Economic Survey 2026: How is NSIL Shaping India’s Growing Space Economy?

India’s space economy is transitioning from a state-led scientific endeavour to a commercially driven growth engine, and NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) sits at the heart of this shift. The Economic Survey 2025–26 explicitly highlighted NSIL’s role in accelerating space sector commercialisation, underlining how policy reforms and market-oriented execution are reshaping India’s global space footprint.

NSIL: India’s Space Commercialisation Arm

Bengaluru-based NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) was incorporated in 2020 as the commercial arm of the Department of Space, tasked with monetising the research, technologies, and infrastructure developed by ISRO.

The company was formally announced during the Union Budget 2019–20, where Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman emphasised the need to commercially harness India’s low-cost and reliable space launch capabilities.

NSIL’s mandate spans:

• Production and commercialisation of launch vehicles
• Technology transfer to industry
• Satellite services and capacity leasing
• Marketing of Indian space products and services globally

What Does the Economic Survey Say About India’s Space Economy?

The Economic Survey noted that India’s space sector has emerged as a fast-growing, technology-intensive, and increasingly commercial segment of the services economy.

Key highlights include:

• India’s space economy is currently valued at $8.4 billion, accounting for around 2% of the global space market
• It is projected to expand to $44 billion over the next decade
• Growth is driven by launch services, satellite communications, Earth observation, navigation services, and a rapidly expanding private ecosystem

Commercial satellite launches remain a strong export driver. Between 2015 and 2024, India launched 393 foreign satellites for 34 countries, earning nearly $143 million and €272 million, reflecting its cost-efficient and dependable launch capabilities amid rising global demand for small satellites.

NSIL’s Financial Performance: A Key Indicator

The Survey highlighted NSIL as a cornerstone of space commercialisation, with a sharp improvement in both revenues and profitability.

• Revenue growth:
• FY20: ₹321 crore
• FY24: ₹2,396.4 crore
• Expected FY25: ₹3,246.1 crore
• Profit After Tax (PAT):
• FY20: ₹51 crore
• FY24: ₹599 crore (nearly a 12-fold increase)

This growth, according to the Survey, reflects NSIL’s success in executing demand-driven missions, satellite capacity leasing, and end-to-end commercial projects, including dedicated launch services and communication satellite deployments.

What Is Driving NSIL’s Growth?

The Survey attributed NSIL’s improving profitability to:

• Rising demand for satellite-based services
• Expansion of satellite capacity leasing
• Integrated execution of commercial space missions

It also highlighted the rapid expansion of satellite-enabled services, with India’s satellite data services market valued at $495 million in 2024, driven by applications in defence, climate services, logistics, agriculture, and urban planning.

Parallelly, India’s private NewSpace ecosystem has scaled across manufacturing, launch vehicles, data analytics, and downstream services, attracting over ₹1,000 crore in private funding in FY23.

Policy Reforms Powering the Space Economy

A major structural shift has come from policy reforms, notably:

• Indian Space Policy, 2023
• Establishment of IN-SPACe (Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre) as a single-window, independent nodal agency under the Department of Space

These reforms removed long-standing entry barriers, enabling private entities to:

• Manufacture and launch space vehicles
• Operate satellites
• Provide satellite data and analytics services

NSIL functions as a key commercial interface within this liberalised ecosystem.

Read more: Union Budget 2026: Traditions, Timings and Interesting Facts You Should Know.

Conclusion

As highlighted in the Economic Survey 2026, NSIL is central to India’s ambition of becoming a major global space commerce hub. By combining policy-backed reforms, ISRO’s technological strengths, and rising private participation, NSIL is transforming India’s space capabilities into a scalable, revenue-generating economic sector—positioning the country strongly in the evolving global space economy.

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