Space sector offers huge opportunities for private investment in India, with the government taking a policy to open up this vital segment which had been a state preserve for decades, a senior scientist said today.
Setting the context for a two-day International Space Conclave Edge 2020 at Kovalam, Trivandrum, Mr. M C Dathan, Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre former who is currently Scientific Advisor to the Chief Minister of Kerala, highlighted the need to build a robust ecosystem to harness the potential in the area. The country’s first Space Technology Park launched here is a major step in that direction, he added.
The conclave, whose central theme is ‘New Space—Opportunities and way forward’, is organised by Space Park, being developed by the state government with the backing of industry and domain leaders including Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
“The government has taken a position to ensure maximum involvement of private entrepreneurship in the space sector,” Mr. Dathan said. “This covers production levels and portions of research and development.”
Creating a sound ecosystem essentially requires five enablers: physical infrastructure, common infrastructure, mentoring network, national and international partnership and aggregation of demands within the country and abroad.
Noting that the Space Park seeks to meet all these basic criteria, he said a large number of space technology and aerospace firms have already shown keen interest in the facility.
Shri Dathan, who had played a key role in many of ISRO’s projects, noted that all countries, except India, have space programme as a defence technology spin-off. Naturally, the fruits of Indian space programme had been channelised for the benefit of society, he added.
Shri M Sivasankar IAS, Principal Secretary, IT and Electronics, Government of Kerala, laying out the broad contours of the themes to be explored by the conclave, said the state is building an ecosystem that will evolve, operate and liberate the space sector. The efforts will help scale new heights and generate opportunities to big domain players as well as startups and small medium enterprises.
Noting ISRO is collaborating to fulfil this ambitious project, he said the Kerala capital was “eminently qualified” to be the space city of India. “Half the personnel of ISRO work here, which means the city is a huge talent centre. It is also home to the country’s first space university,” Mr. Sivasankar noted.
The Space Park will provide a framework and open up the sector to private investment, agile companies, startups and small and SMSEs. “It has been substantially assisted by ISRO. A collaboration of all these will lead to an altogether different ballgame,” he added.
The two-day meet is attended by top experts, industry leaders and envoys, deliberating on key themes and immense possibilities thrown up by profound changes propelled by new technologies.
