On June 24, 2020, as the country was still grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic, the Union Cabinet approved the participation of the private sector in space activities and the creation of the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) to provide a level playing field for private companies to use Indian space infrastructure. This reform was hailed as historic in India’s space journey, which started in 1962 with the establishment of the Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR), an earlier avatar of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Soon, space start-ups started mushrooming across the country (currently, there are 330 active space startups in India). The Central Government followed up with further reforms with the Indian Space Policy 2023, and opening up the sector to 100% foreign investment with a new FDI policy. More importantly, this paved the way for many States, including Karnataka, to roll out their own space policies. The Karnataka government, which recently approved the Karnataka Space Technology policy 2025-30, aims to make Karnataka a global space technology destination. The …