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334 Economic Survey 2021-22
9.55 Trends in the number of start-ups engaged in the space sector also show the pace of growth
of space sector in India (Table 9). Just in the last three years number of startups in the space
sector has increased from 11 in 2019 to 47 in 2021.
Table 9: Number of Start-ups in Space Sector
Year No of start-ups
2012 1
2013 1
2014 1
2015 3
2016 1
2017 8
2018 7
2019 11
2020 21
2021 47
Total 101
Source: ISRO
Note: ISRO/DOS doesn't register any start-ups. However, start-ups are
registered with startupindia under DPIIT. Around 75 start-ups are shown
under space technology category in the startupindia portal. But these
numbers are not exhaustive, as some of the start-ups registered under
other categories are also involved in the space domain.
9.56 With these recently undertaken policy initiatives and private sector participations, the
Indian space sector is expected to capture a larger share of the global space economy, which
was close to US$ 447 billion in 2020. At present, India accounts for only about 2 per cent of the
space economy, much behind the major players – USA and China.
Box 2: Drone Rules, 2021
In March 2021, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) published the UAS Rules, 2021. These Rules
were considered too stringent and restrictive as they involved considerable paperwork, required
permissions for every drone flight and very few “free to fly” green zones were available. Based on
the feedback, the Government decided to repeal the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Rules, 2021
and replace the same with the liberalised Drone Rules, 2021, which was notified on 25th August
2021. Key features of Drone Rules 2021 include:
l Several approvals abolished; with the total forms to be filled reduced from 25 to 5: Various
approvals such as unique authorisation number, unique prototype identification number, certificate
of manufacturing, and operator permit etc. have been done away with. Certain exemptions have
also been introduced for nano/micro drones.
