Opening up of the space sector is part of the larger vision of transforming India to become self-reliant through a set of socio-economic reforms. The reforms in the space sector are aimed at tapping the potential of entire country for unlocking its potential by enabling private enterprises and start-ups to undertake end-to-end space activities. In addition, the reforms are also aimed at mitigating the large and upfront investments required to set up facilities for undertaking space activities through sharing of such existing facilities under ISRO.

An open and inclusive space sector will result in accelerated growth, job creation as well as innovations and will enable Indian Space Industry to be a significant player in global space economy.

Under these reforms, an autonomous nodal agency called Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Center (IN-SPACe) is being established under Department of Space as a separate vertical for permitting and regulating the activities of private industry in space sector. IN-SPACe will act as a national nodal agency to hand-hold and promote private endeavours in space sector and for this ISRO will share its technical expertise as well as facilities. IN-SPACe will have its own independent Directorates for Technical, Legal, Safety & Security, Monitoring as well as Activities Promotion for assessing the private industry requirements and further coordinating the activities.

The private industry will also be offered opportunities to undertake R&D activities and be co-traveller in advanced inter-planetary missions. This is planned through a series of Announcement of Opportunities. Opportunities in Human Space Flight Programme is already announced.

The role of NewSpace India Ltd. (NSIL), a CPSU under DOS is being re-defined to transform the approach of supply driven model to demand driven model for space based services. NSIL will be strengthened and empowered to off-load operational activities of ISRO in the areas of launch vehicle & satellite production, launch services as well as space based services. NSIL will execute these activities through Industry Consortiums.

This will allow ISRO to allocate more time and resources for R&D endeavours. ISRO will continue to carry out its present activities with greater emphasis on development of advanced technology, missions and capacity building besides supporting private endeavours in space sector.

A new Navigation Policy is also being proposed. Suitable changes in Remote Sensing Data Policy as well as SATCOM policy are also on the anvil. These changes are aimed at aligning these policies to an open and inclusive space sector.

A webinar on Space Sector Reforms will be conducted shortly wherein more details on IN-SPACe mechanism and application requirements, Announcement of Opportunities and role of NSIL will be shared with all stake holders.