Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called for building a strong global image for India’s private space sector, saying people around the world should feel that if they want to build a career in the field, they should come to India. During an interaction with CEOs and founders of 20 space startups on Friday, PM Modi also underlined India’s cost advantage and talent base in the space sector, according to the transcript released on Sunday.
He said India’s talent pool and natural risk-taking ability could help the country quickly secure a leading position in the global space industry. The startup founders, in turn, spoke about rising investor confidence, international contracts and plans to sharply scale up launch capacity, while PM Modi assured them of full government support.
During the interaction, one of the CEOs told the Prime Minister that after India opened the space sector to private players, a very positive trend had emerged, with many Indians living in the US and Europe now wanting to return and work in the country. Responding to this, PM Modi said, “We need to connect with many people – people who went abroad are now returning. I believe we should create an aura where people worldwide feel that if they want to make a career, they should go to India.”
He said people from across the world should feel that they should connect with a startup in India or with a space agency in India. “I firmly believe that because of you, we can attract the entire talent pool like a magnet, and that can become a massive strength for us,” PM Modi said.
The prime minister also praised the startup founders for entering a new sector and said they had done so because they trusted the government’s word. “My view has always been that whatever decision we make, we must remain consistent and avoid making frequent changes. This ensures that anyone willing to take a risk feels confident that while a mistake on their end might cause issues, no one will abandon them. Creating that trust was our effort,” he said.
PM Modi said India was highly competitive on costs and strong on talent. “We are very competitive on cost; there is no question at all about talent, and our people naturally have a higher risk-taking capacity anyway. Because of these, we can establish our place very rapidly,” he said. He also said the world must now be looking for Indian startups and asking who is leading in this space, as attention shifts quickly whenever a breakthrough happens.
The CEOs told PM Modi that India’s first space-tech unicorn, Skyroot Aerospace, had successfully launched India’s first private rocket into orbit, and that this was only the beginning. They said factories had been built with the capacity to make one rocket a month, and that by mid-2027 they were aiming for one launch per month. They added that their larger ambition was to move to one launch per week and eventually several launches per day.
When PM Modi asked whether investors had confidence, one of the CEOs said confidence had risen significantly after Skyroot’s first launch. Modi replied, “That’s great,” and asked whether that route was proving useful to space startups. One of the CEOs responded, “It is very useful.” The startup founders also said their vision for the next 18 months was to establish a global ground station network. Another CEO said the company had received eight launch contracts in the past month after a single launch, most of them from international clients.
According to a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office on Friday, PM Modi assured full support to young space entrepreneurs and urged them to explore the use of space technology in agriculture, livestock management, dairy, the environment and other areas linked to people’s daily lives. He also called for greater collaboration between space companies and other sectors to widen the use of their technologies.
The startups that took part in the interaction were Skyroot Aerospace, Agnikul Cosmos, Pixxel, Dhruva Space, GalaxEye, PierSight, Bellatrix Aerospace, Digantara, SatSure, Suhora Technologies, Manastu Space, Astrobase, TakeMe2Space, VyomIC, Cosmoserve Space, OrbitAID Aerospace, SkyServe (Hyspace), Serendipity Space, Vassar Labs and mistEO.
On Sunday, PM Modi also greeted people on National Space Day, saying, “Happy National Space Day.” He posted a video on India’s space research, innovation and achievements, and said, “Here’s to dreaming even bigger, innovating more and pushing newer frontiers…”
National Space Day is observed to mark the Chandrayaan-3 mission’s safe soft landing of the Vikram Lander on the Moon on August 23, 2023, underscoring the wider push to expand India’s space ambitions through both public and private efforts.
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