Bengaluru: 2-day US-India space summit focuses on accelerating partnerships

Bengaluru: The US India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF), along with the US Consulate General, kicked off a two-day conference on the space sector on Tuesday. 

Titled the ‘US India Space Business Forum’, the event aims to deepen collaboration, accelerate partnerships and unlock new commercial opportunities in the space domain between the two countries. 

Starting off with opening remarks by Nivedita Mehra, managing director, USISPF and Carey Arun, acting consul general, and principal commercial officer, US consulate general, Chennai, the event then moved on to a keynote address by Isro chairman V Narayanan. 

In his speech, Narayanan shed light on the collaborations between Isro and the US over the years and other accomplishments of Isro in recent
years. 

“The entire activity of the Indian space programme was started in 1962. The entire programme was started, not with the aim of competing with anybody, but to bring advanced space technology for the benefit of the common man of India. However, today, we strongly believe that it should not just benefit Indians, but the global population too. It is a human-centric, application-oriented programme,” he
said. 

The Isro chief stressed the need for such an initiative to be an internationally collaborative programme. 

The event hosted multiple panel discussions on topics like ‘India’s call for FDI in space sector: ‘Vision and implementation’ and ‘Earth observation: An important tool for nation’s economic development,’ featuring experts from various institutions. 

The second day of the forum is set to feature a fireside chat with Eric Stallmer, executive vice president for government affairs and public policy, Voyager Technologies, and five panel discussions on allied topics.