- We commonly share One Earth, One Space, and One Future as one ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ (One Family), we need vital alliance of responsible space actors to enhance the contribution of Space economy in global economy
- The Global Space Economy which stood at US Dollar 447 Billion in 2020 is expected to shoot up to 5600 Billion Dollars in 2025
Bangalore, July 5. Under India’s G20 Presidency, Indian Space Research organisation (ISRO) and the Department of Space (DOS), is organising a two-day, 4th edition of the Space Economy Leaders Meet in Bengaluru on 6-7 July, 2023, to continue the deliberations on the significance of space in shaping the global economy.
R. Anil Kumar, India Strategic, writes about the significance of the 4th SELM, as the Space Economy Leaders Meet is planned with two events with a Precursor event which was held during April 17-18, 2023 at Shillong, Meghalaya in the north eastern region of India.
The objective of the event is to create awareness among the wider audience on the significance of space economy.
ISRO and DOS had invited the Ambassadors of G20 member states stationed in India to attend a round table meeting at Shillong.
The round table meeting discussed the perspectives of the respective G20 countries on space economy.
Following this, a session on policy perspectives of space economy was also planned wherein there were curated talks on specific aspects of space economy by Think-Tanks and experts.
There was a session to brief about the plans for the Space Economy Leaders Meet, to be organised in Bengaluru, Karnataka during July 6-7, 2023.
The Bengaluru Space Economy Leaders Meet, event, will see the Heads of national space agencies (HOA) of G20 countries who will once again assemble and continue their discussion.
In addition to the Heads of space Agencies, there will be space industry leader’s session and other networking and bilateral meeting opportunities.
Considering the importance of New Space in shaping the global economy, the theme for this year is Space Economy Leaders Meet, is “Towards a New Space ERA (Economy, Responsibility, Alliance).”
Theme: Towards a New Space ERA (Economy, Responsibility, Alliance)
The growth that the space economy has achieved and its future has close linkages with the emergence of the New Space. New Space has created an inflection point in the evolution of space activities.
New Space has democratised the space sector: From the public funded space programs executed by the national space agencies to the private funded and executed space activities.
This is from the traditional applications of remote sensing, communication and navigation to the emerging use of space like, space tourism and resource exploitation.
Even though the New Space is growing steadily, the growth needs to be sustained through well thought out policy decisions by the governments.
The 4th edition of Space Economy Leaders Meet, in Bengaluru, will deliberate on the lacunae of the present policy frameworks and the ways to improve it.
While Space Economy Leaders Meet acknowledges the contribution of New Space to the growth of space ‘Economy’, the need for the New Space actors to assume the responsibility of ensuring the long term sustainability of the outer space should not be missed.
One of the major contributor to the growth of the New Space actors is the reduced barriers to access the required technology and the investment.
While G20 space leaders are working to further reduce these barriers, it is crucial on how to ensure that the ‘Responsibility’ factor is embedded in those efforts.
Equal importance is to be given to the fact that the space technologies are of dual use character. Efforts to ensure that those technologies are not landing in the wrong hands are also required.
The New Space activities, started with the launch and operation of nano and small satellites have expanded to building and operating launchers, space tourism, satellite clusters, diverse space based applications and resource mining from celestial bodies.
The activities are becoming technologically and financially intensive. The answer to overcome these challenges lies in ‘Alliance’. There needs to be enough avenues for the New Space actors across the countries to collaborate and develop.
The Space Economy Leaders Meet needs to deliberate on how the G20 space leaders can facilitate this.
To capture the above, the 4th edition of Space Economy Leaders Meeting (SELM) of G20 countries will be organised with the theme ‘Towards New Space ERA (Economy, Responsibility, Alliance)’ by ISRO and DOS.
As we all commonly share One Earth, One Space, and One Future as one ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ (One Family), we need vital alliance of responsible space actors to enhance the contribution of Space economy in global economy.
The precursor event successfully enhanced the awareness of the contribution of space to the global economy and created momentum for the Space Economy Leaders Meet at Bengaluru.
The time is right to invest in Space as the Global Space Economy which stood at US Dollar 447 Billion in 2020 is expected to shoot up to 5600 Billion Dollars in 2025.
The event is hoped to help the further proliferation of space technology applications in this region and enhance the engagements by space industries and start-ups.
(A report by R Anil Kumar, India Strategic, Bengaluru)
