The “Make in India” Conference on Enabling Spacecraft Systems Realisation through Industries (ESSRI – 2016) was organised at ISRO Satellite Centre, Bengaluru. The Conference was organisedto elicit industry support for spacecraft realisation on an end-to-end basis to meet the rapidly increasing national demand for space based services and the realisation of Prime Minister’s objective of “Make in India”.
Over the years, a number of Indian Industries have been actively participating in realising various subsystems of spacecraft. A variety of models have been adopted by ISRO in outsourcing jobs to these vendors. However, end-to-end realisation of spacecraft has not yet been realised. The Conference aimed to fill this gap.
After inaugurating the conference, Shri A.S. Kiran Kumar, Chairman , ISRO/Secretary, DOS addressed the delegates. He told the delegates that almost all the Government departments and ministries had evinced keen interest in applying space technology for carrying out their mandates. In order to meet the increased demand for space based services, it was imperative that ISRO joined hands with the Industries in its effort towards enhancing its capacity. He also impressed upon the delegates about India’s great potential to capture a sizeable portion of the business in the international space market.
In his address, Dr. M. Annadurai, Director, ISAC spoke about the need for launching at least 10-12 satellites every year. He stressed that this goal would necessarily have to be driven by a synergetic collaboration between ISRO and Industry since such a partnership would be a win-win situation for both. Dr Annadurai also announced that the Expression of Interest (EoI) for realising spacecraft on an end-to-end basis has been hosted on ISRO/ISAC websites and invited the industries to respond to it.
The Chief Guest, Shri. Arvind Melligeri, Chairman and CEO, Aequs Private Limited, Belagavi, commended the good work ISRO had done so far and opined that enhanced industry participation in Indian Space Programmewould take this to greater heights.
During the Conference, senior executives of ISAC/ISRO gave an insight into the requirements of ISRO with respect to hardware, technologies, quality and delivery schedule and what was essential for them to be qualified vendors of ISRO.
About 110 Industries in aerospace business participated in the Conference. During the interaction, the Industries presented their capabilities and expressed their commitment to partner with ISRO for the realisationof satellites on end-to-end basis. Further, they also expressed their readiness for gearing-up to venture into global space market.