ISP’s primary objective is to facilitate entry of the private sector into the Indian space ecosystem, enabling the domestic sector to be a competitive player in the international market. This will not only provide ISRO with an enhanced capacity for more focused research and development but will also expand the commercial space market and bring in funding and technological expertise.
India has witnessed a jump in space agencies in the private sector from just one start-up in 2012 to 47 at the end of 2021. As a result, by December 2022, 111 space start-ups were registered with government-run IN-SPACe. The last three years have recorded incremental investment in the private space sector in India. While 2020 recorded an investment of $23 million by the year 2022, annual investment in the Indian Space Startups had jumped nearly fourfold to $108.52 million.
This upward trend is likely to continue in 2023 with the private sector expecting a near three-fold increase in investment to $300 million. Increasing investment in the last few years is yielding returns in the form of multiple orbital launches of rockets apart from satellites and will receive a shot in the arm through the implementation of the new India Space Policy, further opening up the ecosystem.
It will bring in the required financial and technological resources from the private sector into the space industry while putting in place regulatory mechanisms for the commercial space market. According to the report titled, “Developing the space ecosystem in India – Focusing on inclusive growth” published in October 2022, India’s space economy is pegged to jump from $9.6 billion in 2020 to $12.8 billion by 2025. This will be driven primarily through the inclusion of private players in space missions, a key provision in the ISP 2023.