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Government opens up space sector and assets to private sector to ‘enhance’ capacity
The government says opening up space sector for private participation will unlock India’s potential in the space sector.
The Central government has approved the opening of the key space sector for private participation in a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday. The government said the move will free up India’s premier space agency Isro (Indian Space Research Organisation) to focus on research and development while providing opportunities to expand India’s space exploration and technology through private participation.
These reforms can be compared to the reforms in the power sector carried out during the rule of Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, Union minister Javadekar said at the cabinet press briefing in New Delhi.
“We have built up really good space assets, these assets are now opening up for everyone’s use,” Javadekar said. He recalled that a group of Indian students, who had developed a satellite indigenously, had to launch from a facility outside India due to regulatory limitations. He said, such a situation won’t arrive in the future with the new reforms in the space sector.
Space minister Jitendra Singh said a new organization named Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (In-SPACe) has been floated to guide private enterprise participation in space activities and the use of country’s space infrastructure.
“Newly created Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (IN-SPACe) to provide a level playing field for private companies to use Indian space infrastructure. It will also hand-hold, promote and guide the private industries in space activities,” said Singh.
He called it a “historic decision” and a departure from the past practice since Independence. He credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi for piloting the “far-sighted” reform.
“PM Modi is known for taking decisions that are bold, unorthodox, and futuristic; which is why
the decision for hosting the private sector participation in space sector activities has been taken. There was a history and tradition of keeping the space activities shrouded under secrecy,” Singh said, explaining the background for the decision.
He added that the reform will allow Isro to focus more on research and development activities and also help in preventing the brain drain of Indian talent while enhancing the socio economic use of space assets and activities including approved access to existing space assets at facilities.
“In the last 2-3 years, PM Modi has given a special boost to exploration of space through enhancing our launching activities and exploration of space through extra-launching activities,” Singh said.
Singh added that India was now using space technology in every sphere of activity and the space tech has reached every household. He said the time has come to enhance India’s capacity in the sector by providing a level playing field.
In other important decisions, the Union cabinet has approved a scheme for interest subvention of 2% to Shishu loan category borrowers under Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana, outstanding as on 31st March 2020, for a period of 12 months to eligible borrowers.
The government also announced that it had cleared the development of an international airport at Uttar Pradesh’s Kushinagar. Javadekar said that a three-kilometer-long air strip has already been constructed there to facilitate the landing of big aircrafts like the airbus. This is being done for the benefit of tourists travelling on the Buddhist circuit. The work on the upgrade of infrastructure of the Airport has been ongoing and it will further pick up pace, he added.
He also announced that ONGC will invest an additional Rs 909 crore in two gas blocks in Myanmar, namely A1 and A3. Exploration of these blocks will begin with the allocation. India is already invested in Myanmar gas blocks in partnership with South Korea.
