ISRO and MEA to explore business prospects in Africa, Middle East, Latin America & SEA

ISRO, India's space agency, is looking to collaborate not only with established space powers Russia, the United States, Japan, and France, but also with emerging nations in the space sector.

Such collaborations with newer entrants in the global space sector, carried out in collaboration with the Indian external affairs ministry, are aimed at exploring markets, according to Dr Somanath, Chairman of ISRO.

The heads of India's and Mexico's space agencies recently met to discuss the possibility of India building and launching a remote sensing satellite for Mexico. This request is being considered by the Indian space agency, which is collaborating with the Indian foreign ministry.

Elaborating on this, Dr Somanath said, "Mexico does not have a big space ecosystem and they need our help. Once we develop our private space ecosystem here, we can explore markets there and build for them. Not just ISRO, but India's private firms can operate and carry out business in foreign nations with whom space sector collaboration has been unexplored".

He went on to say that the Mexican government would work with India's foreign ministry to get Indian banks to lend money so that Indian private firms could build and supply a satellite to Mexico.

Concerning the potential for India to engage in space sector business activities, Dr. Somanath stated that India would like to explore and collaborate with markets in Latin America, Arab nations, Africa, and South East Asia for mutual benefit.

He mentioned the possibility of Indian companies building satellites for foreign countries as well as providing ground stations and related hardware.

From 2020 onwards, Indian private firms will be permitted to carry out end-to-end space activities such as the construction and launch of rockets and satellites, the establishment of ground segments, and so on.

Since then, a large number of companies have made significant progress in developing and testing their own rocket engines. Private companies have also demonstrated their ability to build rockets and launch them into the upper atmosphere, while satellite companies have developed spacecraft and launched them on Indian and foreign rockets.