Modi In Gujarat: PM To Inaugurate IN-SPACe HQ. Projects Worth Rs 3,050 Cr To Be Launched Today

PM Modi will inaugurate the IN-SPACe headquarters that have been established in Bopal, Ahmedabad, to encourage privatization in the space industry today.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi will today inaugurate the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (IN-SPACe) headquarters in Bopal, Ahmedabad, to promote privatisation in the space business, news agency ANI reported.

IN-SPACe will be the nodal organisation responsible for allowing non-government commercial entities to use Department of Space-owned facilities and ensuring their engagement in the space sector. As authorised by the Union Cabinet in June 2020, it will be a single-window nodal body that will permit and monitor Space operations such as the construction of launch vehicles and satellites.

“It is a very big day for IN-SPACe as well as the space industry as the Prime Minister himself is announcing to the world the importance of IN-SPACe, the vision behind it and how it will boost the Indian space sector," Pawan Kumar Goenka, Chairman of IN-SPACe informed ANI. 

“The primary problem that we are trying to solve here is that the private sectors are not active in the space sector, which is not the case in other advanced space bearing countries. With IN-SPACe, the private sector will be facilitated to come into space. The aim is to acknowledge that the private sector plays a very strong role in the space economy of India," he further stated. 

“The future growth of IN-SPACe depends on various factors. Space technology is very dynamic and it’s not like you push a button to avail the desired results. A lot of learning will be involved before a strong infrastructure for the private sector is developed,” he said.

“The starry-eyed start-ups in the country have the ability to come up in the space and play shoulder to shoulder with private sectors in other countries,” Goenka added.

After inaugurating the multi-speciality hospital in Navsari, the Prime Minister will travel to Ahmedabad's IN-SPACe centre, where he would tour the campus's facilities centre. "The facility centre is of great importance," Goenka noted.

The Prime Minister's Union Cabinet authorised the formation of IN-SPACe in June 2020. The goal of establishing this centre was to allow non-government organisations to use the Department of Space's facilities in order to increase commercial engagement in space technology and associated activities.

(With Inputs From ANI)