Indian satellite MSMEs in global business talks

Some of India's micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the space and satellite sector are in talks with their international counterparts for collaboration to globalise their businesses, industry representatives said here.
"Indian industry is in dialogue with not only the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to cater the burgeoning domestic demand but also original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) as suppliers to their global supply chain," said H S Shankar, chairman and managing director of Alpha Design Technologies Pvt Ltd.
Having worked as ISRO sub-contractors and vendors, the Indian industry partners, primarily MSMEs, have migrated from being supply chain vendors to AIT (assembly, integration and design) which opens up immense market opportunity, he said.

Shankar added that this also leaves ISRO to its core capabilities of design, development and research.
Indian MSMEs are in a position to build a complete satellite and launch it, claimed Subba Rao Pavuluri, chairman and managing director of Ananth Technologies Ltd.
"This gives ISRO and the global space industry confidence in our capacity," he said, adding, "we are also expanding our eco-system by including Indian start-ups working on space technologies."

Both Shankar and Rao are part of the nine-member industry delegation at the two-day Global Space and Technology Convention (GSTC) being held on February 1 and 2 in Singapore.

Shankar and Rao are chair and co-chair of Space Committee at the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).
FICCI and ISRO already have a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Singapore Space Technology Association since November 2017 for mutual support of the space industry initiatives in the two countries.
FICCI will follow up with another space industry delegation visits to Southeast Asian companies and institutes working on satellites, according to Ratan Shrivastava, Honorary Advisor at FICCI's Space Division.
GSTC comes just about three months after FICCI and ISRO held a seminar on "Indian Space Program: Trends and Opportunities for Industry" in November in New Delhi.