Government departments tap space assets to improve governance: Isro chairman

Central and state government departments are increasingly turning to the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) for space-based technologies and solutions to boost governance in sectors such as agriculture, urban development and disaster risk reduction.

Today, over 60 central government departments and all states work with the space agency to improve planning, monitoring and other activities that are made possible through the 34 satellites of various functions that India has in space currently.

"Current state and central governments are realising that space technology and space-based tools have a very significant role in their delivering good governance and efficient governance. We are seeing a spurt of activities at the government level which is demanding greater and greater service to be provided by Isro," said A S Kiran Kumar, chairman of Isro, while inaugurating the Bengaluru Space Expo 2016 on Wednesday.

From working with just 15 odd central government departments and a few states for the first three decades, the sudden demand for space-based tools and solutions is pushing Isro to ramp up its operations significantly. The agency is now looking at making one launch every month to inject more satellites into space.

"While all this is happening, we're still significantly short of capacity in space. We probably need double the number of satellites of what we have today, to give a reasonable level of service to the country. What this also means is that we have to enhance our ability to launch the satellites and also build satellites at a much faster pace than what we have been doing," added Kiran Kumar.

While admitting to ignoring the prowess of the private sector to quickly scale the industry, the government and Isro are finally drawing up grand plans for India's participation in the latest space race, going head to head with private players such as SpaceX (owned by Elon Musk). In order to scale up this capability and also participate in the boom in the global satellite launch business, Isro is looking to increase the participation of the private sector in India's space story.

"We have started the process and I can definitely assure you that we will do everything to make sure that we enable the industry in our country to not only contribute to our activities, but we're also very interested in making sure that this industry can capture a part of the global market," said Kiran Kumar.