Legal Framework must to Propel Growth of Space Industry: Antrix CMD

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:
As the entrepreneurial potential of the Indian space sector is poised for a major leap there is an urgent need to put in place regulatory and legal frameworks to create an enabling ecosystem to expedite growth, said Rakesh Sasibhushan, CMD, Antrix Corporation, the commercial arm of ISRO.

He was speaking at the two-day Space Technology Conclave EDGE 2020, while unveiling a position paper on India’s space sector titled “Preparing to scale new heights: Enhancing private participation in India’s commercial space sector”, brought out by PricewaterhouseCoopers(PWC).

Noting that the Indian commercial space market is at an inflection point,  Sasibhushan said the country needs to take necessary measures to remove hurdles on the way forward.

“Today you have the private sector dominating the space industry in the world. ISRO has done a remarkable work in developing critical technologies and the Indian space programme has been appreciated the world over for its societal orientation. Now we have to create regulatory and legal frameworks to attract private investments,” he said.

Releasing the report by handing it over to M Sivasankar, Principal Secretary IT and Electronics, Government of Kerala, Sourav Bhattacharya of PwC said the Indian space economy is now valued at USD 7 billion, which is around 2 percent of the global space economy. With a target to contribute 1 per cent to India’s envisaged USD 5 trillion GDP in 2024, the space sector needs to reach USD 50 billion.

The two-day conclave, whose central theme is “New Space—Opportunities and way forward”, is organised by Space Park, being developed by the Government of Kerala here with the backing of industry and domain leaders including the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).