New stars emerging in India’s space trajectory

A liberalised space sector ushers in private players as the industry awaits a state policy that plugs gaps and pushes long-term growth

India launched its first sounding rocket on November 21, 1963. Into its 60th year, the country’s space programme is increasingly themed around the ideas of self-reliance and indigenisation. Structural shifts in space policy appear consistent with India’s ambitions, across sectors, to become a producer largely independent of its import deals.

A recent shift in policy allows local private industry and space-tech startups to be key partners of the government. The decision to allow private participation across domains in the space sector, formalised through a Union Cabinet decision in June 2020, has also reshaped the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) engagement with the industry. A comprehensive policy framework is reportedly in the works and could set the pace of liberalisation in India’s space sector.

Currently, the country accounts for only about 2% of the global space market. Empowered by these changes, local aspirations will find a bigger share in this space economy, valued at $600 billion by 2025. They will also be driven by an unfamiliar excitement around an emergent market with no real reference points.

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Although the potential is limitless, space entrepreneurs and industry analysts feel that the returns from this push for private participation will depend critically on the emerging funding and support ecosystem, creation of viable business models and the efficiency of policy frameworks and regulatory checks.

The Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe), created as a single-window nodal agency to monitor the private industry’s activities in the sector, has been an extension of concerted efforts to prepare India for the growth of its space economy.

“The results are out there. We can see them in the staggering pace at which the number of space-tech companies has increased in India over the past two to three years,” says Yashas Karanam, who co-founded Bengaluru-based Bellatrix Aerospace with Rohan Ganapathy, in 2015.

“Until now, investors came in with apprehensions about fitting into a state-run system. With the government formally stating intent to engage the private sector and with the creation of IN-SPACe, those questions have been answered,” he adds.

Yashas feels investor confidence is the big takeaway from India’s engagement with private industry in the sector. Incubated at the Indian Institute of Science, Bellatrix develops propulsion systems and is building a $76 million facility near the Kempegowda International Airport, in Bengaluru.

However, reforms to the existing regulatory system are also critical to realising India’s potential in the sector, says Narayan Prasad, the co-founder of satsearch, a global space marketplace. For instance, “IN-SPACe needs to have a legislative mandate, allowing it to function independently and be a truly single-window agency that does not need to await clearances from the Space Commission or the Union Cabinet," he says. The Space Commission frames policies and monitors activities conceived under India's space programme.

Such accountability will also garner the interest of more foreign investors adds Berlin-based Narayan, who is one of the co-founders of Spaceport Sarabhai, a think tank formed by private space industry leaders in 2021.

Changing roles

With the current reforms, ISRO is playing a new role — from being the primary service provider, it is moving closer to the profile of a resource-rich facilitator that handholds space technology companies and startups.

The private industry, which has had limited participation as supply chain partners in ISRO’s satellites and launch vehicles, is now leading independent space activities. The possibilities are emerging in the form of applications in diverse areas – weather forecasting to robotics, aviation to agriculture.

The Department of Space (DoS) sees non-government entities (NGEs), including startups and academic institutions, as the drivers of the space economy in the country.

NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), formed by the DoS, is leading this demand-driven model. It associates with NGEs in manufacturing operational launch vehicles and satellites, and commercialising the launches. NSIL, which was incorporated in 2019 as a space services-driven company, has evolved into a commercial space business arm that builds rockets and satellites through the industry on an end-to-end basis.

“NSIL’s collaboration with the industry entails a comprehensive understanding of the end customer, the utility of the product or service which is being developed, and ways to ensure a good return on investment,” says Radhakrishnan D, chairman and managing director, NSIL.

In September last year, NSIL signed a Rs 860-crore contract with a Hindustan Aeronautics Limited-Larsen & Toubro consortium for the production of ISRO’s workhorse launcher – Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).

The first fully industry-produced PSLV-XL, of the five to be delivered as part of the contract, is expected to be rolled out in 2024.

Radhakrishnan says ISRO’s Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mk-III and Small Satellite Launch Vehicle have enabled NSIL to tap into a wider market since there is rising global interest in launching low earth orbit satellite constellations. During FY 2021-22, NSIL achieved a turnover of Rs 1,674.77 crore.

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Launch services to drive growth

India’s space economy, comprising broad segments of satellite manufacturing, launch services, ground segment and satellite services, was valued at $9.6 billion in 2020 and will be worth $12.8 billion by 2025, according to a 2022 report by a non-profit space industry body Indian Space Association (ISpA) and Ernst and Young.

Indigenised production of small satellites for Indian and global companies, combined with the potential of low-cost vehicles, is likely to steer India’s post-liberalisation space economy.

The launch services segment which includes services for launching rockets that deliver satellites into the earth's orbit was valued lowest among the four segments in 2020. However, it is set to have the biggest compound annual growth rate (13%), with its value touching $1.04 billion in 2025. The report forecasts satellite manufacturing, at a CAGR of 8.1%, to emerge as the second fastest-growing segment.

In November last year, for instance, Vikram-S, India’s first privately built rocket, was launched from Sriharikota, announcing the arrival of the private space sector. Skyroot Aerospace, the Hyderabad-headquartered startup which developed the launch vehicle, had in 2021 entered an agreement with ISRO on sharing the space agency’s facilities and expertise in a first for startups in the country.

November saw ISRO’s PSLV-C54 launch two radio communication nanosatellites — Thybolt 1 and Thybolt 2 — developed by Hyderabad-based Dhruva Space. The rocket also launched Anand, a hyper-spectral earth imaging satellite from Bengaluru-based space data company Pixxel.

Agnikul Cosmos, the space-tech startup incubated at IIT Madras, has established India’s first private launchpad and mission control centre at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, in Sriharikota.

ISRO continues to engage with startups and early-stage entrepreneurs through SpaceTech Innovation Network (SpIN), a joint initiative with Social Alpha. SpIN is aimed at promoting innovation in deep science and space tech, with a technology spread covering remote sensing Geographic Information Systems, AI and Robotics, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, and 3D sensing and imaging. Under the initiative, a jury shortlists the applications every quarter.

Policy, potential, challenges

A new national space policy that incorporates inputs from industry groups has been cleared by the Space Commission and is in an advanced stage of approval.

Lt Gen A K Bhatt (Retd.), director-general, ISpA, sees IN-SPACe’s startup collaborations as an expression of what the upcoming policy envisions.

The draft of the new space policy is learnt to have “clearly outlined” the roles of all stakeholders and the guidelines on critical areas including the transfer of technology.

The industry expects the revised FDI policy to generate extensive investment in NGEs and seeks from the Union Government production-linked incentives and measures that ensure a level-playing field for private companies in the new space economy.

“There are challenges as well — we need to see how the orders are going to materialise. The industry is looking for an assured market while the present thinking seems to favour a setup that will take shape as we go forward,” Lt Gen Bhatt says. There are also concerns over the plan to auction spectrum (for satellite communication), he adds.

“The government can come in as the first customer here and avail space-based services from private industry for its ministries and departments. It will minimise the risk involved for the service providers and if these services deliver the results, they can always be scaled up,” Narayan says.

It is to be seen if the space policy addresses questions around the dual-use nature – utility in both civil and military segments. “Promoting private players and allowing them access to state facilities is building tremendous confidence but on a different note, we also need to see how we regulate exports of dual-use products and services. Now, there appears to be a gap at the policy level,” Yashas says.

Breaking the silos

P G Diwakar, ISRO chair professor at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, feels that a stronger collaboration with the private sector is the right direction for India to take. “Over the decades, ISRO has done extensive research and created a lot of operational systems. This could be the time to bring in some disruptive thinking. If the private players can achieve that with the technologies that we have already built while ISRO continues to develop emerging technologies that are strategic in nature, an open space sector will have a multiplier effect, benefiting India and the world,” Diwakar says.

Annapurni Subramaniam, director, the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, sees the opening up of the space sector as a start – towards the indigenisation of critical capabilities and a partnership model that prepares scientific organisations for new thinking and applications. “Niche institutions with specific built-in capacities have to gel together in creating a synergy,” she says. IIA developed the Visible Emission Line Coronagraph, the primary payload in Aditya L1, India’s first dedicated scientific mission to study the Sun. The mission is set for a tentative June-July 2023 launch.

A comprehensive system to measure growth in the sector, through investment, exports, employment and other indicators, is key to framing a policy for sustainable growth, Narayan says. “Policies can no longer be shaped by opinion; they need to be based on actual numbers that track the economic and social impact,” he adds.