"THE GOVERNMENT NEEDS TO FORM A DEDICATED STRATEGY"

Continued involvement of the government through ISRO and the private sector with their agility, should build up capabilities for overseas markets in building satellites, launches, and ground segment equipment, which will help to raise the year-on-year growth rate significantly, says ANIL PRAKASH, Director General, SIA-India, in this interview with GEOPOLITICS.

Considering that Indian space has gained 'open skies' in the last 12 months, there is a lot of catching up to do before its real potential is unleashed. What is being done to channel this energy creatively? And what is the fizz in the sector?

Space Market dynamics are changing with the liberalisation of the sector. There are a number of policies being announced by the government that has enthused interest in private space companies to be the co-travelers in India's space journey and contribute substantially to the global space economy.

As per Dr S Somanath, Chairman ISRO, India targets to garner a 10 percent market share at $50 billion by 2025 and 50 percent market share at $0.75 trillion by 2047.

India at present is witnessing the emergence of a robust space ecosystem with larger investments and internationally competitive their global actors rivaling counterparts with aggressive expansion strategies.

However, the benefits of an open-sky policy can only be realised when the policy allows market economics to drive the supply and demand of satellite capacity between users and satellite operators. We hope the upcoming space policy brings liberalisation and ease of access.

It is evident that the private sector is enthused by the opening up of the sector, but some things can only be done by the government like the Hubble Telescope (on the other end of the world) or Mangalyaan. It costs millions of dollars and there is no shareholder value although it brings enormous value to mankind as a whole. What convergence or divergence. going forward in terms of projects being embraced?