With a special focus on the space sector, Sitharaman said that the ISRO has brought a lot of laurels to the Indian space scene, but there are also a lot of private players and startups working on space related technologies.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the fourth tranche of the economic package on May 16 as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan.
The tranche today focused structural reforms to allow the country to be more self-sufficient in addition to the Make in India mission that the government has been striving for.
With a special focus on the space sector, Sitharaman said that the Indian Space Research Organisation has brought a lot of laurels to the Indian space scene, but there are also a lot of private players and startups working on space related technologies.
Thanks to the current regulations and policies, these private players cannot make full use of the tech from ISRO or even for testing purposes.
Sitharaman said that the government wants private players to be co-travellers in the country’s space journey and to provide a level playing field in satellites, launches and space-based services, provisions and better regulatory environment will be provided.
Future projects in space travel and planetary exploration by the private sector and individual players will be encouraged and open.
Lastly, the Finance Minister said there is a lot of geo-spatial data available in India but tech entrepreneurs have to import data from outside the country thereby paying through their nose for data that helps India itself. This along with remote-sensing data will be made available to such entrepreneurs.
