Indian firms want a strong Space Act
BENGALURU: The private sector is looking forward to the Space Act, a robust policy that would solidify rules and regulations to enter the space sector.
Rahul Narayan, founder of TeamIndusLead, a Bengaluru-based firm, said companies were still struggling to commercialise aerospace. He told TNIE that with government policy in place, companies were looking at a certain amount of predictability. This would help people know the cost, application fee, who can apply etc, he believed.
Nitin Pai, co-founder and director, Takshashila Institution, believes the draft Science Policy Bill to be a “terrible one”, adding that attempts are being made to bring in a development-oriented space policy.
“We need to talk to our political leaders to get this bill in place. It is critical to the success of the industry,” he said.
While businesses like launch systems — to haul stuff into space — emerging, Pai averred that the driver of international industry is space mining and setting up habitats in space — and that must be among the focus areas. Tanuj Bhojwani, fellow at iSPIRT Foundation, agreed that entrepreneurs ought to think what can be done in the next 5 years and even 30 years, to make their business sustainable.
Sridhar, director of Ananth Technologies, believes that space tourism is yet to take off in a big way in India, especially as the focus was on carrying out space activities for socio-economic impact. No project has been identified for space mining, he added.