SHILLONG, April 17: G20 Sherpa, Amitabh Kant has advocated the need to develop and implement new space applications for socio-economic development.
“We must also establish policies that create an enabling environment for development and trade in the new space era. And then with collaboration among the G20 members, we can boldly go into our shared future,” he said at the inaugural session of the precursor event of the 4th edition of the Space Economy Leaders’ Meeting (SELM) under the GS Presidency of India held at an upscale hotel here on Monday.
He said the G20 must recognise that space-based technology solutions play a central enabling role in such development in each nation and also as a global community.
“But the future has a lot more in store. Aptly summarised in the theme ‘New Space ERA (Economy, Responsibility, and Alliance)’, the upcoming era must move beyond treating space as an enabler to treating space itself as an asset and economic enterprise,” Kant said.
He said the second wave of space entrepreneurs in India started around 2012 with new space startups cropping up around the country.
“Mindful of the changing era, in June 2020, India announced the opening up of the space sector to participation from the private sector and established the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe). These reforms have received a strong and positive response from the industry with nearly 500 Non-Government Entities (NGEs) registered with IN-SPACe, with industry, startups, and MSMEs in the lead,” the G20 Sherpa said.
He further said the Indian Space Policy 2023 was announced earlier this month with the goal of institutionalising and facilitating the access of private sector participation in the space sector for India.
“It continues to hold the vision of Dr Vikram Sarabhai at its core and provides a framework of roles and responsibilities of ISRO, IN-SPACe, and the private sector to work together towards establishing India as a hub of the global space economy. This approach encourages developing meaningful partnerships with the international community,” the G20 Sherpa said.
He also stressed the need to promote the movement of space technology across borders as part of creating a new space economy for G20, which includes technology trade, startup collaborations, talent exchange, and investments, with an underlying focus on developing applications.
“To achieve this, we need policy frameworks that enable the new space economy in all G20 countries,” he said.
Talking on G20 for the New Space Responsibility, he said that as echoed in the theme for the G20 Presidency, a shared future is a shared responsibility.
“Spectrum and orbital slots are both scarce resources, so we need to use them more judiciously. That starts by taking active measures for de-cluttering our orbits and keeping them that way. We need policy frameworks that ensure space is accessible to all and remains accessible to future generations,” Kant said.
Touching upon G20 for the New Space Alliance, he said that human civilisation needs to develop a lot more scientific and technological capabilities to achieve our shared vision.
“And the development of these capabilities needs multilateral collaboration. I suggest three key areas of collaboration: Manufacturing in space, energy in space, and mining in space. These will form the foundation on which the G20 will be able to build the civilisation of its shared vision,” Kant added.
Later, Kant told reporters that Shillong would play an important part in the development of space technology in the northeastern region with the presence of a space centre here.
He said the Centre has come up with a policy framework that will give a massive impetus for the startups to drive the space sectors in India.
Kant said that this precursor event would look at constructive areas of how to use the space economy for the development of the countries like how to do manufacturing in space and how to use the energy of space for renewable energy.
“We will also be looking at the use of space mining. All these are important areas and different countries are at different stages of development. In India we have a very vast progress and space policy has recently come out which will allow the start-ups to work in the space sectors of the country,” Kant said.
Stating that it is a very good interaction since collaboration is necessary for G20 countries, he said that collaboration in the future is necessary since it is an emerging area of growth on what should be the rules, regulations, and policies.
“We are guiding the discussion since ISRO as a space leader of India has to play an important role in this whole movement,” he added.
