Modi inaugurates Skyroot’s new ‘Infinity Campus’, hails India’s emerging private space power

New Delhi, November 27. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 27 inaugurated Skyroot Aerospace’s new Infinity Campus in Hyderabad through video conferencing, calling it a symbol of the rapid transformation underway in India’s space sector.

In his address, Modi said India is witnessing “an unprecedented opportunity” in space, with the private sector driving a major leap in capability. The new facility, he noted, reflects the country’s “new thinking, innovation and youth power”, and demonstrates how young entrepreneurs are taking bold risks to build global-scale space enterprises.

Modi praised Skyroot founders Pawan Kumar Chandana and Naga Bharath Daka as role models for the country’s space entrepreneurs. Their success, he said, showed how far determination and risk-taking can take young innovators.

“The entire nation is proud of them,” he added.

The Prime Minister recalled India’s humble beginnings in space – “from carrying rocket parts on a bicycle to building among the world’s most reliable launch vehicles” – and credited ISRO’s decades of work for giving India global credibility in launch services.

Modi said the sector now underpins everything from communication and agriculture to marine monitoring, urban planning, weather forecasting and national security. Opening it to private players, creating a new Space Policy and setting up the IN-SPACe regulatory body, he added, had turned India into an “open, cooperative and innovation-driven” space ecosystem within six to seven years.

More than 300 space startups have emerged during this period, many from small teams working with limited resources, Modi said. This “Private Space Revolution”, fuelled by Gen-Z engineers and scientists, is producing new propulsion systems, composite materials, satellite platforms and other advanced technologies. India’s young talent, he added, is increasingly attracting global investors.

With global demand for small satellites rising and space becoming a strategic asset, Modi said the expanding global space economy presents a “very significant opportunity” for India. He argued that India’s cost-effective and reliable capabilities – skilled engineers, strong manufacturing, world-class launch sites and an innovation-friendly mindset – make it a natural partner for the world. Global companies, he said, are now looking to manufacture satellites in India and use India’s launch services.

The Prime Minister linked the growth of private space enterprises to the broader startup boom across sectors such as fintech, agritech, climate tech, edutech and defence tech. India is now the world’s third-largest startup ecosystem with over 1.5 lakh registered startups, many from smaller towns. The country, he added, is moving beyond apps and services into deep-tech, manufacturing and hardware innovation.

Modi highlighted advances in semiconductors – chip fabrication, design hubs and electronics manufacturing – as part of India’s push towards technological self-reliance. He said similar reforms were now being expanded to the nuclear sector, where private participation in small modular reactors and advanced reactors will strengthen India’s energy security and technological leadership.

The Prime Minister said the government is committed to supporting youth in research, citing the National Research Foundation, the “One Nation, One Subscription” initiative for journal access, a Rs. 1-lakh-crore R&D and Innovation Fund, and the expansion of Atal Tinkering Labs. These efforts, he said, are laying the foundation for India’s future innovations.

He reiterated his earlier vision that India will significantly expand launch capacity and create at least five space-sector unicorns within five years. The progress of Skyroot, he added, shows that these goals are within reach.

Modi concluded by assuring startups, scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs that the government “stands firmly with them”, and urged them to help make the 21st century “the century of India – on Earth and in space”.

Union Minister G Kishan Reddy and other dignitaries attended the event.

Skyroot’s new Infinity Campus spans 200,000 sq ft and is designed for end-to-end development, integration and testing of multiple launch vehicles, with the capacity to build one orbital rocket per month. The company, founded by former ISRO scientists and IIT graduates Pawan Chandana and Bharath Daka, became the first Indian private firm to reach space in 2022 when it launched the Vikram-S sub-orbital rocket.

The facility marks another milestone in the rapid expansion of India’s private space sector, a development the government sees as central to India’s emergence as a confident global space power.