The International Seminar on Indian Space Programme: ‘Trends and Opportunities for Industry’ was inaugurated here today. The seminar is being organised by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Antrix Corporation Limited (the commercial arm of ISRO), in coordination with Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

The objective of this two-day conference is to deliberate on the best practices, pursue the ongoing discussion process to support further work of India's Space Sector and facilitate arriving at coherent framework, where in India's Space Sector can start expanding the domestic and global opportunities through enhanced partnerships and collaborations. The seminar is aimed to highlight the achievements and major milestones of Indian Space Sector in recent past, and the future programs and plans. During the seminar, the stakeholders from industry, policy makers, thought leaders and academia, will brainstorm on the enabling and encouraging policies of Government of India to exploit the commercial space segment by Indian Industry targeting both domestic and international market.

While giving his inaugural address, the Secretary, Department of Space, Chairman Space Commission and Chairman Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Shri AS Kiran Kumar said that Innovations are shaping the Space Industry and the endeavour should be to provide access of advantages of space to common people. He said that technological innovations have undergone a giant leap with the passage of time. He further said that the development and progress of the country is directly dependent on the strides made in the sector of space growth.

Shri Kumar emphasized the vision and objectives enunciated by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi can be achieved, with progress in ‘Make in India’ and ‘Start-up and Stand-up India’ initiatives. He said the industry and stakeholders in the space sector value-chain can play a pivotal role in providing the necessary fillip to the advancement of country. He said that Industry-Academic interaction and collaboration are the pillars for knowledge development in this sector. He emphasized that the value addition in the space sector is multi-faceted in its approach with collaborative models of development like Public Private Partnership (PPP) are adding a new dimension to the future growth prospects. He urged the private sector to collaborate and explore the huge potential in space sector in areas such as space exploration, joint ventures of collaboration in assembly and integration of satellite sub-system, cluster development, knowledge and information dissemination, launch infrastructure co-development, ISRO’s versatile workhorse PSLV launch vehicle integration and GSLV Cryogenic technology transfer, communication and navigation satellite creative co-creation opportunities, among others. He said seminars like this provide the necessary platform to deliberate and brainstorm on various multi-dimensional aspects of space collaboration among various stakeholders like Government, Industry, Academia and Scientific Community. He said that space has no national or geographical boundaries and the scope for collaboration is immense. He said indigenous development of space and satellite technology, be it PSLV or GSLV, can provide the ideal ground for infrastructure development of country. He said such developments can help in communication and navigation earth observation, education, health, agriculture, energy resource exploration, mineral and meteorological analysis.

Shri AS Kiran Kumar said the pace of development in the space sector is resulting in astronomical demand for more scope of co-development and collaboration. He said that ISRO has presently 42 operational satellites and has set new benchmarks in Lunar and Mars exploration by India’s successful launch of Chandrayaan And Mangalyaan. He said in the years to come the challenge will be decreasing the cost of access to space for optimal advantage of common people and to utilize the talent base of demographically young country. He said that the endeavour should be to improve the quality and standard of living of citizens of the country. He said India has demonstrated to entire world its capabilities in satellite launch with comparative cost advantage compared to other foreign space agencies. He said this has ideally placed India in the league of nation for successful space launches even for other foreign countries, who wish to utilize this advantage which ISRO provides. He emphasized that recent initiative of launching a SAARC satellite in space is bearing fruits for all its neighboring South-Asian countries.

President, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Mr. Naoki Okumura said that the collaboration of India and Japan is multi-dimensional in aspects related to exploration of space science, collaboration among space industry of both countries; promote research communities for their scientific endeavour and development of centers of excellence in space infrastructure projects. He emphasized on developing the space projects leveraging each other capabilities for the holistic growth of the space sector.

Deputy Director General, JSC Glavkosmos, Russia, Mr. Vitaly Safonov said the scope of collaboration of space industry is promising. He said that India and Russia have excellent bilateral relations in political, cultural and diplomatic level and the space collaboration is another step in defining the growing relations between the two countries. He said that the perspective of industry partners of two countries is for capacity building and for new modes of development in various sector like space and earth sciences, communication and navigational satellite technological advancement, space enabled services cooperation, space engine and sub-system co-development with utilizing each other potential by elevating the level of cooperation to unprecedented levels.

Speaking on the occasion, the Chairman Space Division of FICCI, Col HS Shankar said the ecosystem of technology and satellite development can be felicitated by big industries like TATA, L&T, GODREJ, Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL), Navratna Defence PSU Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) ably enabled by Small and Medium Enterprises. He said that the growth can be fostered with Government to Business and Government to Government collaboration with foreign Government and Space Agencies.

Advisor, Space Division of FICCI Lt Col Ratan Srivastava said that foreign countries agencies and industry participating in the Seminar can collaborate in space sector strengthening and co-development, while deliberating and discussing the scopes of development in various stages of value chain and supply of sub-systems. He expressed optimism in build capabilities and establishment of centers of excellences in this sector.

Secretary General, FICCI Dr. Sanjaya Baru said that the approach of development should be coordination and collaboration among Private and Public sector, strategic agencies of foreign countries, space agencies, Ministry of Defence, Department of Space and Atomic Energy.

The two-day seminar includes sessions on Space Industry Ecosystem: Role and Opportunities for Industry, Leveraging Public-Private Partnership for Indian Space Programs, Capacity building and talent management and panel discussion on role of industry in Indian Space Program. Eminent speakers include Dr M Annadurai, Director, ISRO Satellite Centre (Bangalore), Dr P G Diwakar, Scientific Secretary, ISRO, Shri K. Sivan, Director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Shri S. Somnath, Director, Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre, Shri P. Kunhikrishnan, Director, Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Shri Tapan Mishra, Director, Space Applications Centre, Dr V K Saraswat, Member, NITI Aayog, Dr. Y V N Krishnamurthy, Director, National Remote Sensing Centre and Dr. Kumar Krishen, Professor, University of Houston, USA.

The conference will help in gaining the latest insight on the key thrust areas of Indian Space sector, provide access to latest current and future outlook of space sector, provide first hand information on the latest developments, technologies and innovations in the space sector, help discussing innovations and developments in the space sector, building partnerships and identifying investment opportunities and act as a platform to interact with the policy makers, space scientists, technocrats and industry leaders. The B2B and B2G meetings giving opportunity to stakeholders to know each other and discuss the business opportunities.

The valedictory session of the conference will he held tomorrow. The Foreign Secretary Dr S Jaishankar and Shri Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog will be present during the valedictory session.

 

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