The Indian Space Association (ISpA) has announced the formation of the National Advisory Committee to boost cooperation amongst the stakeholders and build a 360-degree perspective in shaping the contours of the private space industry ecosystem in India. The committee would be headed by the chairperson, Dr. Arvind Gupta, director of Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF). The NAC would initially comprise nine members coming from varied backgrounds which include academia, bureaucracy, defence, tech, and space industry. More additions to the NAC are likely, with addition of experts from industry, academia and space technology.
Further, the ISpA inaugurated its first office at the United Service Institution of India (USI) building, located in Shankar Vihar, New Delhi. This new office is strategically located, as USI, founded in 1870, is one of the oldest National Security and Tri-Service Think-Tank.
The initial list of members of NAC would include, Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria (Retd.) (former chief of the Air Staff), Amb Arun K Singh (distinguished fellow VIF and former ambassador to US, France and Israel; former member NSAB), Dr. Shailesh Naik (director of NIAS and member IN-SPACe, and former secretary MOEFCC), Lt. Gen. VG Khandare (Retd.) (senior advisor, MoD and former military advisor NSCS, former DG DIA and DCICS(Int)), Prof. Kamakoti (director, IIT Madras), Dr. Siddharth Shekhar Singh (associate professor of Marketing at ISB), Maj. Gen. Siva Kumar (Retd.) (director, iNiF, IIT Tirupati and former head of NRDMS DST and CEO NSDI; former president geospatial solutions, IIC Technologies), Gp. Capt. Ajay Lele (Retd.) (Senior Fellow in the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses).
Commenting on the development, Jayant Patil, chairman, ISpA, said, “The collaboration with VIF and the inauguration of our first office here in Delhi, both are a steppingstone for our organization to move forward in a positive direction along with other industry stakeholders. With the creation of the National Advisory Committee, ISpA aims to bring in the expertise to provide strategic direction in the formation of policy, regulations and building ecosystem in public private partnership in Indian space Industry.”
Meanwhile, Dr. Pawan Goenka, chairman, IN-SPACe, said, “The space sector here is at the cusp of a major revolution and our space offering needs to become more competitive along with strong expertise in what we offer to come at par with the global space economy. Given the size of the global space sector and how India is a very small player currently, ISROs ability to provide technology and infrastructure to the private sector and added interest from start-ups is a very major signal for the growth in time to come. Space is an intense and technologically complex area, every stakeholder has to work together with perseverance and the vision of a long-term and sustainable public-private partnership. I am confident that the way this sector is moving forward with support from the existing private industry large players and the new start-ups which are coming up along with the support from ISRO and government ensures that we will make strides in the space sector.”
