India has witnessed investment of over Rs.1,000 crore in Space Startups in last nine months of the current financial year from April to December 2023, Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh has said.
During an exclusive interview at the Zee TV National Conclave in New Delhi, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology, MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh said, this has been possible because after a bold decision taken by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, India’s Space sector has been opened up for private players, as a result of which there is an overwhelming response from Industry as well as investors from private sector.
From just one Startup in the Space sector four years back, we have almost 190 private Space Startups after opening up of the sector and the earlier ones of them have now turned entrepreneurs, he said.
Dr Jitendra Singh said, overall from just about 350 Startups in the year 2014, today we have about 1,30,000 Startups, besides Unicorns.
Stating that Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has provided an enabling milieu with his vision and policy initiatives, Dr Jitendra Singh said, this has created the opportunity for entrepreneurship. In the Space sector, an interphase called “InSPACE” has been established and a public sector unit called “NSIL” also set up to facilitate PPP mode projects, he said.
Dr Jitendra Singh said, PM Modi has scrapped obsolete rules and focused on citizen-centric Governance through optimum use of technology. In the same vein, the gates of Sriharikota have been thrown open to all stakeholders, he said.
“Not only this, Government has been very inclined to use technology to the maximum extent and seeks to do away with all those hindrances or obstructionist rules that were not very enabling,” he said.
Citing the application of satellites and drones in mapping land ownership under the SVAMITVA scheme and Face Recognition Technology for DLC, Dr Jitendra Singh said, our Chandrayaan Mission was the first to discover evidence of water on the Moon.
