The Union Cabinet has approved the transfer of 10 in-orbit communication satellites to public sector enterprise NSIL which is under the administrative control of the Department of Space.

It has also approved increasing the authorised share capital of NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) from Rs 1,000 crore to Rs 7,500 crore. 

Transfer of these assets to the NSIL will further provide the desired financial autonomy to the company to realise capital intensive programmes/projects and thereby, offering huge employment potential and technology spin-off to other sectors of the economy. 

NewSpace India Limited

• The NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), a central public sector enterprise (CPSE), under the administrative control of the department of space (DOS) was established on March 6, 2019. 

• NSIL is the commercial arm of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) with the primary responsibility of enabling Indian industries to take up high technology space related activities.

• It was set up to meet the ever-increasing demands of Indian space programme and to commercially exploit the emerging global space market. 

• In June 2020, the government enhanced the role and scope of NSIL to encompass more responsibilities in the primary business areas and widen the scope in June 2020. 

The revised mandate broadly covers:

i) Owning satellites for earth observation and communication applications.

ii) Providing space-based earth observation and communication services.

iii) Building satellites and launching them as per demand.

iv) Building launch vehicles through Indian industry and launch as per requirements.

v) Providing launch services.

iv) Technology transfer to Indian Industry.

Key points of the Cabinet decision:

• Transfer of assets to the NSIL will further provide desired financial autonomy to the company to realise capital intensive programmes/projects and thereby offering huge employment potential and technology spin-off to other sectors of the economy.

• This approval is expected to trigger domestic economic activity in the space sector and increase India’s share in the global space market.

• The space sector reforms mandated NSIL to undertake end-to-end commercial space activities and function as a full-fledged satellite operator. 

• The NSIL functioning as a single-window operator will also facilitate the ease of doing business in the space sector. 

• NSIL Board will now be empowered to price the transponders as per the market dynamics and global trends in the satellite communication sector. 

• The NSIL is also authorised to offer and allocate capacity as per its internal policies and guidelines.

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