Lack of internal demand hurting India's fledgling space economy

livemint.com:

Mint on condition of anonymity that the demand-driven model in question has created conflicts in terms of how government bodies pursue space missions. “No global space economy has ever been successful without the government being the primary customer for public as well as private sector firms. In India, government departments and agencies under various ministries are conflicted regarding the allocation of funds to Isro, which is creating this said demand shortage in the market.

In short, there is no single body with budget allocation available to enable commercial space projects within Isro," the official said. Nagendra and the official mentioned above both said that In-Space, on this note, should be the ideal regulator—but as of today, does not have an allocated budget to work with. Pawan Goenka, the In-Space chairperson, could not be reached for a comment.

Isro did not respond to an emailed query from Mint. A second senior executive at one of India’s top space firms told Mint on condition of anonymity that in a second closed-door meeting, the Isro chairperson underlined to investors that rocket launch services are largely loss-making in nature, further compounded by a paucity of demand. It is because of this that the internal demand generation process needs to be ramped up, the executive said.

Startups, too, are getting affected. Anirudh Sharma, co-founder and chief executive of Peak XV-backed space mapping firm Digantara, said, “Getting satellite orders from other countries could have multiple regulatory challenges for a space company to navigate. The US is a key example of such regulatory challenges.