Demystifying India’s Space Policy
In the era of social distancing, the Indian government has stepped to make space for co-travelers. The co-travellers being the private sector of India particularly space-based startups for whom several policy change announcements were made recently along with the economic relief package. Although there are criticisms for the recent announcements about India’s space policy being clubbed with the relief package, the Government of India sees the package as a comprehensive foundation stone to build a self-reliant India.
Announcements
The highlights of the announcements for the space sector include:
- A level playing field for private companies in satellites, launches and other space-based activities
- Predictable policy and regulatory environment
- The private sector can use ISRO’s facilities and other relevant assets to improve their capacities
- Inter-planetary exploration and outer space travel to be opened up for the private sector
- Liberal geospatial data policy
India’s space policy
India does not have a comprehensive space policy in place but follows the international laws and treaties governed by UN Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS) in particular. The execution of these treaties are to be done through national mechanisms of individual states.
Since outer space is a shared space between nations, two of the most prominent objectives of international laws are ‘responsibility’ and ‘liability’. Hence, it becomes important to regulate non-governmental space activities. A few nations such as the USA, Russia, Ukraine, South Africa, etc already have legislation for space.
Space Activities Bill, 2017
On 21st November, 2017 a draft ‘Space Activities Bill, 2017’ was published seeking public comments. This bill specifically aimed at defining rules for providing licenses to the private sector to directly indulge in space-based activities.
While the introduction of a space legislation was seen as a forward-looking step, the critics had reservations about the bill. A few of them were as follows:
- The space industry is quite versatile with companies interested in various domains such as launch services, satellite manufacturing, communication services etc. The draft bill treats all of them equally and applies blanket rules to all domains with a passing reference for differential treatment: “The Central Government may, by notification, make rules for carrying out the purposes of this Act”.
- Countries such as the USA have separate departments and agencies to implement the rules of the legislation (NASA not being one of them) to prevent conflict of interest like situation. The bill does not clearly identify how it aims to prevent such a situation with regards to ISRO.
- As diverse activities will be involved, there needs to be an industry body for space on the lines of NASSCOM for information technology. This body can then come up with rules and regulations in consultation with stakeholders to prepare a conducive environment for a private space industry to thrive.
ISRO and the private sector’s relationship
Since the 1980's ISRO has been leveraging private industrial abilities for building products. Given the lack of aerospace ecosystem in the country, non-critical technologies were often transferred to the private sector which acted as manufacturing bases.
While similar organisations like Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) have recently started to become liberal in allowing private enterprises as manufacturing partners, ISRO boasts of more than 400 industry partners.
Despite most of the technologies sourced from the private sector being limited to structures, components, and subsystems, the biggest beneficiaries of ISRO’s strategy have been the large corporate houses like Godrej, L&T & Walchandnagar industries to name a few.
Formation of New Space India Limited
For almost a decade, conversations were afoot to limit ISRO’s role to being a Research and Development(R&D) organisation. This involved hiving off the repetitive tasks such as manufacturing of Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rockets to the industry. With industry taking over the burden of managing mature technologies with some initial handholding by ISRO, the latter can focus its resources and energy on new innovations.
Owing to this point of view, New Space India Ltd. was formed in March 2019 to act as a nodal agency with the sole aim of enhancing the industrial abilities through technology transfer from ISRO.
Concerns and expectations from the announcements
India’s space-based requirements have grown exponentially in the past few decades ranging from broadband to navigation. ISRO with its about 17,000 workforce has been feeling the pressure to keep up. Therefore, ISRO has now started directly contracting startups like Alpha Design Technologies for satellite manufacturing and Bellatrix Aerospace for developing in-space propulsion systems respectively.
A key concern among the startups with the new announcement is regarding well-defined guidelines about Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). For a long time, ISRO has been engaging with the private sector for outsourcing its needs such as manufacturing while the IPR for its products is held by ISRO.
Along with Intellectual Property Rights, another major concern is for the government to define clear rules for R&D risk funding. In the absence of an autonomous regulator, it is difficult to open up the space industry and encourage the private sector to develop its own products of global standards.
A long-term concern is also that as commercial interests seep in and a military-industrial complex develops in India, outer space may be used for direct offensive purposes.
The 1967 Outer Space Treaty prevents space militarisation. But, with the US unveiling the US Space Force and China recognising space as a war-fighting domain, space militarisation seems inevitable.
In 2019, India became the member of an elite group of countries to demonstrate an anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon system. This is seen as passive space militarisation.
It is to be seen if the government allows private defense companies to enter the domain of space warfare as it chugs ahead in providing a ‘level playing field for all’.
Space is big business
It may take many consultations and several iterations to come up with policies, rules, structures and laws for the industry but the announcement has generated the excitement among enthusiasts and business circles.
The enabling of ISRO’s facilities for private entities will result in huge capital savings and possibly open up another source of income for ISRO itself. According to Mr. M. Y. S. Prasad, former director of Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, communications business of ISRO should be corporatised into a separate entity.
Communication satellites are operated by corporate entities worldwide. Satellite services and ground systems have the highest revenue share in the space industry accounting for approximately 40 percent each. The remaining 20 percent comes from launch services, satellite manufacturing, data sharing, etc.
A less talked about announcement is the liberalisation of geo-spatial data policy. India has one of the largest remote sensing satellite constellations but lacks an efficient framework for data sharing. Although there are some rules framed and National Remote Sensing Centre acts as a nodal agency for data sharing, companies find it viable to source the geo-spatial data from foreign entities. This was acknowledged by the finance minister in her speech.
A liberal geospatial data policy will benefit the section of companies that can be classified as space dependent rather than space-based. These include entities involved in mining, agriculture & fisheries which can leverage the data to make informed decisions.
Space is a long term capital intensive business. While the details are awaited, Ms. Sitharaman’s announcement of a predictable policy is a clear sign of intent from the government.
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