IN- SPACe  

Source: Indian Express

1.CONTEXT

The government on Wednesday approved the creation of a new organization National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (IN-SPACe), to ensure greater private participation in India’s space activities

2.OBJECTIVE

1.  It is an important set of reforms to open up the space sector and make space-based applications and services more widely accessible to everyone
2.  The demand for space-based applications and services is growing even within India, and ISRO is unable to cater to this.
3.  The need for satellite data, imageries, and space technology now cut across sectors, from weather to agriculture to transport to urban development and more.  ISRO would have to be expanded 10 times the current level to meet all the demand that is arising

3. ROLE OF  IN-SPACe  

• It will assess the needs and demands of private players, including educational and research institutions, and, explore ways to accommodate these requirements in consultation with ISRO.
•  Existing ISRO infrastructure, ground- and space-based, scientific and technical resources and even data are planned to be made accessible to interested parties to enable them to carry out their space-related activities.
• IN-SPACe is supposed to be a facilitator, and also a regulator. It will act as an interface between ISRO and private parties and assess how best to utilize India’s space resources and increase space-based activities

4. PRIVATE PARTICIPATION

• A large part of the manufacturing and fabrication of rockets and satellites now happens in the private sector
• There is increasing participation of research institutions as well.
• Indian industry had a barely three percent share in a rapidly growing global space economy which was already worth at least $360 billion.
• Only two percent of this market was for rocket and satellite launch services, which require fairly large infrastructure and heavy investment. The remaining 95 percent is related to satellite-based services, and ground-based systems.
• Indian industry, however, is unable to compete, because till now its role has been mainly that of suppliers of components and sub-systems
• ISRO was ready to provide all its facilities to private players whose projects had been approved by IN-SPACe.
• Private companies, if they wanted, could even build their launch pad within the Sriharikota launch station, and ISRO would provide the necessary land for that.

5.ADVANTAGES TO ISRO

1. One is commercial, and the other is strategic. Of course, there is a need for greater dissemination of space technologies, better utilization of space resources, and increased requirement for space-based services. And ISRO seems unable to satisfy this need on its own.
2. The private industry will also free up ISRO to concentrate on science, research and development, interplanetary exploration, and strategic launches. Right now, too much of ISRO's resources are consumed by routine activities that delay its more strategic objectives
3. ISRO, like NASA, is essentially a scientific organization whose main objective is the exploration of space and carrying out scientific missions. There are some ambitious space missions lined up in the coming years, including a mission to observe the Sun, a mission to the Moon, a human spaceflight, and then, possibly, a human landing on the Moon.
4.  And it is not that private players will wean away the revenues that ISRO gets through commercial launches

6. OVERLAPPING FUNCTIONS

The role of NSIL, incidentally, was already being performed by Antrix Corporation, another PSU working under the Department of Space, which still exists. It is still not very clear why there was a need for another organization with overlapping function

The government said it was redefining the role of NSIL so that it would have a demand-driven approach rather than the current supply-driven strategy