to IN-SPACe with their project proposals and utilise ISRO’s resources for their missions. Envisioned to be a fully autonomous body, IN-SPACe will have its own chairman, directorate and cadre. ISRO will also move its operational satellites and rocket launch operations to NSIL.

All these moves have one thing in common — encouraging the participation of private players in the space economy and making it more inclusive. India witnessed a telecom revolution post setting up the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), which sought to provide a level playing field to non-BSNL telecom operators. Look at Airtel and Jio today! IN-SPACe seeks to do something similar in the space sector, by offering a level playing field for private players. This is a huge step forward and stands to offer multiple benefits to various stakeholders.

ISRO

A lot of ISRO’s focus has been on the routine and commercial rocket and satellite launches. However, with the baton being handed over to private players and startups, India’s premier space organization can now focus on R&D endeavours, advanced technology for human space flight missions and capacity building.

In addition, the organization will be able to generate revenues from licensing its launch facilities, data and research. Given the space sector’s expected boom, ISRO’s overall revenues won’t take a big hit from shifting focus away from commercial launches.

Private Players

A lot of companies have been manufacturing components for rockets and satellites. However, ISRO has been their only primary customer. Now, with the doors open for private players to actively explore space, the customer base is set to widen. This will allow these companies to scale up and improve profitability. Private companies can also launch their own rockets and satellites. While they would have to pay a fee to utilize ISRO’s launch facilities, they can also look to build their own launch facilities.

This provides opportunities for players like L&T, Godrej Aerospace, MTAR and HAL that have been building systems for India’s space programme to now look at fully developing their end-to-end satellite building and launch capabilities. It will also open multiple doors for startups in components, software development as well as rocket launch sectors. There is immense scope to accommodate new players while incumbent startups like Earth2Orbit, Agnikul and Pixxel can rapidly scale up.

There is also a possibility that some firms may officially tap into the space tourism sector. Though it would require immense amounts of capital and R&D, recent developments and the government’s encouragement may just be the push needed for the big leap (cue Armstrong’s quote!).

Talent

This is great news for those seeking to work in and contribute to the space sector. Numerous jobs will be created as private players seek to shore up on talent. This most definitely will serve as a big factor in helping reverse the brain drain. And with the immense technically skilled base we possess, we have a great chance to increase our contribution to the global space economy.

But, there are some additional factors that need to be addressed for IN-SPACe to be able to meet its goals. A primary factor is policy.

Policy

The current policy environment isn’t particularly encouraging for the space economy to take off in a robust manner. Assuming the current policy frameworks stand, say a private company wants to launch a satellite. There is a pretty tedious process that the company must go through in order to realize its goal. Securing approvals from the Wireless Planning Commission, Telecom Engineering Centre, Network Operation and Control Centre, Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Broadcasting, filing as per SatCom norms are just some of the steps that must be taken. This deters smaller players and startups from entering the industry entirely. In addition, the laws pertaining to the space industry in the form of the SatCom policy, Remote Sensing Data Policy amongst others haven’t been particularly successful and encouraging for FDIs or private participation. A consolidated mechanism for approval along with clear and updated laws becomes necessary.

ISRO Chairman Dr K. Sivan said, in 2020, that a new space policy and the Space Activities Bill were almost completed. The Space Activities Bill is crucial to a number of activities allowed by the recent privatization. Along with the above, a system of approval for space activities will be set up which would allow private players to partake in space activities without hindrance. A new Navigation Policy, changes to the Remote Sensing and SatCom policy are also in the works. A liberal geospatial data policy would also aid in the growth of India’s start-up ecosystem by making remote sensing data available to tech-entrepreneurs post some checks.

Thus, a lot of exciting opportunities await beyond the horizon and we must leverage the latest boost and maximize benefits to position ourselves on the global pedestal. As one expert on space would put it, ‘To infinity…and beyond!’