In late April this year, early and intense heatwaves drove India’s power demand to a record 256 GW—nearly 9% higher than the same period last year and weeks ahead of the usual summer peak. No longer a seasonal inconvenience, heat is now an economic risk, one with measurable costs to productivity, infrastructure, and operations.
For informal workers, a single-degree rise in mean temperature can cut daily earnings by 16%. During peak heatwaves, the losses can even reach 40%. The McKinsey Global Institute estimates that nearly $ 250 billion, or about 4.5% of India's GDP, is vulnerable to heat-stress-related productivity losses. At the forefront bearing these costs are power utilities, insurers, logistics firms, and agriculture-dependent businesses without a reliable data infrastructure.
What we need is infrastructure capable of seeing patterns at a resolution and frequency early enough to act.
India's Earth observation capabilities are advancing rapidly.
The NASA-ISRO joint mission, NISAR, entered its science operations phase earlier this year. Designed to track changes in Earth’s land, water, vegetation, and ice, the data it provides will prove invaluable for disaster monitoring, ecosystem management, and climate resilience. Yet, one critical dimension remains outside its remit: Heat.
At the same time, government-backed initiatives, such as the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe), are opening the sector to private players. IN-SPACe recently awarded a mandate to a Pixxel-led consortium to build the country's first 12-satellite Earth Observation System. While the initial ₹1,200 crore investment spans very high-resolution optical, multispectral, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), and hyperspectral imaging, thermal remains an underdeveloped layer.
{{/usCountry}}At the same time, government-backed initiatives, such as the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe), are opening the sector to private players. IN-SPACe recently awarded a mandate to a Pixxel-led consortium to build the country's first 12-satellite Earth Observation System. While the initial ₹1,200 crore investment spans very high-resolution optical, multispectral, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), and hyperspectral imaging, thermal remains an underdeveloped layer.
{{/usCountry}}This gap is structural. Optical satellites capture high-resolution imagery but only in daylight, clear skies, and within the visible spectrum. Similarly, radar systems can operate through clouds and darkness but capture only movement, not temperature. Even where thermal data exists, it typically comes at a resolution (~100m to 1km) and revisit cycles (18–21 days) that are sufficient for climate research, but inadequate for operational decision-making.
Every surface on Earth - soil, concrete, water, vegetation - radiates heat, and that heat carries information invisible to optical systems. Thermal satellites offer a way to measure these variations across infrared bands, around the clock, and through weather conditions.
This changes what can be seen.
Heat signals can reveal early indicators of crop stress, infrastructure strain, urban heat build-up, and wildfire risk, often well before they become visible, and sometimes irreversible failures. Meanwhile, with onboard AI and edge computing, this information can be processed closer to the point of capture, narrowing the gap between observation and action.
This is the resolution at which thermal data transitions from a research instrument into a live decision-making tool.
The use cases are not theoretical.
In the agriculture sector, which employs 46% of India's workforce and accounts for 18% of its GDP, thermal imaging can enable early detection of crop stress and other imbalances. For a sector facing growing climate variability and resource pressure, this early visibility enables timely interventions at a stage when yield loss can still be prevented.
For insurance and financial systems, the visibility changes how climate risk is treated. Precise temperature data can provide the foresight to anticipate and price it accurately.
The same principle applies to infrastructure systems. In energy networks, thermal monitoring can detect stress in power systems before failures occur, particularly as rising cooling demand intensifies summer peak loads. In urban planning, it helps planners identify heat-concentration and energy-loss zones, allowing targeted planning and energy efficiency.
In disaster management, thermal signals can surface early anomalies linked to wildfires, floods, and extreme weather events, improving predictive ability and faster response times. In parallel, it enables more precise monitoring of industrial emissions and environmental stress.
Across each of these domains, the value is the same: turning heat from a passive condition into a measurable, manageable variable.
India's spacetech sector is projected to reach $ 77 billion by 2030. A pivotal driver in this growth will be IN-SPACe, which is creating the regulatory and financial framework for greater private sector participation. To back this initiative, the government set up a ₹1,000 crore venture capital fund (VCF) in the Budget 2024-2025. More recently, the Union Budget 2026-27 allocated ₹13,705 crore to the Department of Space.
Beyond infrastructure commitments, these initiatives also reflect growing recognition of the private sector’s role in closing the ambition-delivery gap.
India’s new generation of space-tech companies is already rising to the occasion. For instance, SatLeo Labs, a startup backed by IN-SPACe, ran a thermal mapping pilot with the Tumakuru City Corporation. This project focused on monitoring urban heat islands and greenhouse gas emissions at a 40-acre waste facility in Karnataka. The initiative helped pinpoint heat concentration areas around the landfill and nearby urban zones. This information allows local authorities to identify high-risk areas and plan interventions more effectively. Other cities are now looking into similar methods. In Ahmedabad, thermal intelligence is being used to map local heat-risk zones. This data helps create short-term heat advisories that support hospitals, municipal bodies, and residents in preparing for extreme heat events.
With geopolitical uncertainty reshaping global trade and supply chains, access to real-time environmental intelligence is no longer a strategic advantage. It becomes a baseline for economic resilience.
The infrastructure for thermal intelligence is already taking shape.
The value is in embedding it into everyday decision-making. And this requires coordination between government agencies, private space operators, and enterprise users. India's policy environment is well-positioned to enable this convergence.
Recent investments under IN-SPACe, continued budgetary allocations, the IndiaAI Mission, and expanding digital public infrastructure (DPI), together create the foundations for integrating high-resolution environmental data into national systems at scale. At the same time, India's private space ecosystem is expanding its focus from satellite deployment to business intelligence. This shift, from access to data to the ability to operationalise it, is what will define India's spacetech ambitions.
The opportunity now lies in integrating this ability into the systems that shape how India builds, plans, and responds to a warming economy.
(The views expressed are personal)
This article is authored by Urmil Bakhai, co-founder & chief strategy officer, Satleo Labs.