India's space economy has grown to about $9 billion, up from $8.4 billion in 2023, and the country now counts about 440 registered space start-ups — up from just one in 2014 — according to a government backgrounder released by the Press Information Bureau on Sunday.

Source: PIB backgrounder via CrackTarget

The backgrounder, released on November 15, says cumulative investment in Indian space start-ups rose more than six-fold, from $100.5 million in 2021-22 to $618.5 million by March 31, 2026, as private companies entered a sector long dominated by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

Source: Nation Press

NSIL and IN-SPACe drive the commercial push

NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), the commercial arm of the Department of Space set up in March 2019, has signed 118 technology transfer agreements covering 83 ISRO technologies, and its turnover rose from Rs 321.77 crore in 2021-22 to more than Rs 3,000 crore in 2024-25, the reports said.

Source: ReportWire

The Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe), the single-window regulator for private space activity, had facilitated 71 technology transfers by January 2026 and, by mid-2026, had granted 113 authorisations to 52 non-government entities, including 18 start-ups.

Source: The World Opinion

Six Indian private entities have launched 18 satellites, while 25 payloads have flown or are scheduled aboard ISRO's PSLV Orbital Experimental Module (POEM) platforms, which give start-ups affordable access to orbit.

As of June 2026, India's space cooperation network covered more than 300 agreements spanning 61 countries and five multilateral organisations, and the sector had received 11 foreign direct investment proposals worth Rs 1,745.40 crore by mid-2026, according to the factsheet.

The figures underline how the post-2020 space reforms — which kept public-sector leadership while opening the sector to private innovation, investment and entrepreneurship — have reshaped an industry that for decades ran almost entirely through ISRO.