Recent SAARC Video Conference meets by the leaders of SAARC nations opens a new hope for this regional Organisation. The remark made by the Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani on telemedicine is significant, especially for a landlocked country like Afghanistan, Bhutan and Nepal. India, as a substantial power in Space in the SAARC region, can contribute to building such satellite-based telemedicine information to their neighbours. On 14th Nov2019 India celebrated the 130th Birth Anniversary of the first Prime Minister of India, who can rightly remember as the ‘architect of modern India’. Nehru was an undisputed leader of third world countries and a stalwart figure of the Non-Alignment Movement. He was a man who believed science and technology strengthens a nation. At a time when over 130crore Indians are proud of the achievement of ISRO Moon Mission, we should not forget the vision of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
The Indian National Committee for Space Research(INCOSPAR) was established during Nehru’s tenure under the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) in 1962 upon the insistence of Vikram Sarabhai who was quick to highlight the need for space research. INCOSPAR grew to become ISRO in 1969.Space technology plays a vital role in various spheres of development, such as social, economic and environmental. Climate change monitoring, weather forecasting, disaster management, search and rescue operations, satellite-based telecommunications, educational field like informative online content delivered by satellite, e-learning opportunities are a few to name.
In the South Asian region, India is a superpower in outer space activities. India can share the outer space benefit with its South Asian neighbours to make a strong bond on Space diplomacy.
In 2017, India’s successful launch of the first-ever South Asia Satellite (SAS) to boost communication and improve disaster links among its six SAARC neighbours except Pakistan has “opened up new horizons of engagement” in the region and helped it carve a unique place for itself in space diplomacy.The successful launched of SAS by ISRO was appreciated through a video conference by leaders of South Asia barring Pakistan.
India is a party to the Outer Space Treaty,1967 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Treaty’), an international instrument which deals with regulation of Outer Space. Under Article I of the Treaty, the first paragraph says that ‘the exploration and use of outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries, irrespective of their degree of economic or scientific development, and shall be the province of all mankind’. Developing countries believed that the above provision laid down that those states in a position to use or exploit outer Space were obliged to take necessary steps to ensure that other countries, no matter what their level of development, could benefit from space activities
The United Nation General Assembly(UNGA) Resolution ‘Declaration on International Cooperation in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space for the Benefit and in the Interest of All States, Taking into Particular Account the Needs of Developing Countries’, adopted in 1996 recognizes the importance of international cooperation in the exploration and use of outer Space for the benefit and interest of all states, in particular, the needs of developing countries. India can fulfill its international obligation arising from outer space treaty as well as accomplish its space diplomacy goal by helping its Neighbours through Outer Space.
India needs a Space Legislation
The Outer Space governed by the International Law and United Nations Treaties and Principles under the UN Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS). Out of the five United Nations Treaties relating to space activities in Outer Space, India has ratified four (The Outer Space Treaty 1967, The Rescue Agreement 1968,The Space Liability Convention 1972) and signed one (The Moon Treaty). Legally speaking, under Article 2(1)b of Vienna Convention of Law of Treaties (VCLT), 1969‘ratification’ means International act whereby a State establishes on the international plane its consent to be bound by a treaty. It means a Country must enact the necessary legislation to give domestic effect to the treaties within a time-frame.
India has been performing space activities in compliance with the obligations of UN Treaties on Outer Space. In recent times, private industries and some of the start-up companies are interested in space-related activities. Still, the lack of domestic legislation in the field of space-related activities in Outer Space is the major obstacle for them. In the year 2017, India drafted a ‘Space Activities Bill, 2017’for supporting the overall growth of the space activities in India, but still, the bill is under consideration. Theonly legal framework supporting India’s space ventures is the Satellite Communication Policy 2000 and Remote Sensing Data Policy 2011 (revised). Articles 51 and 73 of the Indian Constitution foster respect of international law and treaty obligations (under the Vienna Convention on theLaw of Treaties,1969). Article51 specifically mention that the state shall respect all the provision related to International Law and shall make its best effort to fulfil its treaty obligations. Article 73 of the Constitution of India puts no restriction on the power of Executive in relation to International law, thus allowing the Executive to enter into any treaty obligations. Also, Article 253 of the Indian Constitution provide that the Parliament has the power to legislate and pass a law to fulfill International Obligations.
India is emerging in space technology as well as in space-related activities. Due to this emergence in space technology, the Indian government shook hands with private entities to devise a robust space programme. Currently, India does not have any domestic legislation in the field of space law. It is dealt with by the Department of Space (DoS) which is the nodal agency for space activities in India. The United States of America enacted ‘The US Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act of 2015’ which allows the citizens of the USA to ‘engage in the commercial exploration and exploitation of space resources’. Besides, private stakeholders like ‘SpaceX’ of Elon Musk and ‘Blue Origin’ of Jeff Bezos are riding the seat in Space Technology. The other space faring nations are investing a good amount of money by private players and India is lagging in harnessing the power of private innovation in the space domain. China is significantly increasing its space investment through public as well as private entrepreneurs.
The Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her debut Budget speech last year (2019), announced the launch of New Space Company, i.e. New Space India Limited (NSIL) which will serve as the commercial arm of Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) along with Antrix Corporation Limited (both wholly owned by the Government of India). The planned Space project of ISRO is human-crewed space flight (Gaganyaan) before 2022, Aditya-I India’s first Solar Mission scheduled to be launchin 2020 and Permanent Space Station possibly in the next five to seven years. The private capacity in Space will boost the new dimension such as Space Tourism, Small Satellite revolution and increasing space competitiveness among private players. It attracts private investment, creates jobs and also promotes research in the area of Science and Technology.
Significance of Becoming Space Power
India is growing fast in Space and Space Technology product and services not only for societal applications but also to support commercial activities and pursue diplomatic and security objectives. US, Russia and China are already giving fierce competition in pursuit of becoming a space power. Recently conducted ‘Mission Shakti’ and newly Defence Space Agency (DSA) demonstrated India space capability. India will need to equip itself to meet the emerging security challenges.
The Budget session 2020 of Parliament is going on, and the Modi Government must formulate a space policy. Parliament must expedite the enabling legislation for the betterment of India’s Space Programme.
