In a major boost to the space industry, the Cabinet recently approved 100% foreign direct investment (FDI) through three categories of liberalised entry routes. The Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Center (IN-SPACe) — an autonomous body under the department of space entrusted with supervising, authorising, enabling and promoting the sector — aspires to make space a $44 billion market by 2033, of which $11 billion will be generated through export. Dr Pawan Goenka, the chairperson of IN-SPACe, talks to Anonna Dutt about the growth in investments and earnings that the industry will start seeing soon.
It will bring in new capital to the business. This (decision) was a fine balancing act between any security concern and making global funding available to the private sector.
An increase in investment has already happened over the past few years. We are going to close this year with an investment of 135 to 140 million dollars. And this is just investments that have come in. We do not have a number of the investments that have been made by the companies themselves.
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This figure is without FDI. So, the numbers are likely to be a lot bigger in the coming year.
What has been the impact of policy support and hand-holding by the government?
There are several things that show that we are moving in the right direction.
There are over 200 start-ups in the sector now as compared to just around 40 or 50 three years ago. There has also been an expansion in the infrastructure set up by private companies such as Ananth, Dhruva, Skyroot, Pixxel and Bellatrix.
Companies such as L&T and Godrej, which were contractors for ISRO, are also looking to enter the space sector on their own. Other companies like Tata and Reliance have also taken interest. There is also serious interest from international companies. Firms such as OneWeb and Starlink have already applied to provide broadband services in India.
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And, as I mentioned, investments are going up in the sector.
When do you think the Indian industry will get a bigger share in the global space pie?
The companies are already generating some revenue, but we are likely to see a significant increase soon. Take the launch companies Skyroot and Agnikul, for example, they are likely to start commercial launches next year onwards.
We are also in the process of transferring SSLV to the private sector.
We envision 24 commercial launches a year from the new spaceport Kulasekharapatnam. With every launch costing around Rs 35 to 40 crore, the launches alone will bring in nearly Rs 1,000 crore. Then, of course, revenue will also be generated from the data coming in from the satellites that have been launched as well as the manufacturing of the satellites.
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Would the expanding space sector also bring in newer technology to the country?
Of course, there will be a lot of technological advancements in the country as well. It will happen in three ways.
First, it will come from big missions that ISRO has been working on. And, there have been many big announcements that have been made, including plans to send humans to the Moon and building our own space station. There will also be more Chandrayaan missions. ISRO is also working on developing a reusable launch vehicle. It is the need of the hour. As you know, Falcon 9, the workhorse of SpaceX, is a reusable vehicle making it cost-competitive.
Second, technology will also come from the private sector. It is not that these companies are working with the tried and tested ISRO technologies, they are developing different technologies. Take for example, Bellatrix is developing new thrusters that are not in use anywhere in the world or Digantara working on space debris analysis which is completely new.
Third, technology will also come from foreign companies that enter the Indian market either on their own or in partnership.
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What are the key areas in which the space sector still needs support to grow?
There are five or six areas for support envisioned for the industry.
First is the policy support. There most of the heavy lifting has already been done with the Indian space policy and the FDI policy. The space policy was path changing. Till then private companies were mainly vendors to ISRO or they were in telecommunications. After that, everything — all space activities — was open to the private sector.
The second is technology transfer. We are now working on transferring ISRO technology to the private sector. We are in the process of completely transferring SSLV to the private sector, meaning private companies will own and operate it.
The third is skill development. Most of the skill in the space sector is primarily with ISRO at the moment. We are now organising short-term courses for the industry. We are also working with 14 universities to offer a degree in space technology as one of the engineering streams.
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IN-SPACe is also working to create a formal way for retired ISRO scientists to work with the private sector. We have already hired four experts whose support the industry can seek. Other than that, we are also creating a list of consultants.
Fourth, we will provide infrastructural support. We are working to provide the companies access to ISRO infrastructures. IN-SPACe also inaugurated its technical centre a few days ago. The technical centre in Ahmedabad has facilities that will enable designs to be translated into prototypes. It will have simulators and testing facilities.
An MoU has also been signed with Gujarat and Tamil Nadu to set up manufacturing plants. The Gujarat facility will focus on satellite manufacturing while the one at Tamil Nadu will likely focus on launch vehicle manufacturing as it is close to the second launch port.
IN-SPACe also provides seed funding — a grant of up to Rs 1 crore to select companies. Two companies in agriculture, two in urban development and two in disaster management have been funded.
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More importantly, IN-SPACe is working on demand generation through government orders. At present, 90% to 95% of the manufacturing is with the government itself.
