Space Reforms in India
A Job Half Done
Liberalisation of the space sector in India is often just associated only with encouraging an Indian private industry to participate in space activities. That is a narrow interpretation of the reforms. The more ambitious reading is to see it as a mechanism to rapidly increase the number of Indian minds engaged in the space sector—expanding the country's capacity for ambition, ideation, strategy, and technology, with commercial and military gains following.
When I started thinking about space strategy, I wanted to understand why the reforms were necessary, what they hoped to achieve, and where they fall short—as much for myself as for others in the business of space. Here is what stood out:
The Indian space program had a peculiar problem of very high capability and very little scale because of a legacy state monopoly.
The grander ambitions India has set for itself in recent years are greater in scope and scale. They necessitate a transformation.
The government has set up agencies to promote, commercialise and regulate the non-governmental entities undertaking activities in space.
These responsibilities are often contradictory, and that contradiction helps a nascent space industry in the short term but may work against a more mature ecosystem in the long term.
In the process, ISRO will have to cede some of its presence in operational space missions and shift focus to the cutting edge.
India needs to legitimise the reforms with space legislation.
The only way to foster a self-sustaining space industry now is through government as an anchor customer.