India's Third National Space Day, Held in Ahmedabad on 23 August 2026, Marked More Than 440 Space Startups Six Years After the Sector Opened to Private Companies

India held its third National Space Day on 23 August 2026 at the Space Applications Centre (SAC) of ISRO in Ahmedabad, and ISRO’s report on the event records “more than 440” space startups in the country since the sector’s reforms of 2020. Two written replies by the Department of Space in Parliament, on 12 and 13 August, give the same figure: around 440 space technology startups registered on the Start-up India portal.

The day marks the soft landing of the Chandrayaan-3 lander near the Moon’s south polar region on 23 August 2023. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the date while addressing the Chandrayaan-3 team in Bengaluru three days after that landing, according to The Week’s report of 26 August 2023. The story of that landing is in Chandrayaan-3: the south pole landing. This article looks at the other thing the 2026 edition put on the stage, which is the private sector.

What happened in Ahmedabad

ISRO’s report says Ahmedabad was chosen because SAC is there and because the city has a fast-growing set of startups. The theme was “Towards Viksit Bharat: Innovating, Collaborating and Aspiring to Global Space Leadership”. Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, the Union Minister of Culture and Tourism, was chief guest, and Arjunbhai Devabhai Modhwadia, Gujarat’s minister for science and technology among other portfolios, was guest of honour. V. Narayanan, Secretary of the Department of Space and Chairman of ISRO, presided.

Shekhawat described space reform as “the democratisation of space opportunity”, in the wording of ISRO’s report, and said it did not mean privatisation. The chairman of IN-SPACe, Pawan Kumar Goenka, said there would be no space industry in India without ISRO, and ISRO’s report adds that its teams backed private launches as if they were ISRO’s own. Modhwadia invited startups and industry to set up manufacturing at the Gujarat Space Park. The report also says ISRO can now launch international commercial satellites in the six-tonne class.

The Skyroot Aerospace team was felicitated by Narayanan. The company’s Vikram-1 rocket had reached orbit on its first flight five weeks earlier. Prizes went to winners of competitions and a quiz held during the Space Day events across the country.

The Prime Minister’s greeting came as a video message shared on 23 August. News On AIR reports him saying that India’s space sector is a magnet for global investors and that private space talent is making an identity of its own. IANS lists the areas in which he said young engineers are working: propulsion systems, composite materials, rocket stages and satellite platforms.

Where the 440 comes from

The Lok Sabha reply of 12 August and the Rajya Sabha reply of 13 August were both given by Dr Jitendra Singh, Minister of State for Atomic Energy and Space. Both say that, as per the DPIIT Start-up India Portal, around 440 space technology startups are registered in India.

The same replies give a second figure that is easy to confuse with the first. IN-SPACe, the Department of Space body that authorises and promotes private space activity, has granted 113 authorisations to 52 non-government entities, and 18 of those 52 are startups. The 18 are named in an annexure:

• Agnikul Cosmos, OrbitAID Aerospace and Space Kidz India, all of Chennai
• Akshath Aerospace, Bellatrix Aerospace, Cosmoserv Space India, Digantara, GalaxEye and PixxelSpace India, all of Bengaluru
• Azista BST, Dhruva Space and Skyroot Aerospace, all of Hyderabad
• HEX20Labs (Thiruvananthapuram), Inorbit Space Telecommunications (New Delhi), Manastu Space Technologies (Navi Mumbai), NSpace Tech India (Tenali), PierSight Space (Ahmedabad) and TakeMe2Space Technologies (K.V. Ranga Reddy)

The reply says IN-SPACe does not hold state-wise data on recognised space startups.

Other counts sit near 440. The Press Information Bureau’s backgrounder of 18 July 2026 says the number grew from one startup in 2014 to over 400 in 2026. P. K. Jain of IN-SPACe, speaking at a space policy conference and reported by Outlook Business in July, said the number had gone from single digits six years earlier to more than 450. These are counts from different dates and different registers, so the ISRO and parliamentary figure of about 440 is the one this article uses.

The June 2020 decision

The six-year gap in the headline runs from 24 June 2020, when the Union Cabinet approved reforms “aimed at boosting private sector participation in the entire range of space activities”, in the words of the Press Information Bureau. The release created IN-SPACe to give private companies a level playing field in using Indian space infrastructure, asked New Space India Limited (NSIL), the Department of Space’s commercial company, to move space activity from a supply-driven to a demand-driven model, and said ISRO would concentrate on research, new technology, exploration and human spaceflight.

The Indian Space Policy 2023 then opened the whole space value chain to non-government entities, according to the 18 July backgrounder. The permit process, and the three private rockets that have flown under it, are in India’s 2023 space policy and how private rockets get permission to launch.

The backgrounder adds that IN-SPACe had registered more than 4,500 organisations and signed 106 memoranda of understanding by June 2026. It gives 133 authorisations at that date, while the August parliamentary replies say 113. The August figure is the later one and the one used above.

What the government has put behind the startups

The replies list the instruments. The IN-SPACe Seed Fund Scheme gives grants of up to Rs 1 crore. A Rs 1,000 crore venture capital fund is to be deployed over five years from the financial year 2025-26 to 2029-30, at Rs 100 crore to Rs 250 crore a year. The Rs 500 crore Technology Adoption Fund covers up to 60 per cent of project cost for startups and micro, small and medium enterprises, capped at Rs 25 crore a project. A Satellite Bus as a Service initiative is meant to build indigenous satellite platforms.

On technology, NSIL has signed 118 technology transfer agreements covering 83 technologies developed at ISRO or the Department of Space, the 12 August reply says. The list includes the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle technology and the IMS-1 satellite bus. IN-SPACe is taking forward a planned transfer of PSLV and LVM3 launch vehicle technology to private industry.

The Department of Space gives cumulative investment in Indian space startups as about USD 618.5 million as on 31 March 2026, with a shift from early seed rounds to larger growth-stage rounds. The backgrounder says IN-SPACe facilitated USD 150 million of investment into startups in calendar 2025.

The 13 August reply also tabulates access that IN-SPACe arranged year by year, from launch slots to testing. In 2022 that meant sub-orbital launch access for Vikram-S. In 2026 it meant use of the First Launch Pad at Sriharikota for Vikram-1, along with docking mechanism lab testing and shock testing for other startups.

Funds are moving at a different pace across schemes. As on 31 July 2026, the reply shows a cumulative total sanctioned and disbursed of Rs 20,032.34 lakh (about Rs 200 crore) against a combined scheme envelope of Rs 2,14,000 lakh (Rs 2,140 crore). Most of it, Rs 18,893.04 lakh, is the venture fund, which received SEBI approval on 31 October 2025. The Technology Adoption Fund had selected three entities and shown no disbursement at that date. The 12 August reply, which covers three financial years, puts the cumulative total slightly lower, at Rs 19,976.34 lakh.

Skyroot, the company on the stage

Vikram-1 lifted off from the First Launch Pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, at 12:05:30 pm on 18 July 2026. ISRO calls Skyroot the first private company to launch successfully to orbit from Indian soil, and to do it on its first attempt. Via Satellite reports an orbit of 450 km at 60 degrees inclination, carrying Skyroot’s SCOPE satellite and technology demonstration payloads from Grahaa Space, Cosmoserve and DCubed. IEEE Spectrum describes India as the third country, after China and the United States, with a domestic firm reaching orbit.

ISRO’s account lists what the agency supplied: casting and static testing of the first-stage motor at Sriharikota, a test of the Raman-I liquid engine at its Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre and a safety team watching Skyroot’s operations round the clock. IN-SPACe provided mission readiness reviews and launch clearances.

Skyroot used National Space Day for an update of its own. Business Today reports that the company posted on 23 August that stage 1 of its second Vikram-1 was on its way to Sriharikota. The report gave no launch date.

The targets the day repeated

The backgrounder of 18 July values India’s space economy at about USD 8.4 billion today and projects USD 40 billion to 45 billion by 2030 and USD 100 billion by 2040. At Ahmedabad, Morung Express and Qazinform report Shekhawat putting the potential at nearly USD 44 billion within the next decade, which Qazinform dates to 2033; News On AIR carried the figure as USD 45 billion. Shekhawat also said growth should be judged on technology and skilled jobs as well as money, and named space debris, cybersecurity and responsible use of AI as challenges.

Narayanan said at the event that the Bharatiya Antariksh Station, India’s planned space station, is targeted for 2035, with its first module already approved, according to Morung Express.