Cabinet approves space policy to streamline private participation

Announcing the decision, Minister of State for Space Jitendra Singh said, “It will offer clarity on the role of each of these other components that have been set up to give a boost to the space activities and to have a larger participation between the research academia, start-ups, and industry.”

A consolidated space policy has been long anticipated to clarify roles and ways of participation of the government space agency, start-ups, and industries. Although the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre set up in 2020 provided a single window for all approvals and resource sharing, these came on case to case basis.

Since the space sector was opened up to private players in 2020, over 200 space start-ups have come up in the country and many of them are also working towards providing launch services. Private company Skyroot Aerospace has already conducted a sub-orbital flight with its solid fuel based single-stage Vikram S rocket.

“This is a historic moment as the Cabinet has approved the Indian Space Policy 2023. It will pave the way forward with much required clarity in space reforms and augment private industry participation to drive the space economy opportunity for the country. We have been waiting for it for quite some time and today’s announcement has come as a pleasant surprise. We look forward to go through the details of the policy,” said Lt Gen A K Bhatt (retd), Director General, Indian Space Association – a formal association of space industries. The detailed policy is not yet available in public domain.

Although a move in the right direction, the policy is still short of a Bill that can provide legal framework for commercial use of space. Lt Gen Bhatt had earlier said although a Bill is required, it has to be very different from a draft that was made public in 2017. He had previously told The Indian Express that any new Bill has to be lenient and not carry prison terms. He also said it should create mechanisms for insurance against damage in space, something that comes at an extremely high cost to private players at the moment.

The Cabinet also approved setting up of LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) at Maharashtra’s Hingoli. The observatory is meant to detect and track cosmic gravitational waves. Minister Jitendra Singh said there were only two LIGO observatories in the world, both of them in the US, before India signed an MoU in 2016. The minister said the observatory is scheduled to be completed by 2030. “It will add to our astronomical capability and will enable us to offer inputs and feedback not only to India but to rest of the world, thereby giving a global role to India,” Singh said.