India’s Space20 Presidency Can Boost Its Global Heft

As India prepares for its G20 presidency in 2023, it must push its prowess in space tech to reap profits in the fast-developing international space economy

India will assume the presidency of the Group of 20 (G20) multilateral in 2023, the 76th year of India’s independence. The 2023 G20 Summit will be the first-ever mega-diplomatic event of its kind in India. The summit and its peripheral events will undoubtedly be a star-studded gala. And to make it that way, India has begun to prepare by diligently studying social, economic, and technological agendas that it can set and bring out to the best of its capabilities. And why shouldn’t it prepare? There might be only one more occasion when India hosts the G20 leaders before celebrating the Independence centennial in 2047.

The G20 consists of all members of Permanent Five of the Security Council, the Group of Seven (G7), the Group of Four (G4), BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa), while some from the CIVETS (Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam Egypt, Turkey, South Africa), the MIKTA (Mexico, Indonesia, Korea, Turkey, Australia), Next 11, and other political groupings, including the Commonwealth of Nations. The G20 is among the biggest multilaterals outside the United Nations. With its massive economic, technology, and security heft, the grouping is of immense consequence to the global economy and geopolitics.

Sub-Groups Within G20

Since it began in 1999, the G20 has created broader technocratic subgroupings to discuss and charter co-operation on various socio-techno-economic issues. These groupings have now acquired peculiar names such as Business20 (B20), Think20 (T20), Science20 (S20), Youth20 (Y20), Women20 (W20), and so forth. As the names suggest, these sub-groupings are committed to specific areas of deliberation. The B20 sees the business community’s participation and deliberates on better coordination of business-related matters between member nations. At the same time, the S20 has science academies of the 20 countries coming together to reflect on science-related issues.

The 2020 G20 Presidency of Saudi Arabia paved the way for a new sub-grouping known as the Space20. The Space20, during Saudi Arabia’s and Italy’s 2021 presidency, have metamorphosed into a major diplomatic event: the Space Economy Leaders Meeting. This meeting gathers leaders of space agencies of all G20 member nations to discuss issues resonating with the agendas set by the G20 presidency nation. The first Space20 was organised by the Saudi Space Commission, while the Italian Space Agency organised the second meeting. With this protocol in place, it is but natural for the Department of Space to reckon the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) as the host for Space20 to be held in New Delhi in 2023. ISRO has participated in the earlier Space20s and has possibly taken several cues regarding the agenda-setting.

India’s Agenda for Space20

With Italy's presidency year coming to an end, Indonesia picking up the 2022 presidency, India has only a few months to set the Space Economic Leaders Meeting agenda. So what should be ISRO’s approach? Although space-based activities are intensely scientific, the Science20 and Space20 agendas have been independent of each other in the last two instances.

Italy and Saudi Arabia’s Space20 agendas have focused on creating synergies between the space economy activities of G20 member nations so that they are in tune with the needs of the global economy, planetary health, and the Sustainability Development Goals.

The Department of Space, ISRO’s parent body, must consider delegating some agenda-setting to the newly-established and equally relevant Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACE).

Role of IN-SPACE

IN-SPACE is a new space agency, independent of ISRO, established to facilitate commercial space activities in outer space smoothly. It also works as a regulator, providing commercial entities access to critical space infrastructure and permits to carry out space-based commercial activities only after due scrutiny. Although ISRO remains the wiser of the two space agencies, since 2020, the responsibility to chart India’s stakes in the global space economy has gone to IN-SPACE. Its formation gives ISRO massive bandwidth to focus on the R&D of cutting-edge space science and technologies. On the other hand, IN-SPACE will have fewer R&D responsibilities but will be a regulatory, policy-implementing, and facilitating body at the intersection of ISRO, the private industry, and other Indian governmental stakeholders. With these new developments, IN-SPACE suitably can co-organise the Space Economy Leaders’ Meeting in 2023 with ISRO and represent India on the same platform during subsequent G20 presidencies.

What is at stake?

The global space economy will boom from the current 550 billion dollars to around 3 trillion dollars in the next 20 years. With such massive growth in the offing, the G20 has naturally developed a penchant for space activities. To that end, besides the G20 members, the United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the International Astronautical Federation, space advocacy groups like the Space Generation Advisory Council, and management consulting firms like KPMG have quickly reserved seats on the Space Economy Leaders Meetings. Their participation testifies the growing importance of space diplomacy within both track-1 and track-2 diplomatic engagements.

India is the most space-capable of all democratic emerging economies of the world. India’s unique experience in space domain will be of immense significance to other emerging and developing economies outside the G20 grouping. This unique experience is possible because India can responsibly share tools, data, and know-how to ensure the benefits of space are maximal and accessible to all nations. With greater commercialisation of space-based tools, data, and know-how, India’s ability to provide them cost-effectively will be vital to make forays into the developing and developed economies. Such services will have a significant role in upkeeping the Sustainable Development Goals, as all seventeen are increasingly dependent on space technologies. India must prepare for such agenda-setting optimally and avoid playing below its potential.

India’s space capabilities are an inspiration for all developing and emerging economies. It must make sure that it plugs itself rock-solidly in Space20 and consolidates its stakes in the global space economy.

image credits: Wikimedia Commons

This blog was published in the September 2021 edition of Science India magazine published by Vijnana Bharati.