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India boosts space program budget by 46 percent

(2021/03/11)


India has decided to boost the budget of its space program by 46 percent.

Union Minister of State for Atomic Energy and Space Dr. Jitendra Singh yesterday told India’s Parliament that the budget for 2021-22 was increased to ₹13,949 Crore (US$1.9bn) up from the previous ₹9500.

[1]

Singh said the increased funding “shall be utilised towards meeting the future challenges and space preparedness.” He added that the 3 by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has recently convened new committees to consider how best to meet burgeoning demand for space-based communication, Earth observation, navigational and other scientific endeavours.

The Minister also reported on India’s 2020 decision to [2]open its space program to private companies , stating: “35 space startups and industries are in consultation with ISRO for support related to various domains of space activity such as development of satellites, launch vehicles, develop applications, provide space-based services etc.”

[3]

India

India flies Mach 6 scramjet for 20 whole seconds [4]READ MORE

currently operates two launch vehicles. The : Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle can handle payloads up to 1,860kg into 475km sun-synchronous polar orbits. The Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) can carry 2,200kg into – you guessed it – geosynchronous orbit while the GSLV Mark III can handle 4,000kg payloads. The nation has a proud record of providing commercial satellite launches

In 2013 ISRO sent a probe named Mangalyaan to Mars. It’s [5]still orbiting the red planet , having astounded space wonks with its extremely low US$73m price tag. In 2019 the nation also [6]sent a probe to the Moon at a cost of $141m. While the Chandrayaan orbiter is still doing its thing, the Vikram lander crashed and its Pragyan rover was therefore not deployed.

[7]

While the Chandrayaan 2 mission was not a complete success, it was also achieved on a very small budget compared to those used by other spacefaring nations. The boost to India's space budget could therefore go a very long way towards its planned [8]crewed mission and other adventures. ®

Get our [9]Tech Resources



[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YEn4UKJfvcCmQxZVQCOXHwAAAEs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0

[2] https://www.theregister.com/2020/05/18/india_opens_space_to_private_players/

[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YEn4UKJfvcCmQxZVQCOXHwAAAEs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[4] https://www.theregister.com/2020/09/08/india_scramjet_test/

[5] https://www.theregister.com/2017/06/27/indias_martian_mom_clocks_up_1000_days_circling_the_red_planet/

[6] https://www.theregister.com/2019/09/02/space_roundup/

[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YEn4UKJfvcCmQxZVQCOXHwAAAEs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/02/11/india_gaganyaan_crewed_space_flight_plan/

[9] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/

UK aid budget should go to other nations

tip pc

Looks like India can stand on its own feet and doesn't need foreign aid anymore.

Assistance should still be offered where needed.

India is firmly in the big league, Nuclear super power & a burgeoning space capability.

Re: UK aid budget should go to other nations

Anonymous Coward

It's been many years since the Indian government received any FCDO (was DFID) development assistance. That doesn't mean there isn't any UK ODA to Indians - but given that there a lot of problems the £19 million in technical cooperation spend (of which I would guess at least 40/50% went to UK consultants) and 20 million in infrastructure investment (repayable) (2019/20 figures) doesn't seem much.

India has expressed officially its desire to be a contributor of ODA rather than a recipient. Maybe if they bunged us a second hand test and trace system as part of their Aid program we could save a few billion quid and then we could actually keep our promises - oh sorry, i forgot....Boris.

Still, I knew as soon as I saw someone had commented on this story that it would be someone blowing a dog-whistle about aid spending.

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