Recently Britain based company OneWeb and ISRO's commercial wing NSIL joined hands for a new project. A partnership between OneWeb and NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) is made. The project is to launch 36 Low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites in the coming months. LEO satellites are those, which have range less than 1000 km from the Earth surface.
What are the objectives of this project?
To reduce or minimise the digital divide. You know very well India's soul lies in the villages and the digital presence in the countryside is very lesser. It has uses in both communication and satellite images.
What will be it's effects?
First. Bolstering our space economy by launching 36 satellites.
Second. Reform in the performance on the world level.
Third. According to a data 2020-2021, the total value of Indian space economy was 36,794 crore ( $5 billion), and is 0.19 % of Indian GDP.
Fourth. Definitely by coming of this project, Indian space economy will rise.
Why private players are needed in the space sector ?
Giving more focus on Research and Development (R&D). India wants to have a highly advanced technology in the field of space economy. India is emerging Star in this field, made landmark development over the last two decades. It gives an opportunity to become a self reliance in manufacturing of both launch vehicles and satellites. New technology transfer will be possible if any if India allows private players in the space sector. It can pave the way to the invention like mission. India can think about the human space mission programmes. The private players can exploit the resources and infrastructure of ISRO , results in speedy in works and targeted missions. It can attract investments from East to West and North to South of the world. It brings innovation to the students and entrepreneurs of our country. And the last but not the least it helps to achieve the projected 5 trillion dollar economy of India.
The government in the coming years will increase the budgetary allocation for the space sector. Right now only 14-15 thousands crore rupees is spending on this sector and is very low than other countries.
What are the challenges?
On the world forum, India still lags behind many developed and developing countries in the space sector. There has been a problem of space brains drains in India. More space scientists want to work with big organization like NASA or ROSCOSMOS. Here the laws about space is not very clear and has a lack of a comprehensive policy. Space sector does not with certainty, many times it's mission or programmes are failed due to various reasons. Then how can private players take risks and bear the loss alone. The government must think about insurance of the programs taken up by private players so that in any adverse conditions the private players can not bearing the loss alone.
The government efforts
The government has made significant efforts in this field by introducing IN- SPACE , in 2020 , the government launched this program, in which any private players can use the infrastructure and resources of ISRO.
NSIL, launched in 2019. It is ISRO's commercial wing.
ISpA- Indian space association launched in October 2020. It suggests opinion and policies to the space companies.
Way forward
The coming years will be of technology based. And India's efforts to become a self reliant and power house in space economy is already envisioned by the world.
India can implement it by introducing some points. In the teething period of space economy with private players India must build confidence in investors. To remove bottlenecks which hinder the development. Bringing relaxation in taxes. To provide credit facilities and shield the confidence of private players with insurance.
Comments
Post a Comment
thank you