India has a 2% share in USD 360 billion global space economy

NEW DELHI: India has a 2% share in the estimated $360-billion global space economy, the Lok Sabha was informed on Wednesday.

Minister of State Jitendra Singh said India has acquired indigenous capabilities in the space sector across all domains, including space transportation systems, and space assets comprising a fleet of satellites catering to the needs of earth observation, satellite communication, meteorology, space science and navigation.

“The exact sizing of the Global Space Economy is a complex exercise and matter of much debate. A 2019 estimate pegs the global space economy at USD 360 billion with India’s share at approximately 2 percent,” the minister said.

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He said ISRO along with Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), and NITI Aayog launched the ANIC-ARISE-1.0 programme to seek, select, support and nurture technology-based innovations that solve sectoral challenges of national importance.

Six startups were selected and supported by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) with a grant-in-aid of a maximum of Rs 50 lakh each in areas like geospatial information, propulsion and robotics, and augmented reality and virtual reality.

ANIC-ARISE-1.0 has three space sector challenges to get project proposals from start-ups.

These are geospatial information propulsion and Robotics/Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality, he said.