There has been around 200 times increase in space start-ups in just about two years, said Union Minister Jitendra Singh said on Thursday.
This quantum jump has been possible because of a major policy decision taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to open up the space sector to private players and allow public-private participation in a big way, he said.
Dr Jitendra Singh was chairing a high-level meeting to review the 100 days Action Plan of the Department of Space. He took stock of the present status, the opportunities and future space missions of India’s space sector.
Chairman ISRO, S. Somanath, his team and senior officials were present in the meeting.
During the meeting, the minister mentioned that Space StartUps have increased from 1 in 2022 to nearly 200 in 2024, witnessing an unprecedented rise of 200 times. In the year 2023 alone, nearly Rs 1,000 crore was invested in the space sector of India in just about eight months.
Further, the industry caters to nearly 450 MSMEs affirming the PM’s vision of “Sabka Prayas” during the Amrit kaal period.
Giving further insights into the space sector, Dr. Jitendra Singh said that the share of India in the global space economy by 2030 is going to rise four times in comparison to 2021. In 2021, the Indian space industry contributed 2 per cent to global share. This is expected to rise to 8 per cent by 2030 and further to 15% by the year 2047.
The minister and the ISRO chairman also briefly touched upon the rising involvement of the private sector in the space missions. Presently India allows 100% FDI in the space sector thereby unleashing new horizons of innovation and growth to the sector.
According to Dr Jitendra Singh, the private sector can offer new solutions to development of advanced small satellites, geospatial technologies, orbital transfer vehicles and so forth.
Touching upon the contribution of science to Indian society, Dr. Singh said that private players will play a huge role in sectors such as agriculture, environment, governance etc.