Cabinet approves transfer of 10 in-orbit satellites to NSIL
NEW DELHI: The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday approved the transfer of 10 in-orbit communication satellites from the government of India to Newspace India Ltd (NSIL), the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), in a move that is widely expected to ensure adequate commercial exploitation of these satellites.
The Cabinet also approved increasing the authorised share capital of NSIL from ₹1,000 crore to ₹7,500 crore.
“The transfer of these assets to NSIL will further provide the desired financial autonomy to the company to realise capital-intensive programmes or projects, thereby offering huge employment potential and technology spin-off to other sectors of the economy,” the government said in a statement on Wednesday.
The statement said that this approval is expected to trigger domestic economic activity in the space sector and increase India’s share in the global space market.
Newspace India was founded in 2019 as a public sector undertaking to commercially exploit the
research and development work of the space agency, co-produce Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and launch satellites through Small Satellite Launch Vehicles (SSLVS). To date, NSIL has launched 46 international customer satellites under commercial arrangements and has also signed four dedicated launch service arrangements for international satellite customers for launches this year. Besides, it is also working on commercialising high throughput satellite capacity on satellites including GSAT-11 (geosynchronous
satellites), GSAT-19 and GSAT-29. NSIL is also working to provide mission support services to satellites and launch vehicle tracking, in coordination with international ground station operators and satellite owners.
Meanwhile, in another step forward in India’s first manned space mission, Gaganyaan mission, executives from ISRO and the Australian Space Agency (ASA) met virtually on Tuesday to assess the progress in the establishment of ISRO’S ground station in Australia to support the mission.