Space policy, commerce and law

The first principle

Space began as a state activity because only states could afford rockets and only states needed what they offered, but once launch costs fell and satellites became small and cheap, space became an industry like telecom or aviation. An industry needs three things from the state: permission to operate, protection of property and a clear rule on who pays when something goes wrong. Indian space policy since 2020 is the attempt to supply those three things, while international space law, written in the 1960s and 1970s for a few governments, is being stretched to cover thousands of private satellites in crowded orbits.

The core

The Indian institutions

• The Department of Space (DoS), under the Prime Minister, sets policy, and the Space Commission, created in 1972, approves programmes and budgets.
• The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) shifts to research and development: under the 2023 policy it is to concentrate on new technology, science and human spaceflight, and hand over proven systems, such as operational launchers and satellites, to industry.
• The Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe), announced in June 2020 and based in Ahmedabad, is an autonomous single window agency under DoS. It authorises private launches, satellites and ground stations, shares ISRO's test facilities with firms and promotes the industry, so it is both regulator and promoter.
• NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), a public sector company set up in March 2019, is ISRO's commercial arm for mature products: it owns and operates satellites built on demand for users, sells launches, and transfers technology to industry. Antrix Corporation (1992), the older commercial arm, continues to market ISRO's services abroad.

The Indian Space Policy 2023

• It opens every activity to Indian private firms, including building launchers and satellites, owning and operating satellites, ground stations and spaceports, and selling remote sensing data, subject to authorisation.
• It divides roles clearly among DoS, ISRO, IN-SPACe and NSIL, so that the same body is not designer, operator, regulator and seller at once.
• It treats data as a public good: imagery coarser than a set resolution is to be freely available, while finer data is governed by security rules. IN-SPACe issued detailed norms and procedures for implementing the policy in 2024.

The international law of space

• Five United Nations treaties form the base, drafted in the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS). The Outer Space Treaty (1967) says space is free for all to explore, no nation may claim sovereignty over it or any celestial body, nuclear weapons may not be placed in orbit, and states are responsible for the activities of their private firms; India ratified it in 1982.
• The Rescue Agreement (1968) obliges states to help astronauts in distress, the Liability Convention (1972) makes a launching state absolutely liable for damage its space object causes on Earth or to aircraft, and liable for fault in space, and the Registration Convention (1976) requires states to register their space objects with the United Nations.
• The Moon Agreement (1979) calls the Moon's resources the common heritage of mankind, but few states have joined it; India signed but has not ratified.
• The Artemis Accords (2020), led by the United States, are non binding principles for civil exploration, covering transparency, interoperability, release of scientific data, safety zones around activities and the extraction of resources; India signed them in June 2023.
• Orbits and frequencies are coordinated by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), where countries file for orbital positions and frequencies; a filing generally gains priority by being first, which is why constellations file early and in large numbers.

Dimensions

• Economic. India's space economy was about 8.4 billion US dollars in 2022, roughly 2 per cent of the world's, and the Decadal Vision released by IN-SPACe in 2023 aims at 44 billion dollars by 2033, with about 11 billion in exports.
• Technological. Competition and private capital push down cost per kilogram and speed up innovation, while ISRO is freed for frontier work, the model by which the United States moved launch to private firms.
• Strategic. Satellites for navigation, surveillance and communication are now military assets, and anti satellite weapons can destroy them; India tested one in Mission Shakti in March 2019 and created the Defence Space Agency the same year. Warfare in space is in the drones and emerging warfare note.
• Legal. Under the Outer Space Treaty India answers for every Indian private satellite, so it needs a domestic law that licenses, insures and if necessary recovers costs from private operators.
• Environmental. Debris and crowded orbits are a commons problem, where each operator gains by launching more but all lose if orbits become unusable.
• International. Rules for the Moon, resources and traffic management are being written now, in the Artemis Accords and in rival Chinese and Russian plans, so a country that is not at the table inherits rules made by others.

In practice

• Foreign investment. In February 2024 the Cabinet eased the foreign direct investment (FDI) rules: up to 74 per cent is allowed through the automatic route for satellite manufacturing and operation and satellite data products, up to 49 per cent for launch vehicles and spaceports, and up to 100 per cent for components and subsystems, with government approval beyond these limits; the wider FDI framework is in the foreign investment note.
• Money for start ups. A venture capital fund of Rs 1,000 crore for space start ups, run under IN-SPACe, was approved in October 2024.
• Private launchers. Skyroot Aerospace flew Vikram-S, India's first privately built rocket, on a suborbital test in November 2022, and Agnikul Cosmos flew Agnibaan, with a single piece 3D printed engine, from its own launch pad at Sriharikota in May 2024. Skyroot's Vikram-1 reached orbit in July 2026, the first Indian private orbital launch.
• Technology transfer. Hindustan Aeronautics Limited won the transfer of technology for the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) in June 2025 for about Rs 511 crore, the first time ISRO has handed a complete rocket design to industry, and industry now builds Polar Satellite Launch Vehicles (PSLV) under contract with NSIL.
• A second spaceport. A launch complex at Kulasekarapattinam in Thoothukudi district, Tamil Nadu, whose foundation stone was laid in February 2024, will serve small launchers.
• Satellite internet. The Telecommunications Act 2023 allows satellite spectrum to be assigned administratively rather than auctioned, global operators have received Indian licences, and the price of spectrum was still awaiting a final decision in late 2026.
• Debris and traffic. ISRO runs the ISRO System for Safe and Sustainable Space Operations Management (IS4OM), plans the Network for space object Tracking and Analysis (NETRA) of radars and telescopes, publishes an annual space situational assessment, and has set a target that all Indian missions, government and private, leave no debris by 2030. It routinely moves its own satellites to avoid collisions and brought the Megha-Tropiques satellite down under control in 2023.

Issues and way forward

• No space law. India still regulates space through policy and executive norms; a Space Activities Bill first drafted in 2017 was redrafted but had not reached Parliament by mid 2026. A statute would give authorisation, liability, insurance and dispute resolution the force of law, which investors need.
• A regulator inside the department it regulates. IN-SPACe sits under DoS, which also runs ISRO, its largest competitor for orders; a statutory and independent regulator would remove the conflict of interest.
• Demand is thin. Private firms depend heavily on government orders, so assured procurement of data and launches, as the United States did for its private launchers, would build scale.
• Liability and insurance. Under the Liability Convention the state pays first for damage caused by an Indian private object, so a law must cap the operator's liability, require insurance and allow recovery.
• Weak global rules on debris and traffic. Debris guidelines from the Inter Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee and the United Nations are voluntary, and there is no binding traffic management; India's no debris target and its active role in COPUOS help, but binding norms will need wide agreement.
• Militarisation. Anti satellite tests create long lived debris, and India, which tested at low altitude so most debris fell back within months, can support a ban on destructive tests while keeping deterrence.

Common confusions

• IN-SPACe and NSIL. IN-SPACe authorises and promotes private activity, while NSIL is a company that sells ISRO's products and services and owns satellites.
• NSIL and Antrix. Both are commercial companies under DoS; NSIL handles transfer of mature technology and demand driven satellites, while Antrix markets ISRO's services, mainly abroad.
• Outer Space Treaty and Moon Agreement. The first is the widely ratified basic law of space, while the Moon Agreement, which bars ownership of lunar resources by anyone, has few members and no major space power.
• Artemis Accords and Artemis programme. The Accords are principles a country signs; the programme is the set of Moon missions, in which signing does not oblige participation.
• Space debris and space junk sizes. Objects larger than about 10 cm are tracked and avoided, while millions of smaller fragments cannot be tracked but can still damage a satellite, because at orbital speeds even a paint fleck carries great energy.

For the exam

• Keyword bank: Indian Space Policy 2023, IN-SPACe, NewSpace India Limited, demand driven model, FDI in space, Antariksh venture capital fund, private launchers, Outer Space Treaty, Liability Convention, Artemis Accords, ITU filings, space debris, Kessler syndrome, space situational awareness, Space Activities Bill.
• Previous year questions: Practise the previous year questions on this topic →
• Use in an answer:
  • Introduction with data: India's space economy was about 8.4 billion dollars in 2022, roughly 2 per cent of the global total, and IN-SPACe's Decadal Vision aims to raise it to 44 billion dollars by 2033.
  • Introduction with a source: The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 makes every state responsible for the space activities of its non governmental entities, which is why a country that opens space to private firms also needs a law to authorise and supervise them.
  • Conclusion: The 2023 policy has opened the door to private industry; a space law, an independent regulator and assured demand are now needed to turn that opening into a market.
  • Conclusion: Orbits are a shared and finite resource, so India's interest lies in both growing its own space industry and helping write binding global rules on debris and traffic.