How does the growing role of private players and IN-SPACe reshape India's space governance architecture?

India's space sector was long a near-monopoly of ISRO. The 2020 reforms and the Indian Space Policy 2023 replaced this single-operator model with a layered architecture in which policy-making, authorisation, commerce and research are separated, and non-governmental entities become primary executors rather than mere vendors [1].

Institutional unbundling of roles

• The Policy demarcates functions: DoS for policy, IN-SPACe for authorisation and supervision, NSIL for commercialisation, and ISRO refocused on R&D, advanced technology and human spaceflight [1].
• ISRO is directed to progressively transition out of routine manufacturing and launch services, transferring mature technologies to industry [1].

IN-SPACe as single-window regulator-cum-promoter

• An autonomous body under DoS that promotes, enables, authorises and supervises space activities of non-governmental entities [2].
• Authorisation now extends to all operators, so activity is governed by a common permissioning gate rather than departmental hierarchy [1].

Widening base of actors and capital

• The 2024 FDI liberalisation created activity-wise automatic routes — up to 74% for satellite manufacturing and operations, 49% for launch vehicles and spaceports, and 100% for components [3].
• Space start-ups have multiplied since 2014, with rising private investment channelled through IN-SPACe authorisations [4].
• Governance is also becoming sub-national: Assam's ASSAMSAT project, executed via a DBLOTT (Design-Build-Launch-Operate-Train-Transfer) partnership with private firms, is at the final partner-selection stage [5].

Unsettled areas

• A comprehensive space activities statute is still awaited, leaving liability, insurance and dispute resolution on policy rather than legislative footing.
• Regulatory capacity, spectrum and orbital-slot coordination, and geospatial data security need strengthening as State and private actors multiply.

India is thus moving from a government-as-operator model to a government-as-regulator-and-enabler model. Placing IN-SPACe's mandate on a statutory basis, alongside transparent authorisation timelines and capacity support for States, would let this architecture deliver the Policy's goal of a larger Indian share in the global space economy [1].