Aerospace Diary & Defense Report
Sept 2, 2010
NEW DELHI — India’s space industry has braved the pitfalls of global recession, and in fact its budgets are expected to rise substantially, according to a study released at the recent Bengaluru Space Expo.
The study is by Deloitte, the Confederation of Indian Industry and the Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) marketing arm, Antrix.
The study points out that India’s space budget of $1.26 billion for 2010 was increased by an estimated 22% from the previous year. Between 2003 to 2010, funding grew by 144%.
Space spending is expected to increase further by an average of 14.8% annually over the next four years, reaching $2.17 billion by 2014.
“It is hard to put the genie back in the bottle,” says Tom Captain, vice chairman and global aerospace & defensesector leader at Deloitte LLP. “India’s space industry is registering explosive growth, with many opportunities for indigenous as well as foreign suppliers to help further develop the country’s communications, positioning, navigation and tracking, as well as Earth observation requirements.”
The report says ISRO anticipates new revenues from the highly lucrative satellite industry, which includes broadband Internet Protocol services, defense and military
applications, as well as leasing options to telecommunication providers.
“There is a lot of synergy [with defense] in the commercial side,” Captain says. “[There is] a real requirement for homeland security [such as] surveillance and imagery.”
The government’s Vision 2025 will provide opportunities for collaboration and partnering with technology suppliers globally, according to Nidhi Goyal, director of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu in India. Vision 2025 looks at the development of reusable launch vehicles, human space flight systems, enhanced imaging capability, satellite-based communication and navigation systems and planetary exploration.
India has great market advantages because of high demand, a strong domestic manufacturing base, a well-educated talent pool, a low-cost skilled workforce and the ability to leverage IT competitiveness, Captain says. He adds India is free to export the big advances it has made in imagery and electro-optical radars.
- Neelam Mathews
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