The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is making efforts to rope in the private sector to emerge as a major force in small satellite launches.

Addressing the 5th edition of Bangalore Space Expo, 2016, organised by Antrix (ISRO’s commercial arm) and CII, AS Kiran Kumar, ISRO Chairman, said: “We have made headway in vehicle launch programme which has enabled the country to emerge as a major force in global space sector. After launch of 22 satellites a couple of months ago, there has been overwhelming response for the recent Request of Interest (RoI) floated by ISRO to partner with the private sector, with more than 40 companies submitting their bids to participate in building satellites,” he added.

According to Kumar, the prime focus of the Bangalore Space Expo is to involve the private sector in helping the country bring in new technology.

“ISRO is playing a catalyst role to help hand-hold the private sector. For this, a major role in indigenisation of the space sector is needed. We have already taken them in satellite integration,” he explained.

Talking about ISRO’s capabilities, the Chairman said: “We have almost reached a state where we can launch one satellite every month and it should be enhanced to 1.5 or 2 satellites per month, so we are looking at 24 launches per year, or at least 18.” He said that the launch frequency could not be improved earlier because of the lack of a supply chain. This gap should be overcome not just to meet the gap of ISRO’s demand, but also allow the private sector to enter global space technology market, he added.

“The Industry must have a greater share, but it is not there because there are some restrictive areas that need to be addressed urgently. The process has already begun and I assure (the industry) that we will work things out,” he further added.

The ISRO Chairman said on Thursday that the world is exploring the idea of building 900 satellites for Internet in the next five years, and the Indian industry should be proactive to cash in on Geospatial and Big data analytics, which are the next big things in technology.

The need for India is to have more satellites in space to provide reasonable service to the country.

“We have a constellation of 34 satellites on earth observation, communication, navigation, and other space sciences at the moment. But this is significantly short, and we need to at least double the number of satellites to give reasonable service to the country. Launch capability must be enhanced, and satellite building must be made faster to get optimal use of space services,” he added.

He said the Centre and State governments were now realising the need for space technology. The first 35 years of development of space technology in the country had witnessed only 20 central government departments use the technology. But now, over 60 central government departments and all State governments were working with ISRO to utilise the country’s space technology capability.

He added that ISRO has lined up launch of INSAT-3DR on September 8, using heavyweight GSLV MkII, and on September 26 it will launch four satellites – including ScanSat of the ISRO, and an Algerian satellite, besides two mini satellites from the Universities.