India’s New Space Policy: Strengthening the Space Innovation System through Military Civil Fusion

Abstract

Military-Civil Fusion has recently become a focus point, with the Chinese actively pursuing the same by tapping its civilian technology to advance its military capabilities. The increasing space capabilities of China along with the Chinese footprint in the Indo-Pacific region has been a concern for India and through several acts of balancing India tries to counterweigh China. Strengthening its MCF strategy is imperative for India given the volatile environment of the Indo-Pacific. In this article, the author argues that through India’s new Space Policy, 2023, the Government of India is attempting to strengthen India’s space innovation system using Military-Civil Fusion as the strategy, which is carried out through three strategies – changes in the institutional architecture, more private sector participation and a liberal foreign technological collaboration. The article is divided into three sections – the first section will discuss the context of the space race in the Indo-Pacific region that sets the background for military-civil integration by nations; the second section analyses the MCF developmental strategy of China, and the third section looks into the present institutional structure of India’s space programme, and the changes brought in by the new Space Policy, 2023 towards military-civil fusion.