India targets $45 billion space economy driven by private firms

India is accelerating its space ambitions, targeting a sustained lunar presence within the next decade as part of its broader plan to become a developed economy by 2047.

“By 2035, we’ll have a space station called Bharatiya Antariksh Station and by 2040 hopefully Indian human being landing on the surface of the Moon,” India’s Space Minister Jitendra Singh said in an interview to Bloomberg News in Panchkula, about 260 kilometers from New Delhi, on Saturday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has intensified efforts to close the gap with countries such as China, which already operates its own space station and aims to send astronauts to the moon by 2030. India is increasingly turning to private investment to establish itself as a global leader in space technology.


“In space, we had a dismal economy until we opened up to the private sector, and now it has grown to about $8 billion,” Singh said. “The pace of growth is so high that in the next eight to 10 years, we may reach $40–45 billion.”

A large percentage of this target is to be achieved by India’s space startups, which have grown to about 400 now, and are involved in satellite manufacturing, launch services and space-based data analytics.

India aims to capture 8%–10% share of the global commercial space market over the next decade from less than 2% now, Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman V. Narayanan had said in August.

India achieved a major milestone in 2023 by becoming the first nation to land a robotic spacecraft near the moon’s south pole. The ISRO is on track for its first crewed mission into space in early 2027, Singh said.

The minister — who has a seat in the Prime Minister’s Office with responsibility for departments including Science, Space, and Atomic Energy — is overseeing Modi’s broader priority of boosting investment in deep-technology sectors.

The government last month announced a 1 trillion-rupee ($11.1 billion) Research, Development and Innovation Scheme to boost private-sector advances in deep-technology sectors through concessional financing. It will finance projects that have a so-called Technology Readiness Level of 4 or above, which means the project is closer to going to market.