JULY 21, 2019 • THE WEEK 27orbit; [a vehicle] built with public-private part-
nership, like SpaceX’s Falcon-9.”
Bengaluru-based Astrome Technologies plans
to utilise the great market potential. “Just in the
satellite communication market, there is a reve-
nue potential of $1.7 billion a year,” says Neha Sa-
tak, Astrome’s chief executive officer. “This mar-
ket will be driven by developing countries and
marine and airline industries. We are bringing
down the cost of satellite internet infrastructure
by more than 10 per cent. The idea is to make sat-
ellite connectivity more accessible and expand
the $1.7 billion market even further.”
The deep pockets of SpaceX and OneWeb pose
a big challenge to Indian companies. “For Indian
companies to do better business, the regulations
need to be on the side of the companies,” says Sa-
tak. “This is the number one condition for space
companies in India to have access to capital.”
Narayan Prasad, cofounder and chief opera-
tions officer of Satsearch, which has partnered
with Antrix to promote Indian space capabilities
in the international market, says India can claim
a larger share of the world’s space industry mar-
ket. “The problem in India is that companies are
mostly reliant on ISRO to be their customer. At the
same time, ISRO is very slow in transferring the
necessary knowhow for companies to build end-
to-end systems by themselves. This is one reason
why you don’t see Indian companies competing
globally in building satellites or rockets,” he says.
India’s new Defence Space Agency could be a
boon. It could boost the domestic market by facil-
itating bigger investments and greater opportuni-
ties—like allowing Indian companies to cater to
the technology requirements of the armed forces.
“Through this, Indian companies could design,
develop, manufacture, operate and provide ser-
vices, all by themselves,” says Prasad. “This will
allow them to take advantage of the low operating
and infrastructure costs in India, and help them
start competing globally.”Skyroot Aerospace, a Hyderabad-based private
space company, is building India’s first private
orbital launch vehicles. ‘Vikram’, the first such
vehicle, will be launched in 2021. It is capable of
putting up satellites that weigh less than 300kg in
low earth orbit (altitudes of up to 2,000km).
“We are also working on bigger launch vehi-
cles,” says Pawan Kumar Chandana, Skyroot’s
cofounder and chief executive officer. “Indian
companies have an inherent advantage because
of lower costs. We need private launch compa-
nies to come up and receive all required support
from the government—like utilising government
facilities and infrastructure. I think India needs at
least one big launch vehicle with the capability of
launching more than six tonnes to geostationary
SKY IS NO LIMIT
Rakesh Sasibhushan, Antrix’s
chairman and managing director,
says a clearer regulatory frame-
work is needed to ensure growthBHANU PRAKASH CHANDRA