Is 2024 the year India's space sector will come of age?

India's space sector is taking off.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated India's second spaceport in Tamil Nadu's Kulasekharapatnam.

Reports suggest the new spaceport will eliminate the need to avoid Sri Lanka's airspace. Moreover, the location is closer to the equator and the propulsion complex in Kerala, which will reduce time and cost.

This comes a day after India announced the names of four astronauts who will fly on 'Gaganyaan' - India's first human-crewed space mission.

Both these developments come a week after the government allowed 100 per cent Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the space sector.

Under the amended FDI policy, the government has liberalised entry routes for foreign investment in "satellites, Launch Vehicles and associated systems or subsystems, spaceports and manufacturing of space-related components and systems".

These investment reforms are, in turn, part of the government's Indian Space Policy - 2023, which aims to harness and develop the existing space economy.

India aims to have a $44 billion space economy by 2033. And by 2040, the space economy is expected to grow beyond $80 billion. But this figure currently stands at just $8.4 billion and represents less than 3 per cent of the global space sector.

While the government is and will hold the key to India's space economy, the rising role of the private sector must be addressed.

This is visible in the exponential rise of space sector startups. From just one in 2014, the number of startups has risen to 189.

One of these startups, Skyroot Aerospace, launched its first privately-developed rocket - the Vikram-S - from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota in November 2022.

In 2020, the government established IN-SPAce, a focal point for private entities to seek clearance for investing in India's space sector.

IN-SPAce has been instrumental in channelling private investments into the sector. From just $63 million in 2020, total private investments have crossed over $120 million by 2023.

"In the last three years, the space sector is no more restricted to the ISRO. It also has a military and commercial element. It is becoming India's outreach to the world," saysProf. Chaitanya Giri, Associate Professor at Flame University in Pune.

Unsurprisingly, foreign investors are excited about the sector. Prof. Giri says that reflects the belief that India can deliver cost-effectively.

The expansion of the space sector can be seen in the number of space launches that ISRO has conducted in the last ten years.

In Prime Minister Modi's words: "India of the 21st Century is surprising the world with its potential. In the last 10 years, we have launched about 400 satellites. Whereas in the previous 10 years, only 33 were launched."

Amid the rise in private investments, the government is expected to act like the watchdog of commercial space technology, especially regarding India's strategic interests.

"The only challenge is the ad-hoc way in which investors are showing their sentiments for the space sector. There needs to be an investor mechanism like an Exchange Traded Fund to channelise the growing interest in the space sector," says Prof Giri.