Will India’s private space industry take off?
Link here. The article describes the presentations given during an event in India that included both government and commercial representatives of its space industry.
It appears that one of the concerns of India’s private space sector is the recent creation of a new division in ISRO, the country’s space agency, focused on making ISRO’s technology available to the private sector, for a fee. From the second link:
Reports citing official documents suggest that in order to facilitate transfer of technology, NSIL [Newspace India Limited] will take license from ISRO before sub-licensing them to the commercial players. The technology transfer envisaged through the NSIL will include India’s small satellite program, the small satellite launch vehicle (SSLV) program and the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). This would mean that services including launching of satellites can be undertaken by private entities once the license is procured by the NSIL.
Speaking to Times of India, Dr. Sivan, head of the ISRO, said that the NSIL will essentially become the connecting link for ISRO with commercial players to aid in technology transfer for a fee. As he put it: “We wanted a mechanism to transfer the technologies of our new projects like SSLV and even lithium-ion cells. With this company, ISRO will be able to smoothly transfer these technologies after charging fees. Once companies start mass production of small satellites and launchers, ISRO will be charging them for using its launch services.” In another interview, he had stated that he expected a demand for 2-3 SSLV rockets per month.
It appears the speakers at the conference had mixed opinions about NSIL. Some saw it as a direct competitor, holding significant advantages because already has guaranteed government funding. Others were more optimistic.
What strikes me is the decision by ISRO to have NSIL charge private companies for its technology. This is a very bad idea, for a number of reasons. First, it makes NSIL a power-broker over the private sector, able to pick its own favorites in that industry. Second, such schemes in government always lead to corruption and bribery. Third, the fees will act to squelch new companies unable to afford them.
The U.S. approach has always been that any technology developed by its government agencies is public knowledge, paid for by the taxpayer, and thus instantly available for use by any private operation at no charge. While this policy has its own pluses and minuses, in general it works far better at encouraging development and growth in the private sector, while limiting the power of government entities.
The structure of India’s new government entity, combined with the oppressive language proposed in 2017 for India’s space law, does not bode well for the growth of an independent and competitive commercial Indian aerospace industry. In fact, both suggest that India’s government-controlled space program is beginning to travel the typical road that all government programs all eventually travel: First they are innovative and successful. Then they grow in size and power. Finally they use that power to squelch any private competition to protect their turf.
It looks like ISRO is beginning to enter that third stage.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
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Link here. The article describes the presentations given during an event in India that included both government and commercial representatives of its space industry.
It appears that one of the concerns of India’s private space sector is the recent creation of a new division in ISRO, the country’s space agency, focused on making ISRO’s technology available to the private sector, for a fee. From the second link:
Reports citing official documents suggest that in order to facilitate transfer of technology, NSIL [Newspace India Limited] will take license from ISRO before sub-licensing them to the commercial players. The technology transfer envisaged through the NSIL will include India’s small satellite program, the small satellite launch vehicle (SSLV) program and the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). This would mean that services including launching of satellites can be undertaken by private entities once the license is procured by the NSIL.
Speaking to Times of India, Dr. Sivan, head of the ISRO, said that the NSIL will essentially become the connecting link for ISRO with commercial players to aid in technology transfer for a fee. As he put it: “We wanted a mechanism to transfer the technologies of our new projects like SSLV and even lithium-ion cells. With this company, ISRO will be able to smoothly transfer these technologies after charging fees. Once companies start mass production of small satellites and launchers, ISRO will be charging them for using its launch services.” In another interview, he had stated that he expected a demand for 2-3 SSLV rockets per month.
It appears the speakers at the conference had mixed opinions about NSIL. Some saw it as a direct competitor, holding significant advantages because already has guaranteed government funding. Others were more optimistic.
What strikes me is the decision by ISRO to have NSIL charge private companies for its technology. This is a very bad idea, for a number of reasons. First, it makes NSIL a power-broker over the private sector, able to pick its own favorites in that industry. Second, such schemes in government always lead to corruption and bribery. Third, the fees will act to squelch new companies unable to afford them.
The U.S. approach has always been that any technology developed by its government agencies is public knowledge, paid for by the taxpayer, and thus instantly available for use by any private operation at no charge. While this policy has its own pluses and minuses, in general it works far better at encouraging development and growth in the private sector, while limiting the power of government entities.
The structure of India’s new government entity, combined with the oppressive language proposed in 2017 for India’s space law, does not bode well for the growth of an independent and competitive commercial Indian aerospace industry. In fact, both suggest that India’s government-controlled space program is beginning to travel the typical road that all government programs all eventually travel: First they are innovative and successful. Then they grow in size and power. Finally they use that power to squelch any private competition to protect their turf.
It looks like ISRO is beginning to enter that third stage.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
“Second, such schemes in government always lead to corruption and bribery. ”
Perhaps ISRO sees that as a feature.
Unfortunately India’s culture of government has long been the usual 3rd-world one of paying “public servants” very little and allowing them to live mostly off bribes demanded for provision of services/favors. India’s very venerable and well-entrenched “Babu State” is at least as big a drag on Indian society overall as is the U.S.’s own Deep State.
From the article: “‘There is no dearth of opportunities if startups look in the right places,’ Prasad says. ‘Launching rockets and putting satellites in space is one thing, but it is important to connect it to the opportunities on the ground. There are a number of private arenas where satellite data is vital and extremely useful and that’s where Indian startups should be looking,’ explains the entrepreneur.”
This is an area that Silicon Valley focuses on, where the space business is concerned. Rather than just having hardware in orbit, some companies offer the service of mining information out of the data that comes from other companies’s satellites.
Half a decade or so ago, I went to a panel presentation that included the founder of Moon Express. He compared the space industry to the internet. With the internet, there are some companies that own the hardware that moves the information, but there are many more companies that use the internet hardware in order to perform their own service. Amazon.com is one example, in which they have some local computer hardware that interacts with the internet, but their business model is similar to a catalog mail order business.
NanoRacks started this way, with only the hardware needed to hold its customers’s experiments to orbit and aboard the ISS. NanoRacks provided the service of interacting with the NASA bureaucracy for small companies and universities that did not speak NASA-ese or would clash with the NASA culture.
Another approach in the US is incubators, where start up companies get help.
Luxembourg is serious about helping companies get started in space, there. They offer financial assistance, even to companies based outside of the country but do some business there.
NASA also forms partnerships with companies, which seem to provide more than just knowledge. I’m not sure what a partnership consists of, but I suspect that part of the “price” to the company is that knowledge also flows to NASA to become additional public domain knowledge.
I think this may be a difference of cultures, where India’s culture — especially its 20th century dabble into socialism — makes the government an entity that is more controlling of its people and industry than in the United States. Late in the previous century, India made a move toward free markets, hopefully with an emphasis on ‘freedom.’
Robert: In April you pointed me to two of your articles/essays, the “forgotten word” and “a fundamental truth.” I agree. And it’s always important to defend it. But that needs awareness.
A somewhat similar though differently approached but certainly more verbose perspective on it is the first (freely available) chapter of “Birth of Plenty.” An economic history view. I read it once a year to feel good. It’s for a long, rainy night.
http://www.efficientfrontier.com/ef/404/CH1.HTM
While we’re talking about India’s launch business, here’s my story (rare opportunity). I was taking care of launch issues for one of the GLXP teams and in 2015 I tried to talk to Antrix, ISRO’s commercial outlet. Their website was an outdated and broken mess, my emails couldn’t produce a reaction, and it was real work to get their phone number. Timezone differences and all that, I called them in the middle of my night during their office hours, which were like 8-10am India time. One day I succeeded. Connection quality was terrible. Couldn’t understand each other. After five minutes he hang up on me and I never reached anybody again. Other countries were more approachable, so business didn’t go to India. Today I could book a slot on a PSLV with one of the rideshare companies, so at least that’s possible.
Edward,
Amazon started out as strictly an on-line book retailer that was purely a user of Internet services. It has since become one of the half-dozen largest retailers of pretty much everything and also has a subsidiary that owns a substantial fraction of the Internet’s total computing infrastructure. When Bezos builds his Kuiper network of LEO comsats, Amazon will own a significant chunk of the Internet’s total backbone hardware infrastructure and bandwidth as well. Then there’s the nascent Amazon delivery drone “air force” which will incrementally disintermediate conventional logistics companies as well as national postal services. Bezos may be a rival of Elon Musk’s, but the two men seem to see very much eye-to-eye anent the virtues of vertical integration as a business strategy.