Look also at the ground situation. India today has around 100 million television homes. DTH is expected to grab around 30 per cent of this cable/satellite TV business share. The ISRO’s marketing agency, Antrix Corporation Limited, depends on DTH for its transponder business. Its capacity to lease transponders alone accounts for nearly half of its Rs 650-crore revenue (for 2006-07). Each transponder earns roughly Rs 4 to 4.6 crore (around $1 million) during a satellite’s 10- to12-year lifespan. Following INSAT-4CR, the ISRO plans to launch INSAT-4D, an exclusive C-band communication satellite.

The ISRO is working on various fronts together. Apart from communication satellites its proposes to put a military-specific reconnaissance satellite, CARTOSAT-2A, into orbit shortly. The satellite is expected to give India the capability of monitoring missile launches in its neighbourhood. A moon mission is slated for next year. In 2008 it also proposes to launch a 100-kg ‘satellite bus’, because of brisk demand for the launching of nano-satellites.

Like the aviation industry boom, the space boom is also on the anvil in India.

The writer is a research fellow, IDSA