ADL says India has potential of US$100 billion space economy by 2040
Over Rs.1,000 crore investment has come in from Space Startups in last nine months of the current financial year (April to Dec) 2023, Minister of State of Science and Technology Dr Jitendra Singh told an international conference.
“We now have 199 Space Startups,” he said at the inaugural session of the 9th India International Science Festival in Faridabad, Haryana, on 17 Jan 2024. In 2014, there was just one space startup.
“India’s space economy today stands at a modest US$8 billion, but our own projection is that by 2040 it will scale US$40 billion,” said the Minister.
But more interesting is that according to some international observers, for example the recent Arthur D Little Report, India has the potential of US$100 billion space economy by 2040, he pointed out.
Stating that the “Anusandhan National Research Foundation (NRF)” will pave the way for a greater Private Public Partnership (PPP) model in scientific research, Dr Jitendra Singh said, “The NRF will catapult us to the league of a handful of developed nations pioneering research in new frontiers.
“NRF budget envisions a spending of Rs.50,000 crore over five years, out of which over 70%, will come from non-government sources, including domestic as well as outside sources.”
The Minister said that the National Education Policy 2020 is something that India was waiting for several decades.
“NEP-2020 liberates students from being ‘prisoners of their aspiration’, by allowing switch over or combinations from different streams of studies such as Humanities and Commerce to Sciences and Engineering,” said Dr Jitendra Singh.
“If you go by the international yardstick, we are rated No.3 in the world in the Startup ecosystem, we were just 350 (10 years back), and it has all happened in the last 10 years.
“In the Global Innovation Index, we were 81, we’ve jumped 41 places, we were 50 Startups, today we are 6,000,” he said. fiinews.com
