Category: Science & Tech

Sriharikota now has the nation’s first launch pad that was created and is run by a private company.

Key Highlights

• In 2020, Agnikul Cosmos and ISRO entered into a contract as part of the IN-SPACe effort, giving Agnikul permission to construct Agnibaan and its launch pads.
• The Agnikul launch pad is India’s first and only private launch vehicle launch pad.
• The facility was created at the Satish Dhawan Space Center (SDSC) in Sriharikota and was designed by Agnikul with assistance from ISRO and IN-SPACe.
• There are two sections of the facility, and they are separated by 4 km.
• The Agnikul mission control centre (AMC) and the Agnikul launch pad (ALP) (AMCC).
• It also has the ability to exchange crucial information with ISRO’s Mission Control Center. Vikram-S is India’s first privately produced rocket, and the first launch was carried out under Mission Prarambh.

Agnikul Cosmos

• Agnikul’s highly adaptable, two-stage launch vehicle, Agnibaan, was the first Indian business to clinch a contract with ISRO.
• It supports plug-and-play configuration and can carry up to 100 kg of payload into low-earth orbits, which are 700 km high.
• Agnilet, the first single-piece 3-D printed engine produced entirely in India by Agnikul, was successfully test-fired in early 2021.

Agnikul

• Agnikul is an IIT Madras incubated startup that was founded in 2017 by Srinath Ravichandran, Moin SPM, and Professor S.R. Chakravarthy. In December 2020, Agnikul became the first Indian business to sign an agreement with ISRO.
• This agreement, sanctioned under the IN-SPACe initiative, granted Agnikul access to the Indian space agency’s expertise and facilities to build Agnibaan and its launchpads.

At Kattupalli in Tamil Nadu, the Indian Navy recently debuted “Ikshak,” the third of the four survey vessels (Large) project.

‘Ikshak’ vessel

• Ikshak, which translates to “Guide,” is the name of the ship being constructed by Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE) and Larson and Toubro (L&T).
• The first ship in the class, Sandhayak, was launched on December 5, 2021 at GRSE, Kolkata.
• The ship’s name honours the role that Survey ships have played in guaranteeing mariner safety at sea. In order to collect oceanographic data, SVL ships will take the place of the current Sandhayak Class survey ships.

The ship

• The Survey Vessel (Large) ships are 110 m long, 16 m wide, and have a crew complement of 231 people. They can carry 3400 tonnes of cargo.
• Two main engines with dual shafts, each capable of a top speed of 18 knots and a cruise speed of 14 knots, make up the ship’s propulsion system.

India was recently elected to serve as the International Electrotechnical Commission’s (IEC) vice president for the years 2023–25.

About

• Objective: To prepare and publish worldwide standards for all electrical, electronic, and associated technologies. It is the foremost organisation in the world for this purpose. These are referred to as “electrotechnology” as a whole.
• Type: It is an international, non-profit membership organisation that unites 173 nations and organises the efforts of 20,000 experts worldwide.
• Administrative: Geneva, Switzerland
• It is a membership organisation that is not for profit.
• Its supreme governance entity, the Standardization Management Board (SMB), is in charge of all technical policy issues.
• There are 170 member nations in it.
• It contributes to achieving all 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals;
• It played a key role in the development of various units of measurement, including the gauss, hertz, and weber;
• It also first proposed the Giorgi System, a set of standards that later evolved into the SI system.

The Vikram S (Mission Prarambh) rocket launch last week has been rightfully hailed as a significant turning point in India’s ascent into space. It is the first Indian rocket to reach orbit that was privately manufactured.

Private companies in Space Sector

• Lack of enabling policy: If Delhi establishes the enabling policy climate, the private sector of the nation has the talent and experience to reduce that distance.
• Governmental monopoly Governments took the lead when space exploration became a significant endeavor in the second half of the 20th century. The cost, complexity, and research rigor of the space effort resulted in the monopolization of all space programmes worldwide by governments.
• But in the 21st century, the private sector’s role has significantly increased, and the government cannot ignore private players any longer. Previously, only governments could possess satellites, but today the satellite industry is dominated by private enterprises.

Major private players

• With more than 2,300 satellites in low earth orbit, Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite system is now a major player. They provide a range of space services, including useful military data, to the Ukrainian armed forces in their conflict with Russian forces.
• In the upcoming years, Amazon’s Project Kuiper intends to launch more than 3,000 satellites to provide a variety of services, including broadband internet. Making at least three satellites per day will be necessary for this.
• Airtel in India is a collaborator in the One-Web company, which provides access through its network of about 500 satellites.
• Breaking the government’s monopoly: The most demanding of space endeavours, the launch vehicle industry, was until recently a state monopoly. That launch monopoly has been broken by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, and Amazon’s Blue Origin rocket will shortly join them.

History

• Only using space for national development: Delhi’s major goal was to use space to hasten the process of national development. Eventually, the Indian space programme started to take on military and economic elements.
• Collaboration with the Soviet Union: India’s space programme started with close collaboration with Western nations before moving on to the Soviet Union. Within the framework of collaboration with friendly governments, Delhi also extended an offer of space cooperation to other emerging nations.
• India’s progress was hampered by sanctions: Following its first nuclear test in 1974, India was subjected to non-proliferation penalties that severely limited its ability to participate in international space cooperation. The sanctions system didn’t loosen until after the momentous civil nuclear initiative.

India’s future approach

• India has joined the Missile Technology Control Regime, which governs the trade in goods and technologies related to space, in order to commercially exploit space.
• India is a participant in the Wassenaar Arrangement, which regulates trade in dual-use technologies that can be applied to both civil and military applications.
• The expanding number of new space possibilities, which range from mining the Moon to employing satellites to supply broadband internet, from space manufacturing to deep space research. Simply said, the size of the global economy is expanding quickly, and within a decade, its value is projected to nearly double, rising from roughly $450 billion in 2022 to one trillion dollars.
• It must deal with commerce and the economy. India’s involvement in space can no longer be limited to concepts of “development” and “national prestige.” It has to do with commerce and the economy. Only 2% of the world’s space economy is currently accounted for by India. In the upcoming years, PM Modi has demanded that India quickly raise its share to 8%.
• The private sector companies for a bigger role: The only way to increase India’s participation in the global space economy is to entice the private sector companies to take on a bigger role. Consider the fact that the Artemis 1 rocket was successfully launched last week. A number of top aerospace companies are involved in the program, including Boeing, Lockheed, Northrop Grumman, Airbus, and Space X.
• National space programme collaboration on a global scale: Whereas Apollo was a wholly American mission, the Artemis programme is a multinational effort involving the US and its partners, which include France, Canada, and Japan. In the meantime, China and Russia are teaming up to work jointly on a joint base that will establish a long-term human presence on the Moon as well as on their own space programmes.
• Capital assistance for the space programme: India is preparing to start a programme to increase the involvement of the commercial sector in space. Indian start-ups are also receiving financial backing from outside. For instance, GIC, the national wealth fund of Singapore, has a significant stake in Skyroot Aerospace, the company that launched the Vikram S rocket.

@the-end

As India’s space programme starts to become more accessible, many Western aerospace companies will be ready to invest. India is also realising that international cooperation must be an essential component of its space strategy rather than merely a “add-on” to its national space programme.

Source—https://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/private-sector-can-boost-india-s-space-programme-globally-pm-modi-122061001207_1.html

At a meeting of the organization scheduled for November 21 in Tokyo, the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence will elect India to serve as its chair for 2022–2023, according to the Ministry of Electronics and IT.

Key Highlights

• France’s position as chair of the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) will be replaced by India.
• This development follows the assumption of the G20 presidency, a grouping of the biggest economies in the world.

India’s technology ecosystem is growing, and artificial intelligence is a force multiplier in the effort to reach the objective of a $1 trillion digital economy by 2025.

About GPAI

• GPAI was introduced in June 2020 and is the realisation of a G7-developed concept. India became a founding member of GPAI in 2020, which has 25 member nations.
• Goal: By funding innovative research and practical initiatives on AI-related objectives, we hope to close the gap between theory and practise in AI.
• Members: There are 25 nations that make up this organisation, including, among others, Australia, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and India.
• The goal of the multi-stakeholder GPAI initiative is to close the knowledge gap between theory and application of artificial intelligence by promoting innovative research and practical applications of AI.
• To promote global cooperation, GPAI brings together active minds and expertise from academia, business, public society, government, and international organisations.
• GPAI experts will work together in four working groups over the course of its first few years to address the issues of data governance, the future of work, innovation, and commercialization, as well as responsible AI (including a subgroup on AI and pandemic response).

Significance of India leading GPAI

• By 2035, artificial intelligence is projected to boost India’s economy by 967 billion US dollars.
• It is also anticipated that by 2025, India’s GDP will increase by 450 to 500 billion US dollars, or 10% of the country’s aim of 5 trillion dollars.
• The fact that India is in the GPAI chair demonstrates how the world views India as a trusted technology partner who has long pushed for the ethical application of technology to improve the lives of its people. 

Source—https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1877739

Geospatial World just published the Geospatial Strategy for National Development study.

Highlights

• By the end of 2025, India’s geospatial economy is expected to reach INR 61,000 crores.
• The Indian geospatial sector is changing from a services business to a solutions industry, with a greater emphasis on and need for solutions that are appropriate for the problem at hand.
• The market is anticipated to rise as a result of factors including agriculture, utilities, land administration, urban development, infrastructure development, and defence and intelligence.

Indian Economy

• India now boasts the fifth-largest economy in the world after surpassing the United Kingdom in size.
• Ten years ago, it had the tenth-largest economy in the world.
• From 6.0 percent in 2021 to 3.2 percent in 2022 and 2.7 percent in 2023, global growth is expected to decline.
• As a result of growing inflation and intense competition in the Indian market, it is anticipated that India’s GDP growth will decelerate from 8.9 percent in 2021 to 6.8 percent in 2022 and 7 percent in 2023.
• According to projections, India’s inflation rate will have climbed from 5.50 percent in 2021 to 6.70 percent in 2022 before declining to 5.8 percent in 2023.
• The spike in crude oil prices on the global market, rise in commodity costs, supply-chain disruptions, and geopolitical concerns have all contributed to India’s high inflation rate in 2022.
• The expected share of India’s total exports and imports of goods and services in its GDP in fiscal year 2022 was almost 46%.
• When compared to the national fiscal year of 2021, this ratio increased from 38.2%.
• Although exports have increased since 2021, they have slowed in the second half of 2022 as a result of the tightening global trade conditions, rising global and local inflation, high currency volatility, and geopolitical concerns.
• In order to dramatically increase India’s exports, the country recently implemented bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs), such as those with the UAE and Australia.

Assets of India’s Geospatial Industry

Economy

• The Indian economy has fully recovered to the real GDP level of the pre-pandemic years of 2019–2020, with real GDP growth of about 7% and GD of USD 3.12 trillion in 2022.
• With the widespread usage of smartphones and accessible internet connectivity, digital and IT infrastructure is expanding substantially.
• Up to 100 percent foreign direct investment may be used to develop and operate satellites through the Department of Space/ISRO.

Knowledge Resources

• Well-developed and diverse institutional base for basic and applied geospatial research.

Space applications

• Globally recognised remote sensing programme driven by customer requirements for application development.
• The Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System and the functional indigenous satellite-based augmentation system (GAGAN) (IRNSS).
• New entrepreneurs have entered the space ecosystem as a result of the privatisation of space, and they are creating cutting-edge launch vehicles, satellites, propulsion systems, remote sensors, etc.

Industry Capacity

• Widely distributed presence of service and solution suppliers serving both domestic and international demand.
• The ability of the sector to deliver and generate spillovers is increased by the local presence of international geospatial technology providers in the Indian market, both for outsourcing and local company development.
• Increasing Geospatial Industry Representation through organisations like the Surveying and Mapping Association (SAMA) and the Association of Geospatial Industries (AGI).

Limitations of India’s Geospatial Industry

Geospatial Infrastructure

• The National Geospatial Agencies don’t get enough cash or considerable investment push.
• The development of commercial applications needing precision and accuracy is hampered by the lack of a strong geodetic and terrestrial positioning augmentation infrastructure.
• Inefficient national and state-level geospatial data infrastructure.

Government Contracts and Project Awards

• Lack of dynamic and technology-sound tender procurement guidelines, leading to unawarded tenders
• Lack of provisions for geospatial SMEs and MSMEs to participate in National Project Bids
• Lack of geospatial projects at project planning, designing and implementation levels in sectoral projects
• Payment delays in government projects restricts Indigenous companies to cater to the domestic market.

User Adoption

• Low exposure to and knowledge of the advantages of geographic information management; a lack of internal technology integration resources and capabilities; and
• Lack of knowledge, a well-established IT infrastructure, and adequate human resources
• The absence of well-defined strategies and standards for technology deployment; the ineffectiveness of geospatial project formulation capabilities.

Industry

• The absence of an industrial geospatial development strategy to create a geospatial market and economy that is strong, competitive, and technology-driven.
• The absence of domestic manufacture in the area of sensors and equipment (i.e., hardware), which is accompanied by problems with supply, cost, options, regional use conditions, upgrades, etc.
• Incidents where business competitors lowered costs to gain contracts, which resulted in a lack of trust between competitors, poor delivery, delays, etc.
• Low bids from technology service providers also cause projects to be cancelled. A significant reliance on government contracts for business.
• Minimal cooperation between Indian geospatial entities, especially SMEs and MSMEs, and National Geospatial Agencies.

Source—https://dst.gov.in/sites/default/files/Draft%20NGP%2C%202021.pdf