Watch this space

A growing competition for space-related investment among states could help the sector hit $44 bn by 2033

- SHINE JACOB

Space in the new frontier for states in the one-upmanship game to draw investment.

On April 17, Gujarat announced a long-term strategy to accelerate growth in the space sector from 2025 to 2030. Within hours, Tamil Nadu, which had already published a draft space policy, unveiled the Tamil Nadu Space Industrial Policy.

There is a reason states are betting big on space and space-related technology. The size of India's space sector is expected to jump from around $8.4 billion in 2024 to $44 billion by 2033, according to a March report by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci)-EY. With that, it will soar from 2 per cent of global market currently to 8 per cent.

This follows the opening up of space to private participation in June 2020, the Indian Space Policy of 2023, and a lucrative foreign direct investment policy of February 2024.

A major catalyst for the projected growth are the 250-odd startups working in the "upstream" and "downstream" segments of India's space economy. The upstream segment refers to all activities, products, and infrastructure for the development, testing, launch, operations, and monitoring of space assets. The downstream segment is about applications, services, and devices that rely on satellites to create business value.

The sector needs a net investment of $22 billion to achieve its 2033 target, said Pawan Goenka, chairman, Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (In-Space), the space industry's Department of Space-affiliated regulatory body. This, said Goenka while speaking to mediapersons in Mumbai, may require at least $2.5 billion through foreign players, besides sizable investment from domestic majors such as the Tata Group, Larsen & Toubro, and Bharti Enterprises-backed OneWeb.