Indian Union budget 2023: How much funding the Indian Space programme will receive for 2023-24?

The Indian Government has proposed that the Indian Space Programme will be receiving a fund allocation of Rs.12,543.91cr for the financial year 2023-24. This allocation is the estimate of the funding that India's Government-run Department of Space(DoS) will receive. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), its commercial-arm NewSpace India Limited(NSIL) and IN-SPACe (the agency entrusted with supporting space startups and private firms) are all verticals encompassed within the Department of Space.

Notably, it appears that there is a marginal decrease in the budget estimate for 2023-24 when compared to the corresponding figure for 2022-23. The budget estimate for the year 2022-23 stood at Rs.13,700cr, whereas it is at Rs.12,543.91cr for the coming financial year. In percentage terms, this is a reduction of almost 9.2 per cent. However, this cannot be taken at face value, because it is only a comparison between the estimates for the ongoing year and the next one.

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For example, though Rs.13,700cr has been allocated for the year 2022-23, the Demands for Grants document indicates that the revised estimate for this period is Rs.10,530cr. This goes on to show that the estimated allocation can be revised during the course of the financial year. When comparing the 2023-24 estimate (Rs.12,543cr) with the revised estimate of 2022-23(10,530cr), it indicates a 19 per centincrease.

Under the Outlay on Major schemes, a partial split up of the budget estimate for 2023-34 has been provided. It mentions that Rs.9441cr has been allocated for Space technology (includes launch activity, R&D on rockets, engines, satellites etc.), Rs.1,559cr for Space applications (utilization and interpretation of data generated from space) and Rs.531cr for INSAT (multipurpose) Satellite systems. Generally, the trend has been such that DoS receives anywhere between Rs.10,000-13,000 crore per annum. Hence, the latest estimate is also very much in line with the funding received in recent years.

In the year 2023, ISRO is expected to launch ambitious missions such as Aditya-L1 (to study the solar phenomenon and solar corona), Chandrayaan-3 (lunar landing attempt) and even various test flights as part of the Gaganyaan project, which eventually aims to put Indian astronauts in earth's orbit and get them back to the planet. ISRO faced numerous delays in 2020 and 2021, owing to the COVID pandemic and this continues to have an impact on the schedules of various activities of the Indian space agency.

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