Since June 2020 when the Modi Administration in India opened its space sector to private enterprise, India has 140 registered startups in the space-tech field, “each driven by original research and homegrown talent”, says the New York Times. Last year these private companies garnered “$120 million in new investment, at a rate that is doubling or tripling annually.”
One such company is Skyroot Aerospace, manufacturer and commercial launch service provider headquartered in Hyderabad, in India’s state of Telangana. On Tuesday July 4, the company announced the completion of work on its stage-1 motor case for the Vikram 1 space launch vehicle, the 11th composite rocket motor case that Skyroot has built and the largest of all so far. Pawan Kumar Chandana, 32, co-founder and CEO, Skyroot Aerospace, anticipates a global need for 30,000 satellites to be launched this decade. This year the monetary returns for launching equipment into space is about $6 billion, and could triple in value by 2025 according to NYT.
India’s satellites feed information about the planet back to Earth, helping India’s farmers insure their crops or commercial fishing fleets track their catch. Satellites bring phone signals to the country’s remotest corners and help operate solar farms far from India’s metros. Consumer broadband and TV services, also depend on satellite services.
Founded in 2012 by Sanjay Srikanth Nekkanti, aerospace manufacturer, Dhruva Space, also based in Hyderabad, India, is the country’s first space startup that deploys satellites. In May, the company announced the successful test and space-qualification of its 3U and 6U Satellite Orbital Deployers and Orbital Link onboard ISRO’S PSLV-C55 mission.
Pixxel, co-founded by Awais Ahmed and Kshitij Khandelwal, is another startup space-tech company headquartered in Bangalore “with an office in Los Angeles, as well as a contract with a secretive agency within the Pentagon. It has developed an imaging system to detect patterns on the Earth’s surface that lie outside the range of ordinary color vision,” says NYT.
Underscoring that India’s “importance as a scientific power” is taking center stage, the NYT report referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s State Visit to Washington last month at the invitation of President Joe Biden. In a joint statement, the leaders “called for enhanced commercial collaboration between the U.S. and Indian private sectors in the entire value chain of the space economy and to address export controls and facilitate technology transfer.”
Last updated: December 26th, 2025
