by Gaurav Choudhary
Formed in 1969, the Indian Space and Research Organization (ISRO) was formed under the leadership of Vikram Sarabhai and Homi Bhabha. For a newly independent India, the organization aimed for the nation’s social and economic progress. By not focusing on the exploration of the fantasy and grandiose of space, it’s mission stood in sharp contrast to those of countries like the USA and USSR.
Under Manmohan Singh, the emphasis on India’s space program grew considerably, and that was reflected heavily by its capital allocation. The organization launched the first Chandrayaan and Mangalyaan missions in 2008 and 2013 respectively and in addition, completed its 100th mission under him. When Singh left office, the government was pumping in around 5800 crore rupees into ISRO, an increase of almost 3300 crores from the amount at the beginning of Singh’s Prime Ministership.
In 2014, Narendra Modi took office, and under his rule, this allocation doubled. During his ministership, ISRO launched its second Chandrayaan mission, with plans for a third. In addition, 2018 saw it launch 104 satellites successfully in one launch vehicle itself. Even after this Covid pandemic, it has not seen a decrease in its monetary allocation and on the contrary, has an increase of 3.48% in its allowance, amounting to almost 14000 crores in total. Presently, ISRO stands as an established space superpower, launching a multitude of space satellites, rovers, telescopes etc., thereby helping catalyze India’s economic and social welfare at a fraction of the expenditures made by its peer superpowers.
Coming out of 2020, the year of covid, the funding for our space program has taken an interesting turn. This time, a huge majority of its allocation will be directed towards New Space India Limited (NSIL), which was recently created to authorize the participation of private companies in the space sector. These companies will be able to access ISRO’s satellite data as well as its testing facilities to develop their particular products.
This signifies a major inflexion point in India’s space endeavors since ISRO will give up its status as a sole participator in space exploration in favor of a facilitator for both government as well as private undertakings. In the near future, the organization plans on undertaking missions to the moon, Mars, Venus as well as plans to further expand its fleet of satellites and telescope observatories.
As Nirmala Sitharaman made it clear in her budget hearing, the Department of Space will also lay key emphasis on the Chandrayaan-3 (Moon craft), Mangalyaan-2 (Mars craft) and Shukrayaan-1 (Venus craft) missions, planned for launch between 2021 and 2024-26. She also talked about an allocation of 400 crores over a 5-year period towards deep ocean studies to understand and conserve biodiversity using space technology.
Analyzing India’s space budget cannot be done by comparing it with other countries, simply because the goals of our nation are different than those of our peer countries. In addition, our program can execute missions for just tens of millions of dollars compared to what would take other space superpowers billions of dollars and a much longer time frame. With these qualities, and a further emphasis on privatization of the space sector, we are clearly looking forward to a new age in our space program.