Study on India’s Space Economy

Two premier research and educational institutions have released a study shedding light on the space economy of India. Even as India’s space programme expanded by leaps and bounds, the parameters surrounding it are vague.

Overview

• This study is a first-of-its-kind attempt to measure the size of the country’s space economy.
• This study has been conducted by researchers from the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) and the Centre for Development Studies (CDS).
• The findings have been reported in a paper titled ‘The Space Economy of India Its Size and Structure’.

Findings of the study

• Rs 36,794 crore is the figure the researchers have put forward for 2020-21 fiscal.
• The country’s estimated space economy size as a percentage of the nation’s GDP has slipped to 0.19 percent in 2020-21 to from0.26 percent in 2011-12.
• The major chunk of this economy was taken up by space applications constituting Rs 27061 crore or73.57 percent in 2020-21. It’s followed by space operations which stood at Rs8218.82 crore or22.31 percent and manufacturing which stood at Rs1515.59 crore or4.12 percent.
• India’s space economy accounts for about0.23 of the country’s GDP (over 2011-12 to 2020-21).
  In 2020-21 the budget outlay was Rs crore, while in the previous fiscal it was Rs crore.
• The space economy’s size shrunk to Rs crore in 2020-21 and Rs crore in 2019-20 from Rs crore in 2018-19.
• The space budget as a percentage of the country’s GDP slipped to0.05 percent in 2011-12 from0.09 percent in 2000-01 and has remained constant since then.
• Taking relation to the GDP India’s spending on space budget is more than Germany, China, Japan, and Italy but is less than Russia and theU.S.