India

The year 2023 heralded the beginning of new era for the space sector in the country, as it witnessed an increased commerce driven approach towards space activities and the expansion of the Indian space ecosystem with enhanced participation of Non-Government Entities (NGEs). IN-SPACe, the single window agency for promotion and authorization of space activities in the country, has galvanized the participation of NGEs.

Commercial space activity in the country continued to grow as envisaged in the recently implemented space reforms for allowing greater participation of private sector in space. Indian launch service provider, New Space India Ltd (NSIL) carried out multiple commercial launches for customers from UK and Singapore. Number of space start-ups succeeded in launching satellites and space systems they developed, and are bringing out unique space based applications. The use of space based applications in government ministries and departments is increasing with the increased integration of space sector with other sectors.

India has been an active member of GEO since its inception in 2003. India has built, over the years, a strong Earth Observation programme, comprising space- borne, airborne and in-situ observation infrastructure. Over the past five decades of pursuance of space activities, India has developed complete spectrum of civil space capabilities with an indigenously nurtured space programme, with the primary objective of utilizing space technology for national development and governance. Currently, diverse remote sensing satellites are operational in low Earth orbit and in Geostationary orbit. Various instruments onboard these satellites provide data in varied spatial, spectral and temporal resolutions to cater to different user requirements in the country. The INSAT series of satellites, provide data for generating various parameters namely, cloud motion vectors, cloud top temperature, water vapour content, vertical profiles of temperature and humidity, facilitating weather forecasting, genesis of cyclones and their track prediction, intensity and landfall, nowcasting applications etc.

With these in-orbit satellites and the planned ones, the Indian EO system will continue to provide high quality data products and services, enabling a host of applications relevant to national development and global requirements.

India has an institutional mechanism to involve Central Government, State Governments and Academia to address space applications, similar in spirit to the GEOSS Societal Benefit Areas. India has been pursuing its space activities with the vision of utilizing the applications of space technology for the benefit of the common man. This is evident from the fact that, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the national space agency of India is currently working with 60 Ministries and Departments of Government of India, on promoting space technology tools and applications for good governance and national development.

Government of India has opened the potential of the space sector for greater participation of Private Sector in space activities and ISRO to focus more on research and development and meet the requirements of national imperatives in the area of natural resources management, disaster management and advance technology demonstrations. This led to the restructuring of the National Natural Resources Management System (NNRMS) which was put in place as interface mechanism between Users Ministries and ISRO with Space Applications Management Systems (SAMS) with enhanced objectives. As part of space reforms to get the demand based remote sensing system in the country, SAMS is dwelling on the need aspect of satellite missions and associated ground segment, development of applications aligned with national imperatives, and their optimal utilization to harness the benefits of space-based services.

ISRO launched two Earth Observation satellites (EOS-04 - C Band Microwave SAR and EOS-06 - Ocean monitoring instruments) recently, funded by user agencies, aboard the PSLV C52 and PSLV C54, respectively, bringing in a demand-driven approach to the space activities. In near future, another C Band Microwave SAR, large swath resource monitoring satellite, high resolution stereo capability satellite and meteorological satellites are in offing.

India would like to emphasize the fact, that taking the benefits of space technology to the mankind and society has been the driving force of Indian Space Programme since its inception. Towards this, the space-based virtual constellation would bridge the data gap and avoid redundancy of the missions. The globally acquired EO data will meet the societal needs of the global community, and India is actively supporting this initiative of GEO.

While pursuing its national space programme, India has remained engaged with other nations and multilateral organizations, in the international cooperation on the peaceful uses of outer space. Currently, India has formal cooperation agreements in space with 61 countries and 5 multinational bodies. India supported Bhutan to build and place into orbit a small earth observation satellite. ISRO is cooperating with Mexican Space Agency in the areas of crop monitoring, drought assessment and capacity building. The space agencies of India and USA are jointly building dual frequency L&S band microwave remote sensing satellite, named ‘NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR)’ which is first of its kind SAR mission with sweep SAR technology. ISRO and USGS are exchanging their satellite data with each other which is landmark cooperation towards solving our planet’s most pressing issues using EO data. ISRO’s upcoming cooperation programmes with CNES on Thermal Infrared mission – Trishna, and with JAXA on lunar exploration mission is making steady progress. India has been actively contributing to the global climate action efforts and signed the Charter of the Space for Climate Observatory (SCO) in June 2022, signed the framework agreement of BRICS remote sensing satellite constellation, and active in QUAD Space Working Group (QSWG).

10.India hosted the 4th edition of Space Economy Leaders Meeting (SELM) in Bengaluru in July, under the India’s G20 presidency. The theme was: Towards a New Space ERA (Economy, Responsibility, Alliance). SELM recognized the role of space economy within the global economy and agreed to discuss the potential to include the item “space economy” on future G20 agenda, in order to formulate and adopt conducive policy regimes across the nations for enhanced space industry level collaborations.

ISRO’s portals (Bhoonidhi, Bhuvan, MOSDAC and VEDAS) are being used to visualize and disseminate the satellite data, geophysical and biophysical products as well as thematic information derived using EO data. Bhuvan Geoportal provides selected satellite data sets, geophysical products, and thematic layers for consumption at user end either as Web Services or as free. MOSDAC web portal is specifically catering to the needs of meteorological and oceanographic applications. It is to be noted that ISRO's Bhuvan and MOSDAC catalogue is now brokered by the GEO Discovery and Access Broker (GEO DAB) and discoverable and accessible via the GEOSS Portal.

The data provided by Indian satellites have been of immense help to the stakeholders in disaster preparedness, damage assessment, rehabilitation and mitigation. Another interesting development by ISRO is the messaging receiver called Navigation for Indian Constellation (NavIC), which has been developed specifically for fisherman community for navigation and receive broadcast messages on fishing potential and disasters. These receivers provide alert messages such as cyclone, high wave conditions and information on Potential Fishing Zone to the fishermen venturing into deep sea.

India has taken up a project with the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) comprising Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam to establish a ground station in Vietnam to receive, process and utilize data from Indian satellites for variety of applications including disaster management. IRS data would be provided to the ASEAN member countries - free of access fee with assured continuity of data from Resourcesat & Oceansat series, in addition to training on space technology applications. India also provided high resolution satellite data and DEM to Bhutan and South Asia Satellite (SAS) for addressing the communication projects, realization of Data Cube initiative for BIMSTEC countries (Bhutan, Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand) to meet the application needs towards SDGs, satellite data and geospatial services to the Pacific Island Countries in the form of data portal named DWEPIC (Data Warehouse for Empowering Pacific Island Countries), jointly realized the EO nano satellite for Bhutan, etc.

As part of India’s commitment to support International Disaster Management, satellite data support is provided under International Charter and Sentinel Asia. India is also providing the required assistance to establish a network of weather stations in SAARC countries to support severe thunderstorm predictions.

India, as an active member of the Regional Space Applications programme for Sustainable Development for the Asia and Pacific (RESAP) of the UN-ESCAP, is contributing to promoting operational utilization of space technology and equitable sharing of benefits from space technology towards achieving these sustainable development goals. Under Regional Cooperative Mechanism of UN-ESCAP, India offered technical support to Sri Lanka on agricultural drought monitoring. Dedicated software called ‘Drought Monitoring System-Sri Lanka (DMS-SL)’ was conceptualized, developed and operationalized in Sri Lanka along with required training. India also signed an agreement with BRICS Space Agencies for sharing remote sensing satellite data to address global climate change, major disasters and environmental protection. India continues to pursue several engagements not only at bilateral level, but also at regional and global level using platforms like CEOS, GEO, CGMS, QUAD, UN-SPIDER, APRSAF, BRICS and UN-ESCAP.

Role of GEO in promoting the use of EO data for sustainable development would be incomplete without the capacity building for its use. In this domain, ISRO continues to share its facilities, expertise in the application of space science and technology through the United Nations (UN) affiliated Centre for Space Science and Technology Education in Asia and the Pacific (CSSTE-AP) located in Dehradun, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad. As of now, CSSTE-AP has benefitted more than 3700 officials from 124 countries. In addition to the courses on five disciplines, viz., Remote Sensing & Geographic Information System, Satellite Communications, Satellite Meteorology & Global Climate, and Space & Atmospheric Science, Global Navigation Satellite Systems, the Centre has organized four special courses on disaster risk reduction and emergency management for the Asia Pacific region jointly with UN-ESCAP, UN-SPIDER and SAARC Disaster Management Centre.

As part of UNISPACE 50 initiative, India is conducting the programme on “Capacity building on small satellite realization” named UNNATI which stands for UNispace Nanosatellite Assembly & Training by ISRO. The programme has been completed for the third batch, benefitting 90 officials representing 48 countries. It is a unique contribution providing excellent opportunities to entities in developing countries to strengthen their capabilities in assembling, integrating and testing small satellites.

India actively participates in developing a Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) and pursue its 10-year extended mandate (2016-2025). India is shouldering the responsibilities such as supporting the G20 initiative of GEO, including Global Agricultural Monitoring initiative (GEO-GLAM). India will continue to strive to actively engage and contribute in various activities of GEO, including further strengthening of GEOSS and in achieving its objectives.