Abstract:
The global space industry has seen significant growth over the past decade. To ensure sustained development
of commercial space exploration and scientific innovation, an environment conducive for space
entrepreneurship becomes necessary. Start-ups such as SpaceX and Blue Origin have nurtured space
entrepreneurship and demonstrated that it is a viable sector (presently generating over USD 5 trillion
annually). Inspired by this, and motivated by a global space budget cut by governments, private participation
has escalated, and this has resulted in the need for space laws. USA and China, who are the forerunners in the
space race, have established space laws allowing space entrepreneurs to develop and implement their
innovations. Though the Indian private space sector is nascent, start-ups such as TeamIndus, Earth2Orbit
and Dhruva Space have registered interests in commercial space exploration. However, owing to archaic laws
and a slow legislative process, space commercialization regulations have taken a back seat, impeding the
growth of this sector. The Parliament continues to debate the Space Activities Bill (2017) which is filled with
loopholes. This paper builds on policies of spacefaring nations as a foundation and calls for the formation of an
inclusive national space policy that will promote space entrepreneurship.
Description:
Thirteenth Biennial Conference on Entrepreneurship/ Edited by Sasi Misra, Sunil Shukla, Ganapathi Batthini
