PM Modi inaugurates Skyroot's Infinity Campus, unveils Vikram-I rocket

Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened Skyroot's 200,000 sq ft Infinity Campus in Hyderabad, calling it a symbol of India's NewSpace transformation

Giving a major boost to India’s private sector space industry, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday inaugurated Skyroot’s Infinity Campus in Hyderabad, Telangana.

 

Addressing the gathering on the occasion, the Prime Minister remarked that the nation is witnessing an unprecedented opportunity in the space sector and highlighted that India’s space ecosystem is experiencing a major shift with the private sector taking flight. He emphasised that Skyroot’s Infinity Campus reflects India’s new thinking, innovation and youth power, and underlined that the innovation, risk-taking ability and entrepreneurship of the country’s youth are reaching new heights.

 

Modi also unveiled Skyroot’s first orbital rocket, Vikram-I, with the capability to launch satellites to orbit.

 

Skyroot’s Infinity Campus is a state-of-the-art facility with around 200,000 square feet of workspace for designing, developing, integrating and testing multiple launch vehicles, with a capacity to build one orbital rocket every month.

 

Skyroot is India’s leading private space company, founded by Pawan Chandana and Bharath Dhaka, both alumni of the Indian Institutes of Technology and former ISRO scientists turned entrepreneurs. In November 2022, Skyroot launched its sub-orbital rocket, Vikram-S, becoming the first Indian private company to launch a rocket to space.

 

Pointing out that India’s space journey began with limited resources but with limitless ambition, Modi remarked that from carrying rocket parts on a bicycle to developing the world’s most reliable launch vehicles, India has proven that the height of dreams is determined not by resources but by resolve. “ISRO has for decades given new wings to India’s space journey and stressed that credibility, capacity and value have established India’s distinct identity in the sector,” he said.

 

Noting the rapid expansion of the global space economy, Modi said that space technologies now underpin communication, agriculture, marine monitoring, urban planning, weather prediction and national security. He said this was why historic reforms were undertaken in India’s space sector, with the government opening it to private innovation and preparing a new Space Policy.

 

Efforts were made to connect startups and industry with innovation, and IN-SPACe was established to provide ISRO’s facilities and technology to startups. “In just the past six to seven years, India has transformed its space sector into an open, cooperative and innovation-driven ecosystem,” he said.

 

Lt Gen AK Bhatt (Retd.), Director General, Indian Space Association (ISpA), said, “The unveiling of Skyroot’s Vikram-I orbital rocket and the Infinity Campus is a powerful reaffirmation of India’s NewSpace vision, where policy reforms, public investment and private innovation are pulling in the same direction.”

 

He added that the facility’s ability to produce an orbital rocket every month underlines how India is moving from being a launch destination to a competitive manufacturing and services hub.

 

Emphasising that India’s youth always place national interest above all, Modi said that when the government opened the space sector, Gen-Z entrepreneurs came forward to take full advantage of it. He highlighted that more than 300 space startups are now giving new hopes to India’s space future, with many of them beginning with small teams and limited resources but determined to reach new heights.

 

“This spirit has given birth to the private space revolution in India,” said the Prime Minister, noting that young engineers, designers, coders and scientists are creating new technologies in propulsion systems, composite materials, rocket stages and satellite platforms.

 

He added that India’s private space talent is establishing a distinct identity across the world and that for global investors, the country’s space sector is becoming an attractive destination.

 

Underscoring that the demand for small satellites is continuously increasing across the world, Modi said launch frequencies are rising and new companies are entering the field to provide satellite services. He stressed that space has now established itself as a strategic asset.

 

He underlined that the global space economy is set to grow manifold in the coming years, representing a major opportunity for India’s youth. “India possesses space sector capabilities that only a few countries in the world have,” he said, noting expert engineers, a strong manufacturing ecosystem, world-class launch sites and a mindset that encourages innovation.

 

He added that India’s space capability is cost-effective and reliable, which is why the world has high expectations from the country. Global companies, he said, want to manufacture satellites in India, avail launch services and seek technology partnerships, presenting an opportunity the nation must seize.

 

The Prime Minister remarked that the changes being witnessed in the space sector are part of the broader startup revolution taking place in India. He said that over the past decade, startups have emerged across sectors such as fintech, agritech, healthtech, climate tech, edutech and defence tech, with young innovators offering solutions from small towns as well as metros.

 

Modi highlighted that India now hosts more than 1.5 lakh registered startups, many of which have achieved unicorn status, reflecting the country’s transformation into the world’s third-largest startup ecosystem.