New Delhi: The Karnataka government, which announced its intention to frame a state-level policy for India’s space sector last month, is chalking out final details of how the policy will be implemented.

“We are a natural habitat for the space ecosystem as well, since we have the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), In-Space (Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre) and others in the state,” Priyank Kharge, cabinet minister for information technology, Karnataka, told Mint on Tuesday. “We are tying up with In-Space to build a centre of excellence in space tech, and we’re heavily concentrating on developing downstream applications of space technologies.”

The minister said that the state government is currently evaluating the need and process to boost manufacturing efforts by micro, small and medium enterprises in the domain of space—which is deemed to be crucial in building a supply chain ecosystem in the domestic space industry.

Darshan HV, managing director of state government-affiliated Karnataka Innovation and Technology Society (Kits), said the state is in final-stage discussions with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to become the “first state partner in the country for downstream space applications”.

“The DRDO’s involvement has two aspects—one, which is focused on defence technologies only. We’re not too keen to interfere in this. The second is on dual-use technologies—what can be used in defence technologies can also be used commercially,” he said. “We’re interested and involved in building downstream space applications, which will be our focus with the space policy.”

The state's space policy, a senior government official said on the condition of anonymity, will begin with a centre of excellence (CoE) for space engineering, which is expected to receive state cabinet approval in the “Next two weeks”. Beyond this, the state will look to establish a larger ecosystem, before rolling out a comprehensive space policy later next year.

All of this, according to Kharge, will culminate in a policy that enables “R&D incentivization, boosting of start-ups and manufacturing, supporting common instrumentation facilities for start-ups, and perhaps flat-flow factories too”.

To be sure, the process of creating a viable commercial market for the domestic space ecosystem has seen multiple moves from the Centre, with In-Space, chaired by Pawan Goenka, being the enabler so far. Last week, the Union Cabinet’s approved of $2.7 billion in funds for five ISRO projects and would also lead to private sector involvement, said S Somanath, chairman, ISRO.

However, Karnataka is making the first such effort to boost the sector at a state level.

A senior consultant directly involved in the development of the sector, who requested anonymity since the policy is in works now, said that evaluations are still on in terms of what the key value additions that Karnataka can offer beyond what’s already existing.

“Bangalore is already India’s hub for space and aerospace engineering, so it’s no surprise that space start-ups are largely concentrated around here. However, what we’re currently exploring is a model similar to the aerospace park in the outskirts of the city, which the Karnataka government built in partnership with ISRO. Such a collaborative model could be key for private-sector R&D initiatives to flourish—and add a new dimension to the project,” the consultant said.

However, the journey may not be so straightforward. Narayan Prasad Nagendra, space consultant and chief operating officer of Dutch space supply chain firm Satsearch, said, “The DRDO involvement sounds confusing—defence research is never a major downstream market for start-ups to cater to. What the Karnataka government really needs to do is offer directives for its own bodies and departments to become clients to the space sector, which will offer the primary fillip. Otherwise, just formulating a policy in itself will not make a major immediate difference—since the policy is not judicially binding as such.”

Two senior officials, including the consultant cited above, with direct knowledge of the matter said that while work on the policy has been ongoing since early this year, the project has been stalled a few times due to the lack of understanding how best might state-level incentives help boost the private industry. Also, exactly what kind of incentives and infrastructure support the industry would need beyond what the Centre is already offering, they said.

“There is a ready market for aviation and aerospace to cater to, and a larger one at that than space. What we really need is to see how Karnataka can leverage its upper hand in the space ecosystem to boost the market—In-Space and ISRO are involved in it, too,” the consultant added.

Agencies