New Delhi, Apr 6: In 2012, India had just one registered startup in the space sector — Dhruva Space from Hyderabad. The country now has close to 200 space startups.This exponential growth in the space sector is due to the government’s transformative policies under the leadership of Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.
India’s quantum leap in the space sector became possible after PM Modi took the courageous decision to “unlock” this sector from the “veil of secrecy.”
India’s private space sector saw tremendous growth in the last decade and catapulted the country into the league of elite spacefaring nations, with the potential to become a $100 billion market in the years to come.
From building launch vehicles or rockets to designing advanced satellites these startups also cater to working on space situational awareness (SSA) solutions to constructing applications based on space technology, among others.
The growth came on the back of nearly $233 million in funding raised by space tech startups across more than 30 deals in the last 9-10 years.
Notably, private space startups invested more than Rs 1,000 crore between April-December 2023.
Some of the prominent ones are Pixxel, Skyroot Aerospace, Agnikul Cosmos, and Astrome Technologies, among others.
The government’s push to open the sector to Public-Private Partnership in 2020, with the ‘India Space Policy 2023’, and the launch of the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) — the regulator for private sector players — have played a key role in the expansion of India’s private space sector, along with the rise of new satellite technologies, services as well as applications.
The recent approval to 100 per cent Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in satellite establishment and operations is further expected to be a boon for the industry.
The new FDI norms are expected to bring in fresh foreign investments of up to $25 billion over the next decade and result in a wave of collaborations between Indian and foreign companies, according to industry experts.
Besides, the budget allocation for the sector has seen an over 140 per cent hike in the last nine years.
Recently, PM Modi promised that India would have its own space station by 2035 that will study “unknown expanses of space.”