India needs private capital, capabilities to build $44 billion space economy: Shashwat Goenka

India will need greater participation and investment from its private sector to expand its space economy to $44 billion by 2033, CII vice president Shashwat Goenka said at the 9th Bengaluru Space Expo 2026.

Calling on Indian companies to build manufacturing capabilities and integrate themselves into global space supply chains, Goenka said India’s space economy, currently estimated at around $8.4 billion, has entered a transformative phase where the focus is shifting from demonstrating the ability to reach space to creating businesses, technologies, employment and global opportunities. The $44-billion target is also part of India’s official decadal vision for the sector.

“Today I speak to you from the point of view of Indian industry,” Goenka said. “I see space not merely as a frontier of science and exploration, but increasingly as a strategic economic opportunity.”

Industry must step up investment

Goenka said achieving India’s space economy ambitions would require not just continued government support but “significantly greater participation and investment from Indian industry”.

Companies, he said, need to build capabilities across advanced manufacturing, electronics, materials and components, testing and qualification facilities, R&D centres, ground infrastructure and world-class space industrial clusters.

“The question therefore is no longer where space will impact our businesses but how quickly we can enhance the adoption of these technologies, invest in them and build new businesses around them,” he said.

Goenka pointed to opportunities from satellite communications, navigation, Earth observation and geospatial technologies across sectors ranging from agriculture and telecommunications to logistics, infrastructure, energy, mining, insurance, fisheries and defence.

India, he added, has an opportunity to combine the innovation of startups with the capital, manufacturing capabilities, supply chains and global market access of established companies.

“Whenever a satellite is built anywhere in the world, an Indian company should be part of that value chain,” Goenka said. “Whenever a new space technology emerges, Indian industry should be ready to commercialize it at scale.”

“India must now respond with capital, with capacity and with ambition,” he added.

US market open to Indian space startups: Gor

US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor, meanwhile, said the India-US space partnership was moving beyond cooperation towards “co-creation”, including co-designing instruments and co-funding startups.

“To every Indian space entrepreneur in this room, the American market is open to you. Our investors are watching you. Our ecosystems welcome you,” Gor said.

Gor also announced that NASA had officially invited ISRO to participate in its Moon base programme.

“Make no mistake, we’re going back to the moon and we want India by our side on the lunar surface,” he said.

Gor said the US brings private capital and mature commercial ecosystems to the partnership, while India offers engineering capabilities, scientific talent and a fast-growing startup sector.

India now has over 450 space startups

IN-SPACe chairman Pawan Goenka said India’s private space ecosystem has expanded dramatically, from a single space startup in 2014 to more than 450 currently, while over $160 million in private capital has flowed into the sector this year alone.

“This is the moment India is now building, for the first time, a full-spectrum space economy,” he said, describing a model in which ISRO, IN-SPACe, NSIL, private industry, MSMEs, academia and investors play complementary roles.

Goenka said India was not building a closed space ecosystem but an open one aimed at making the country a trusted global manufacturing and technology partner.

He also stressed that greater private participation would not diminish ISRO’s role. “ISRO’s role is by no means diminishing. It will remain the bedrock of Indian space sector,” Goenka said.

Calling on Indian suppliers to move beyond components towards subsystems and complete solutions, he said the opportunity was increasingly global, with Indian space companies expected to serve customers well beyond the domestic market.