K. Sivan  

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched a space technology incubation centre in Tripura capital Agartala on Tuesday. It is the first of six such centres planned nationally to build capacity in new locations.

More such space research activities will be splashed in a big way across small cities to tap their talent and include them in the space footprint, ISRO Chairman K. Sivan, said.

The incubation centre will be located in the National Institute of Technology, Agartala. Inaugurating it from Bengaluru, Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb said it was time high technology programmes reached the remote northeast India.

The space agency’s new Capacity Building Programme directorate will invest Rs. 2 crore in incubation facilities in Jalandhar, Bhubaneswar, Tiruchi, Nagpur and Indore.

“We want to go to locations that have a good presence of academia and industry but do not have activities related to space. The centres will bring out prototypes and innovations for ISRO in electronics, propulsion and others. We will buy the innovations back if we can use them in our programmes,” Dr. Sivan said.

Indian space market

He was speaking at the annual event of the India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA), which has enlarged its ambit to space electronics this year.

Domestic industry should increase the production of critical electronics items needed in space and other programmes, as 75% of it is now imported, Dr. Sivan said.

IESA Chairman Anil Kumar Muniswamy said the Indian space market offers big opportunity to industry as it is estimated to grow to $1.6 billion by 2023.

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