Union Minister Jitendra Singh has announced a Rs 1,000 crore funding initiative aimed at accelerating the growth of India’s space sector startups. This scheme is expected to significantly contribute to the expansion and development of the sector in the coming years.
In October last year, the Union Cabinet approved the establishment of a dedicated venture capital (VC) fund to support India’s burgeoning space technology industry. The initiative is part of a larger Rs 10,000 crore corpus, managed by SIDBI Venture Capital, designed to assist startups in scaling their operations and enhancing their global competitiveness while mitigating the challenges of securing risk capital.
The fund will be deployed over a five-year period, with Rs 150 crore allocated for the 2025-26 financial year. Subsequent deployments will include Rs 250 crore each for the following three years, and Rs 100 crore for the final year, 2029-30.
“For the Department of Space, the budgetary allocation has increased from Rs 5,615 crore to Rs 13,416 crore, reflecting a 138% surge. This is just the government’s contribution—the overall investment pool is much larger now that the space sector has been opened up,” said Union Minister Jitendra Singh.
The Indian Space Policy, approved in April 2023, seeks to boost the nation’s space economy by encouraging private-sector participation. The policy focuses on fostering research and development, while also providing startups with access to public sector infrastructure and expertise. This initiative is expected to propel India’s space industry into a new era of innovation and global competitiveness.
