India’s space tech to boost foreign exchange earnings

New Delhi: India’s emphasis on exploring and establishing newer space technologies has made its space sector an emerging platform for major foreign exchange earnings. Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh had recently said, “The space sector in India is emerging as a major foreign exchange earner through the launch of foreign satellites.”
As far as accomplishments are concerned, out of 385 foreign satellites launched so far, 353 were sent to space in the last 8 years under the Modi government, which is around 90% of all launches. In addition to that, 187 million Euros were generated in the last 8 years out of a total 220 million Euros earned by launch of European satellites, which amounts to around 85% of forex earned. In an interview recently, Singh said, it’s a matter of great pride that ISRO, through its commercial arm, has successfully launched foreign satellites belonging to even advanced countries like and USA, France, Israel, United Kingdom, Italy, Japan, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Finland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Netherlands, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland on-board PSLV and GSLV-MkIII launchers under commercial agreements. Moreover, the minister informed that the New Space Policy is in the final stages and a well-defined policy for the entire gamut of space activities will be unveiled soon.