In this week’s Space Cafe Web Talk Dr. Raji Rajagopalan discussed how India’s approach to outer space has changed over the last decade and how it is now driven increasingly by national security concerns.
Dr. Rajagopalan also addressed a range of other significant topics, including India’s controversial ASAT test, her thoughts on space collaboration with other nations, and the growth of private space industry in India, including ISRO’s support of it.
“The fact that there is the highest level of political attention on the need to push privatisation of India’s space sector is significant,” she said. “India does have capacity deficit; nevertheless, this is not going to be easy. It all depends on the kind of legal and regulatory framework if one is to see the private sector come up as an independent stakeholder.”
She also answered questions from the audience.
Dr. Raji Rajagopalan is Distinguished Fellow and Head of the Nuclear & Space Policy Initiative at the Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi.
This Space Cafe Web Talk, held on 2 June 2020, was hosted by Torsten Kriening, co-publisher of SpaceWatch.Global and COO of ThorGroup GmbH. The Space Café WebTalks series is SpaceWatch.Global’s innovative webinar platform featuring global space experts.
Want to know more? Dr. Rajagopalan’s background slides are available at 200602_SpaceCafeWT_RajiRajagopalan_slides
The complete video can be seen here:
