Dr Chaitanya Giri, Associate Professor, FLAME University and Advisory Board Member of Satcom Industry Association, spoke to businessline on the growth of the space sector:
How would you review India’s space journey in the last 10 years?
The achievements span from structural reforms that have taken place since 2018-19, encouraging the private sector, making sure that there is ease of doing space business, demonstration of some cutting-edge space missions, to the great successes of Chandrayaan-3 and Aditya L-1. A notable achievement has been in terms of setting the plinth for an overall tripartite space programme, helmed by the military, the civilian side, which is now operated by ISRO, and the commercial sector which was a distant third player all this while.
What is the unfinished agenda?
The space programme is always a work-in-progress. I don’t think there is any agenda that is pending, but there are lot of things that need to be done. Number one, since the government has been able to convince the country that there is a great scope to make India a major space economy, we must ensure that India Inc and the Indian start-up ecosystem are seamlessly integrated into the space programme. So, cutting down on the delays, expediting R&D, making them commercially ready should be a prime agenda of the Indian government in the next five years.
How do you see the future of the Indian space sector?
I see a lot of Indian companies that have been around in a variety of domains, are now getting into the space sector — not only purely out of excitement that has been generated over the past few years, but these companies are now thinking quite strategically.
The visibly successful space missions like Chandrayaan-3 and Aditya L-1 have given India Inc the confidence to enter the sector. They know for sure that the Indian government is supportive. It will give them the opportunity to grow, to diversify from the core sectors.