Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra on Thursday said that India needs to be ready for the commercialization of space in the coming years.

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“Space may become the next gold rush for government and business; in 2018 space was a 350 billion dollar market and is estimated to grow to 3.3 trillion dollars”, he said a webinar organised by ISRO on 'Unlocking India’s potential in the space sector'.

ISRO Chairman K Sivan said that capacity expansion in 4G and introduction of 5G technology will require a large number of communication satellites and this provides a huge opportunity for the private sector. “Launching small satellites is another area of huge opportunity for the private sector”, said Sivan.

“Cost efficiency, frugal innovation and high end engineering are needed to propel the space economy and India has all three”, said Mahindra. He said that demand for space based applications is far exceeding supply and the entry of private players will free up ISRO to focus on the country’s strategic needs.

Mahindra explained how NASA was trying to make changes to its capital allocation policy to allow collaboration with private players. “Public-private joint endeavour will help us leverage the opportunities in space. We need to create structures and systems that have never existed before and India must create a catalyst for space entrepreneurship”, he said.

Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairperson of Bharti Enterprises said that for private participation in space, the country needs a light touch framework and a strong foreign and security policy. “Policies should be clearly laid out so that private sector knows how to operate”, said Mittal.

He further said that the private sector participation will add more weight and heft to the space program of ISRO.

ISRO Chairman K Sivan highlighted that ISRO’s role in public private partnerships would be limited to sharing technical know and handholding.

“ISRO will facilitate private sector participation in major national missions but private sector will have to do their own research and development, business viability studies, funding as well as finding customers”, he said.

First Published:Aug 20, 2020 5:01 PM IST