NEW DELHI: Space minister Jitendra Singh has said that the Indian space sector is now emerging as a major foreign exchange earner as a large number of foreign satellites have been launched by Isro in the last few years.
During an interview with Sansad TV, the minister said that India has launched a total of 385 foreign satellites. Of them, 353 satellites were launched in the past eight years, which is around 90% of all foreign launches, he said. Singh also informed that out of the total 220 million euros earned by the launch of these foreign satellites, 187 million euros were generated during the last eight years, which is around 85% of forex earned by European satellite launches.
Singh said it’s a matter of great pride that Isro, through its commercial arms, has successfully launched foreign satellites belonging to even advanced countries like the US, UK, France, Israel, Italy, Japan, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Finland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Netherlands, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland on-board its PSLV and GSLV-MkIII launchers under several commercial agreements.
The minister also informed that the new space policy is in the final stages as the department of space is in the “process of establishing a predictable, forward-looking, enabling regulatory regime for space activities in the country”. He said while the new space PSU New Space India Ltd (NSIL) has been empowered to bring a commerce-oriented approach to space activities, the creation of IN-SPACe as a single-window agency for promotion and hand-holding of NGEs in conducting end-to-end space activities has resulted in a remarkable interest in the start-up community. As of today, 111 space-startups have been registered on the IN-SPACe digital platform, he said.
Singh also said, under the SVAMITVA scheme, geo-spatial technology along with the liberalised drone policy are meant to survey over six lakh Indian villages and together they will prove to be a “game-changer”. He said space technology has now entered virtually every household as space applications are increasingly used in fields like agriculture, soils, water resources, land use/land cover, rural development, earth and climate studies, geo-sciences, urban infrastructure, disaster management support and forestry.
During an interview with Sansad TV, the minister said that India has launched a total of 385 foreign satellites. Of them, 353 satellites were launched in the past eight years, which is around 90% of all foreign launches, he said. Singh also informed that out of the total 220 million euros earned by the launch of these foreign satellites, 187 million euros were generated during the last eight years, which is around 85% of forex earned by European satellite launches.
Singh said it’s a matter of great pride that Isro, through its commercial arms, has successfully launched foreign satellites belonging to even advanced countries like the US, UK, France, Israel, Italy, Japan, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Finland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Netherlands, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland on-board its PSLV and GSLV-MkIII launchers under several commercial agreements.
The minister also informed that the new space policy is in the final stages as the department of space is in the “process of establishing a predictable, forward-looking, enabling regulatory regime for space activities in the country”. He said while the new space PSU New Space India Ltd (NSIL) has been empowered to bring a commerce-oriented approach to space activities, the creation of IN-SPACe as a single-window agency for promotion and hand-holding of NGEs in conducting end-to-end space activities has resulted in a remarkable interest in the start-up community. As of today, 111 space-startups have been registered on the IN-SPACe digital platform, he said.
Singh also said, under the SVAMITVA scheme, geo-spatial technology along with the liberalised drone policy are meant to survey over six lakh Indian villages and together they will prove to be a “game-changer”. He said space technology has now entered virtually every household as space applications are increasingly used in fields like agriculture, soils, water resources, land use/land cover, rural development, earth and climate studies, geo-sciences, urban infrastructure, disaster management support and forestry.
