Context:

• Principal Scientific Adviser Ajay Kumar Sood stated that the government would soon come up with a new space policy to increase private sector participation in the industry.

Significance of the Space Sector:

• The space sector can hugely contribute to bolster connectivity and combat climate-related implications.
• Long-term trends in the climate and habitability of a region can be done by the satellites more precisely and information on weather forecasts can be recorded.
• For instance, by monitoring the long-term impact of climate change at regional, territorial, and national scales, governments would be able to devise more pragmatic and combative plans of action for farmers and dependent industries.
• Additionally, they can also serve as real-time monitoring and early-warning solutions against natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, wildfires, mining etc.

Boost to Connectivity:

• The space sector can address the issue of reaching more remote areas where conventional networks would require a heavy complimenting infrastructure.
• According to a report by the World Economic Forum 49% of the world’s unconnected population can be connected through satellite communication.
• So, in this context, it is important to understand that the private sector investment to the space sector can boost the telecommunication services.

Boost to Sectors Associated:

• As space industry is a collaboration of aerospace, IT hardware and telecom sectors, it will help boost of the associated sectors.
• So, increase in the investments in the space sector will have carryover effects on other sectors as well.
• Apart from this, it will help boost research and development in all the above-mentioned sectors.

India in the Global Space Industry:

• US stands first in the space sector accounting to 56.4% of all the space tech companies around the world.
• Other significant stakeholders include U.K. (6.5%), Canada (5.3%), China (4.7%) and Germany (4.1%).
• India which is also a key player in the space sector stands at the sixth spot in terms of world’s space-tech companies.
• It is estimated that Indian Space Industry is valued at somewhere around $7 billion in 2019 and it is projected that it would reach $50 billion by 2024.
• The unique feature of the Indian space sector is the cost effectiveness of its projects, one such example is the Mars orbiter mission which was completed at a cost of $75 million which was significantly when compared to the western space industries.

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