The Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (In-Space) has floated a tender for building and managing Earth Observation (EO) satellites as per a report by Mint.
The government-affiliated space projects and incubation body sought interested private space entities to bid for the project which includes building multiple EO satellites, the report stated.
The projects would be contingent upon meeting the funding, valuation or revenue criteria.
The development comes amidst a clarion call from various stakeholders of the Indian space ecosystem seeking the Centre to become a pivotal anchor in India’s private space startups.
The project is one of the first moves from the Centre to become a key customer for India’s fledgling private space sector in which it will provide funding and support in a public- private partnership model.
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In-Space’s project will seek to “reduce foreign dependency for space-based EO data and increase the space economy of our country.”
Reportedly, the entity with the best presentation, will be provided with an “opportunity to monetize space data and related services, thereby increasing (their) presence in the global geospatial market—and positioning India as a major global data provider,” as per the tender.
It is stated that for an entity to qualify, the space firm must have at least ₹85 crore ($10.1 million) in funding—reduced to ₹42.5 crore ($5.1 million) for startups. Alternatively, applying entities must be valued at ₹850 crore ($101 million), or have an average annual revenue of ₹200 crore ($23.9 million) over a period of three years, the report stated.
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Bengaluru-based Pixxel and GalaxEye are among the startups working towards creating an ecosystem in the country could be chosen for the project as per reports.
