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India.com
6 days ago
- Business
- India.com
Masterstroke by Mukesh Ambani as Reliance to invest Rs 4300000000 in Bengaluru-based startup, it deals in..., name is...
Mukesh Ambani (File) In a significant decision which could provide a major boost to India's growing spacetech industry, Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries is mulling to invest $50 million (about Rs 430 crore) in Digantara Research & Technologies, a Bengaluru-based spacetech startup, which is developing technology that can track objects in the Earth's orbit. How much is Mukesh Ambani Reliance Industries investing? According to a report by The Economic Times, Reliance Industries, India's most valued domestic firm led by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, is in advanced discussions to lead a Rs 430 crore funding round in Digantara, along with existing investors like Peak XV Partners. 'Reliance has evaluated multiple startups in the spacetech segment. It is looking at companies building novel solutions in the sector. Its talks with Digantara are at an advanced stage,' the report quoted a source familiar with the matter as saying. What does Digintara do? Co-founded by Anirudh Sharma (CEO), Rahul Rawat (COO), and Tanveer Ahmed (CTO), Digintara is a spacetech startup based in Bengaluru, working on the development of technologies which can track bjects in Earth's orbit. Earlier, in March, Digintara launched a satellite capable of tracking debris as small as 5 cm, and is currently providing services to defence agencies in both India and the United States, as per the report. According to the report, Digintara plans to deploy a constellation of about a dozen surveillance satellites by the end of 2026. The company has launched three satellites so far, one of which is part of the proposed satellite constellation. A major chunk of the upcoming funding round will be dedicated in developing and launching these satellites. 'Given the volatility in global geopolitics, every country is focused on having its own indigenous sovereign solutions that can be controlled in times of crisis. That's where the opportunity lies for startups like Digantara,' the report quoted a source as saying. The company established a manufacturing and operations facility in the US in February 2024, and expects to earn a revenue of $25–30 million (Rs 220–260 crore) from its US operation in the next 2-3 years.
Mint
29-07-2025
- Business
- Mint
Data creates a revenue path for India's fledgling space startups
For India's fledgling space startups, offering data analytics to clients across sectors is turning into a viable revenue stream as the industry grows out of the early phase of proving its technical and product competence. Bengaluru-born Pixxel uses its hyperspectral or high-resolution imaging satellites to supply earth observation data to clients,according to media reports. Its same-city peer Digantara, which also has one satellite in orbit, offers processed data to fellow satellite operators to help them map the earth's lower orbit, and manoeuvre satellites better to avoid debris and incidental collision, Mint previously reported. Fellow startup GalaxEye is, too, building its first imaging satellite and placing it in orbit later this year. Suyash Singh, GalaxEye's chief executive, told Mint that in the long run, the company expects its satellite capability to help gain clients who would purchase high-resolution, low-latency data to circumvent cloud covers and challenging terrain. The race for satellite data marks the coming of age of India's space startups since the sector was significantly opened up to private players five years ago. The ecosystem has gradually matured, with satellite firms transitioning to commercial models. India's space economy is projected to generate $44 billion in annual revenue by 2033, according to estimates by the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (In-Space). Earth observation and data-related services could account for nearly 40% of it. Such a scale would come from customers who repeatedly purchase satellite data, according to Devroop Dhar, managing director and cofounder of management consulting firm Primus Partners. He cited examples of subscription access for change detection in crops, alerts for maritime anomalies, risk scoring for insurers and more. 'It is less about owning a piece of space and more about embedding space into day-to-day business decisions." 'The question is no longer what you captured, but how it helps someone make a decision," said Dhar, suggesting that monetization has changed from earlier when it was centred around payloads, launch contracts or tech demonstrators, mostly to government clients or for niche commercial engagements. Queries sent to Pixxel and Digantara did not immediately elicit a response. Digantara's chief executive officer Anirudh Sharma told Mint previously that the company is setting up an assembly line in response to rising demand from governments worldwide over the past six months, as more of them look to build their own space defence and surveillance systems and seek direct access to satellite data. Technological advances and a shift in strategic focus are propelling this transition. As satellite hardware shrinks and onboard processing becomes more advanced, space startups are no longer just focused on being satellite manufacturers or simply supplying raw data to vendors. They call it an "orbit to insight loop" to supply large volumes of processed data at low latencies as their core business model. Launch service providers, too, see data driving demand. Agnikul Cosmos and Skyroot Aerospace have completed solitary sub-orbital demonstrator missions—these do not enter the earth's orbit and serve as proof of technology only. The startups are in talks with data-focused clients such as agri-tech companies, fleet monitoring players and analytics firms. 'Our plan is to scale to a launch every two weeks," said Srinath Ravichandran, cofounder, Agnikul Cosmos. 'Even at 50 launches a year, I'm barely at 10% of the market demand. Our order pipeline already indicates clear dominance of satellite payloads increasing due to the demand for data—about 35-40% are imaging satellites." Ravichandran said the demand for data is coming "from hedge funds trying to predict urbanization, land utilization and betting on real estate, to city corporations using high-resolution imagery to track urban trends". Naga Bharath Daka, cofounder of Skyroot Aerospace, said that satellite manufacturers striking early deals with the firm for 'putting GPUs in satellites to process data in orbit. Many are downlinking only insights, not raw images." 'Many large firms across end-user applications are now investing in having their own satellites to gain direct insight," he said. 'As more operational players enter the market, booking a launch could soon become as simple as booking a cab at short notice." Earlier this month, Mint reported the rise of space-based surveillance as a major business stream for Indian space firms, with clients willing to pay up to $100 per square kilometre per week from a single satellite and providing scope for multi-million-dollar satellite data contracts on an annualized basis. However, to reap all the benefits, these startups will have to invest heavily early on to put multiple satellites in orbit—without which uninterrupted satellite data is difficult to procure. 'There can be no substitute for in-orbit satellites," said Sreeram Ananthasayanam, partner at consulting firm Deloitte India. 'You need a certain number of satellites to improve latency. In other words, demand and capital are akin to the perennial chicken and egg problem, plaguing several deep technology sectors."
Mint
13-07-2025
- Business
- Mint
Why space defence is no longer a pie in the sky for Indian companies
New Delhi/Bengaluru: Anirudh Sharma, chief executive of space startup Digantara, is setting up a satellite manufacturing assembly line at his company's Bengaluru headquarters. It's a bit of a departure from Digantara's original premise of selling 'space situational awareness'—a map for satellites to navigate increasingly crowded orbits. So, why is a company looking to sell satellite data to clients setting up an assembly line? Sharma says the decision was driven by the increasing interest over approximately the past six months from governments around the world to source their own space defence and surveillance infrastructure. Once a practically non-existent sector, space-based defence services, led by the demand for surveillance in the sky, is having a big impact on India. The country's space companies—once heavily questioned about their commercial prospects—now stand on the precipice of bagging contracts from countries around the world. Aside from Digantara, Bengaluru-based startups GalaxEye, Bellatrix Aerospace and Pixxel, and Hyderabad-headquartered legacy company Ananth Technologies, are all benefiting from this shift. Looking to get in on the action, last December, industrial conglomerate JSW Group entered the field, partnering with $3.5-billion US aerospace and defence-Tech company, Shield AI. As a consequence, India is quietly seeing the genesis of a sector that could give the country immense geopolitical soft power—akin to what Russia and France had previously wielded, in the global space race. At the heart are commercial contracts for manufacturing satellites, and for offering surveillance-related space data services to governments around the world. In less than eight years, the industry is likely to contribute over $17 billion to India's economy. And by the end of this fiscal year, it is set to get space-based surveillance contracts of varying kinds worth nearly $3 billion, Pawan Kumar Goenka, chairman of India's nodal space agency, Indian National Space Promotions and Authorization Centre (In-Space), had told Mint in May. At stake in all this is India's potential to take the challenge to the US and China—the de facto leaders in global space defence and surveillance technologies. Eye in the sky There is a rising demand for high-resolution imaging from satellites for earth observation and sovereign surveillance use cases. Over the past three quarters now, we are seeing an increasing interest from governments around the world to own their own space surveillance satellites," Digantara's Sharma told Mint. 'The contract sizes that we have been offered range from $1-15 million—varying by the number of satellites that a client is asking us for. The demand is certain, and is helping us generate a steady revenue stream this fiscal year." GalaxEye is a second entrant pivoting into this ecosystem. Last month, chief executive Suyash Singh announced the venture's entry into the high-resolution-imaging satellite market—with a view to tap the rising demand for surveillance data from around the world. On 2 July, fellow startup Bellatrix Aerospace followed suit, introducing what it said was an 'ultra-low-earth satellite delivering lower latency, sharper imagery and dramatically reduced mission costs" than established surveillance satellite projects. Each of them is vying for a market where Bengaluru-origin space startup Pixxel made an early entry, offering ultra-high-resolution surveillance satellites to nations in a 'data-as-a-service' format. The company has already established its presence in the US, winning contracts with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa). There are veteran companies in this space, too. Ananth Technologies, run by Subba Rao Pavuluri—a former engineer with the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), today operates three satellite manufacturing lines in Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Thiruvananthapuram. The company, established in 1992, has been a supplier to Isro for three decades, and has built surveillance satellites under the Earth Observation Satellite (Eos) series for New Delhi. Today, it is opening up its capacities to make satellites for global customers. To do that, Ananth Technologies is competing for global space defence infrastructure orders with Alpha Design Technologies, an aerospace and defence manufacturing company acquired in 2019 by Adani Group arm Adani Defence and Aerospace. Eying these opportunities, Big Tech is gradually making moves. In June 2023, Google became an early investor in Pixxel. On 8 July this year, Amazon Web Services announced a second edition of its Space Accelerator programme, with the goal of offering 40 startups with 'business resources, expertise and guidance". Two of Amazon's five key areas of focus in its space startups incubator campaign are satellite imagery and geospatial applications—key to the nascent space defence sector. Interestingly, while this year's edition of the Amazon accelerator will be available in four countries, the inaugural 2024 edition targeted India alone—reflecting the rising amount of interest in this industry. Each of these moves is boosting India as a key resource for geospatial defence infrastructure. Sarjan Shah, managing director–India at JSW Defence's US partner Shield AI, said that there is ample appetite for aerial defence infrastructure upgrades with private sector partnership in the country—a field that has received a 'considerable fillip since Operation Sindoor". 'There is a clear sentiment within the private industry as well as the government that India's defence forces are well-poised for infrastructure upgrades in aerial capacities," Shah added. The JSW-Shield AI partnership, valued at $90 million, will give the Indian company's defence and space subsidiary, JSW Defence, indigenous capability to manufacture unmanned surveillance and ballistic aircraft—crucial parts of modern-day warfare. The indigenization is currently underway, taking place through a transfer-of-technology agreement that the two entities have running. This will give JSW Defence access to Shield's proprietary unmanned aerial vehicle technologies—applicable in space warfare, defence and surveillance services. 'With technology partnership and transfer, India can also become a vital supplier of aerial defence infrastructure to trusted geographies—given the current balance of global geopolitics, which rules out multiple previously-established countries as viable partners for the world," said Shah. An opportune moment Why is there such a sudden flurry of activity in India to cash in on the space industry? The answers are not unidirectional, but all narrow down to one point: India is in the right place, at the right time. The embers began to glow in 2022, when Russia's invasion of Ukraine led to sanctions being imposed against it by most European nations. This led to a dearth in space engineering and manufacturing supply—Russia was a major provider of satellite manufacturing, especially in defence and surveillance use cases. Over the past nine months, rising geopolitical tensions in West Asia, and the India-Pakistan skirmish in April, have led to more nations wanting their own, sovereign geopolitical solutions. These factors, coupled with the US not catering to every nation as a result of its stringent defence partnership policies, have put India in a strategically advantageous position as a satellite and space technology supplier to the world. For instance, over the past two years, India has replaced Russia as the primary defence and national security supplier to Armenia. Today, the nation's reliance on India includes using its space technologies ecosystem—giving the private entities mentioned above a steady, recurring market to cater to. 'A large part of why India's space sector is seeing such a defence-led boom is the fact that many of the older, existing supplier markets are today out of the question," said Vinit Khandare, director at policy consultancy and services organization Strategy Research and Growth Foundation. 'The US does not supply space-based surveillance infrastructure or data to every country, and partnerships with Russia are no longer sustainable since Russia itself is engaged in various geopolitical conflicts. France was a key partner, but with the manufacturing sector being too expensive in the European Union, it is no longer an entity either. Enter, India." Companies are already seeing a rising amount of commercial activity. 'We're certainly getting an increasing number of orders from nations across Asia and the global South—which are India's focus areas," said Ananth's Pavuluri. 'In anticipation of rising orders for sovereign surveillance satellites, we've ramped up capacity to currently operate larger satellite assembly facilities than some of the world's biggest players in this sector—such as Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin." But it's not just a game of manufacturing, say stakeholders. GalaxEye's Singh noted that the 'rising amount of interest in the sector is giving India plenty of opportunity to innovate." 'There is of course one side of the industry, where India can tap a rising demand for satellite manufacturing—to simply be a direct supplier for satellites as per global specifications," Singh said. 'But, we're using this time to innovate upon the kind of surveillance resolution that we can offer—and subsequently sell the data as per sovereign requirements. We can even scale up the number of satellites that we build, depending on demand." A shot at the big bucks Data sourced from five industry executives showed that on an average, the global price of satellite surveillance data ranges from $10-100 per square kilometre per week, from a single satellite. With Indian companies also looking at similar pricing for satellite data, the revenue to be generated from an EU member such as Hungary, or a non-EU country such as Norway, as part of a bundled offering of surveillance satellite imagery and data analytics, is upward of $50 million from a constellation of high-resolution satellites. This pricing is for a surveillance area that only involves a nation's borders—contract sizes in space surveillance today run into hundreds of millions as nations generate interest to source high-resolution satellite data for various use cases. These include forestry, weather prediction, urban planning, disaster management and more. Three industry executives told Mint that for a full nation's satellite data, a single contract can cross $1 billion for a full year—underlining the business opportunity and explaining why so many private space companies are entering this field. In fact, each of the executives cited above suggested that while New Delhi is eyeing $44 billion in annual revenue from India's overall space industry by 2033, succeeding in space surveillance services around the world can single-handedly account for half of this economy. For space companies, this is key. Digantara, for instance, expects to cross $30 million in annual revenue by the next fiscal year. Ananth, already at over $30 million in annual revenue as of FY24, expects an exponential fillip due to this demand. While GalaxEye did not offer a projection, Singh said that there is 'ample scope for an exponential uptick in revenue, once our satellite is built and placed in orbit". Sensing the opportunity, the private companies are all looking to ramp-up capital expenditure and investments. Digantara, which has raised $12 million from venture capital firm Peak XV and others, is in the market for a $50 million funding round. GalaxEye, which raised $10 million from deeptech fund Speciale Invest, tech giant Infosys, and others, will also pursue a new funding round to expand its surveillance satellite offerings to various nations, after it places its first high-resolution satellite in orbit by December. Even Ananth Technologies, which has a steady revenue stream, is not opposed to a future funding round. Pavuluri said the company will 'definitely require funding to expand capacity and ramp-up production as per global demand", but did not confirm if it will pursue a public listing, or by when the funding round may take place. Catering to the world Behind each of these ventures and the entire space industry today is the fact that between 2022 and now, private space startups did not immediately find domestic avenues to scale up revenue. Last year, this prompted former Isro chief S. Somanath to state that the government had not emerged as a key customer of space services the way the US did for its private space vendors, almost three decades ago. Over the past 12 months, though, the industry has shifted upward. 'Global demand is seeing countries from Europe, Africa and the Middle East all look at India as a reliable space technology and satellite supplier," said Chaitanya Giri, space fellow at global policy think-tank, Observer Research Foundation. 'With India's stable geopolitical outlook, a sizeable economy, and the reputation that Isro enjoys globally, the domestic space market is ripe to expand globally." The US, to be sure, mostly caters only to large-scale contracts—that, too, after signing bilateral defence treaties as part of efforts to secure access to its defence infrastructure and blueprints. China, which has always been a protectionist economy, only builds for itself. With this, India sees a clear path ahead in the growth of geospatial defence services. And it all begins with startups and conglomerate-backed entities pursuing that low-hanging fruit: surveillance satellites. 'In the long run, there is deep potential for more complex and intricate engineering in the aerospace defence sector for India. For Shield, for instance, India represents a multi-year partnership agreement with the JSW Group—one that gives our US entity strong footing in one of the world's most important space economies," Shield's Shah said. Digantara's Sharma concurs. 'There is a clear need within India and across the world to build space infrastructure that is innovative, offers mapping and surveillance, and does so at a considerably more scalable and cost-efficient structure than what the rest of the world has offered," he said. 'We're here to do it, and the runway ahead for this sector is big and bright."
Mint
27-06-2025
- Business
- Mint
India's new space revenue driver: surveillance satellites
New Delhi: India's private space firms may be getting the revenue boost they hoped for: Thanks to geopolitical tensions, several countries have tapped them to build satellites as demand for space-based surveillance grows. Bengaluru-based Ananth Technologies, a long-time engineering partner for the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), has been executing an order from Australia for defence surveillance satellites over the past year. Peer Digantara is also part of this contract under the Mission for Australia-India's Technology, Research and Innovation or Maitri programme. Norway, Hungary and Poland, besides nations from West Asia and the global south, are also engaging with multiple Indian space firms, including Adani Defence and Aerospace-backed Alpha Design, according to at least five industry executives Mint spoke with. Most of these countries do not have their own satellite programmes, but changing geopolitical alignments and global tensions have amplified the need for space surveillance. And while revenue generated from such projects has still not reached hundreds of millions of dollars, India's friendly relations are offering local space startups an opportunity to drive growth through such partnerships. Moreover, surveillance satellite giants in the US, such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, focus mostly on large contracts, according to Chaitanya Giri, space fellow at global think-tank, Observer Research Foundation. Since most of the contracts coming India's way range from $5-25 million per year, Giri said these 'are too small for the American behemoths, but cumulatively could add up to a significant boost for India". Satellite assembly line Ananth Technologies and Digantara will offer end-to-end design and manufacturing of satellites and provide surveillance data to Australia. While neither divulged the exact size of the deals, both said the multi-year pactsare leading to monetization of their business models in India. 'We have three satellite manufacturing and design engineering centres across Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Thiruvananthapuram, where we build and design high-resolution surveillance, imaging and earth observation satellites based on requirements from clients," Subba Rao Pavuluri, chairman and managing director of Ananth Technologies, told Mint. The company has the reputation to back it, having manufactured surveillance satellites for India. These are in orbit and operated by Isro. In FY24, Ananth Technologies, incorporated in 1992, earned operating revenue of ₹270 crore, according to data from the ministry of corporate affairs. Digantara, incorporated six years ago, earned ₹3.2 crore and projects its revenue to increase to ₹250 crore by FY27 on surveillance satellite data and manufacturing contracts. Over ₹100 crore of Digantara's revenue growth is set to come from through its contract with India's ministry of defence, Mint reported on 13 June. Anirudh Sharma, chief executive of the Peak XV-backed startup, is also setting up the company's own satellite assembly line. Mint visited the company's headquarters in Bengaluru. The startup will offer satellite observation and data analytics services to paying customers. 'We're currently working with other clients, too, including the government of India as well as interested parties from the European Union," Sharma said. 'There is an increasing demand for sovereign surveillance capabilities around the world, for which we are offering white-label services to various governments." Surveillance as a service Beyond manufacturing for other nations, Indian space startups are looking to put their own surveillance satellites in orbit, and offer high-resolution surveillance data to countries. GalaxEye Space, a four-year-old, Chennai-headquartered startup, announced earlier this month that it will place its first, owned surveillance satellite in orbit as part of its business expansion plan. '...the current rise in interest for surveillance satellites is also boosting our case for innovation—where we are placing a high-resolution synthetic aperture radar (Sar) satellite that can observe the earth at up to 0.5 metres resolution," said Suyash Singh, founder of GalaxEye. 'We're already having early-stage conversations with hundreds of clients, which is what spurred our decision to build this satellite. In the next six to eight months, we'll offer a revenue projection for the coming years, launch the satellite in orbit, and raise funds for our next phase of operations." The company's early-stage demand is largely coming from West Asia and the global south, Singh said. One year ago, the government of Australia signed an $18-million contract with Isro's commercial business unit, NewSpace India Limited (Nsil), to use its satellite launch services. Speaking with Mint on the sidelines of 2025 Indian Space Congress in New Delhi on Wednesday, Philip Green, high commissioner of Australia to India, said that space is an active area of collaboration between the two nations. 'We actively leverage the strength that each of us have in our nations to collaborate in various fields, including technology. In space, Australia is a global innovation leader—we bring this to India and tap its massive engineering talent pool with private firms that are highly skilled in niche areas. In turn, this helps both the geographies prosper and grow—Australia, leveraging this, is seeing its space economy already grow at 10% per annum," he said. 'With a strategic partner such as India, we can collaborate across the line and the ecosystem, and do so more intensively. That's where the India-Australia space collaborations are at the moment," Green said. ORF's Giri calls this a 'natural evolution". 'The US has moved on from manufacturing a long time ago, and Europe's markets are too expensive to manufacture at scale," he said. 'With the current geopolitical balances at play, India's biggest strength lies in leveraging this position to emerge as a default choice for global satellite manufacturing." Giri expects these contracts to help India's private space firms reinforce their reputation in the global market. 'With space and surveillance being seen as key areas of engineering and innovation, India is in a strong position to leverage its relations globally—and help private firms expand globally as critical infrastructure providers."
Mint
13-06-2025
- Business
- Mint
Eye in the sky: India to set up satellites to spy on satellites
New Delhi: The defence ministry is in the process of finalizing a multi-year contract to set up a 'constellation of satellites" that will monitor other satellites that may be surveilling India, said three people aware of the development. The final project will be monitored by a team of technical experts, likely to be outsourced to a private space startup specializing in this field. The contract, worth ₹150 crore per year, will also involve India's very own network of spy satellites that are expected to be built and sent up by end-2026, they said. The 'satellite mapping' project will hinge on a network of satellites that will communicate with each other to relay data to stations on the ground. The network will be assembled entirely in India, and deployed entirely by end-2026, each of the three people cited above affirmed to Mint. 'This is one part of India's efforts to use its space prowess to bolster national security. The project in question will help preemptively detect space surveillance efforts against India, and will ramp up the capabilities that Indian Space Research Organisation's (Isro's) Network for Space Object Tracking and Analysis (Netra) initiative can already achieve," said one of the people cited above. Also read | Mint Primer: How do spy satellites work around the world? To be sure, Isro's Netra, announced five years ago, is largely centred around monitoring space debris and satellite positions—in a bid to help India plan indigenous space excursions. The new project, which the defence ministry is currently helming as per all the three people that Mint spoke with, will dedicatedly track surveillance efforts in space. 'This will be a small peg in a large, extensive system. It's important to note that India already had some satellite and ground telescope-based surveillance monitoring systems, through Isro. The new project will be a big boost to Digantara (a startup), and is definitely a good thing since it will bolster the use of space services in India's national security capabilities. But, how effective it will be, and to what extent it will differentiate India's ability, will remain to be seen only after the project becomes active," said Chaitanya Giri, space fellow at global think-tank and consultant, Observer Research Foundation. On 12 May, Mint reported that the ministry of defence and Department of Science and Technology had asked three private space entities to speed-up deployment of the Space-Based Surveillance (SBS)-3 project, which seeks to deploy a constellation of surveillance satellites in orbit. Read this | Isro satellites ensured safety, security of citizens; no Indian assets lost in Op Sindoor: Govt As part of this satellite mapping project, a control team is expected to work out of Bengaluru, and may even collaborate with Isro to synchronize their services, the second person cited above said. The person added that Bengaluru-based, Peak XV-backed startup Digantara has been awarded the contract. Queries mailed to the defence ministry and the startup did not elicit a response by press time. 'This is one of the biggest private space contracts that the Indian government has offered to a private space startup in India. The move reflects growing confidence in India's private space capabilities, and will eventually bolster confidence in domestic startups gaining contracts from around the world," the third person said. Digantara, in February this year, set-up an independent entity in Denver, US, to cater to space and defence contracts from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) and the US Department of Defense (DoD). The startup followed in the footsteps of fellow Bengaluru-origin satellite imagery startup, Pixxel, which set-up a US entity in Los Angeles. In September last year, it won a contract from the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) for a satellite-based data acquisition project. Earlier, government officials had said that India's space promotions body, Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (In-Space), was working to raise awareness within ministries to facilitate their usage of India's space startups. 'There is a considerable amount of awareness work being done at ministries. The government can and will be a key customer for space services, and in the near term, the effects of these contracts and tenders will be seen," said Pawan Kumar Goenka, chairman of In-Space. Goenka had commented in light of S. Somanath, former chairman of Isro, stating last year that the Centre was yet to emerge as a big customer of space services in order to successfully emulate the US model of operation. And read | India fast-tracks $3-billion spy satellite scheme following Operation Sindoor
