Space Economy:
A collaboration between two premier research and educational institutions in Thiruvananthapuram has shed light on India’s “space economy”.
- According to researchers from the Centre for Development Studies (CDS) and the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST), the size of India’s space economy, is estimated at a figure of ₹36,794 crore (approximately $5 billion) for the financial year 2020-21.
- The estimated size, as a percentage of the GDP, has slipped from 0.26% in 2011-12 to 0.19% in 2020-21, they found.
- Space applications accounted for the major chunk of this evolving economy, constituting 73.57% (₹27,061 crore) of it in 2020-21, followed by space operations (₹8,218.82 crore or 22.31%) and manufacturing (₹1,515.59 crore or 4.12%).
- The study also found that the space budget as a percentage of the GDP slipped from 0.09% in 2000-01 to 0.05% in 2011-12, and has remained more or less at that level since then.
- In relation to GDP, India’s spending is more than that of China, Germany, Italy and Japan, but less than of the U.S. and Russia.
