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Mint
2 days ago
- Business
- Mint
India's new space revenue driver: surveillance satellites
New Delhi: India's private space firms may be getting the revenue boost they hoped for: Thanks to geopolitical tensions, several countries have tapped them to build satellites as demand for space-based surveillance grows. Bengaluru-based Ananth Technologies, a long-time engineering partner for the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), has been executing an order from Australia for defence surveillance satellites over the past year. Peer Digantara is also part of this contract under the Mission for Australia-India's Technology, Research and Innovation or Maitri programme. Norway, Hungary and Poland, besides nations from West Asia and the global south, are also engaging with multiple Indian space firms, including Adani Defence and Aerospace-backed Alpha Design, according to at least five industry executives Mint spoke with. Most of these countries do not have their own satellite programmes, but changing geopolitical alignments and global tensions have amplified the need for space surveillance. And while revenue generated from such projects has still not reached hundreds of millions of dollars, India's friendly relations are offering local space startups an opportunity to drive growth through such partnerships. Moreover, surveillance satellite giants in the US, such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, focus mostly on large contracts, according to Chaitanya Giri, space fellow at global think-tank, Observer Research Foundation. Since most of the contracts coming India's way range from $5-25 million per year, Giri said these 'are too small for the American behemoths, but cumulatively could add up to a significant boost for India". Satellite assembly line Ananth Technologies and Digantara will offer end-to-end design and manufacturing of satellites and provide surveillance data to Australia. While neither divulged the exact size of the deals, both said the multi-year pactsare leading to monetization of their business models in India. 'We have three satellite manufacturing and design engineering centres across Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Thiruvananthapuram, where we build and design high-resolution surveillance, imaging and earth observation satellites based on requirements from clients," Subba Rao Pavuluri, chairman and managing director of Ananth Technologies, told Mint. The company has the reputation to back it, having manufactured surveillance satellites for India. These are in orbit and operated by Isro. In FY24, Ananth Technologies, incorporated in 1992, earned operating revenue of ₹270 crore, according to data from the ministry of corporate affairs. Digantara, incorporated six years ago, earned ₹3.2 crore and projects its revenue to increase to ₹250 crore by FY27 on surveillance satellite data and manufacturing contracts. Over ₹100 crore of Digantara's revenue growth is set to come from through its contract with India's ministry of defence, Mint reported on 13 June. Anirudh Sharma, chief executive of the Peak XV-backed startup, is also setting up the company's own satellite assembly line. Mint visited the company's headquarters in Bengaluru. The startup will offer satellite observation and data analytics services to paying customers. 'We're currently working with other clients, too, including the government of India as well as interested parties from the European Union," Sharma said. 'There is an increasing demand for sovereign surveillance capabilities around the world, for which we are offering white-label services to various governments." Surveillance as a service Beyond manufacturing for other nations, Indian space startups are looking to put their own surveillance satellites in orbit, and offer high-resolution surveillance data to countries. GalaxEye Space, a four-year-old, Chennai-headquartered startup, announced earlier this month that it will place its first, owned surveillance satellite in orbit as part of its business expansion plan. '...the current rise in interest for surveillance satellites is also boosting our case for innovation—where we are placing a high-resolution synthetic aperture radar (Sar) satellite that can observe the earth at up to 0.5 metres resolution," said Suyash Singh, founder of GalaxEye. 'We're already having early-stage conversations with hundreds of clients, which is what spurred our decision to build this satellite. In the next six to eight months, we'll offer a revenue projection for the coming years, launch the satellite in orbit, and raise funds for our next phase of operations." The company's early-stage demand is largely coming from West Asia and the global south, Singh said. One year ago, the government of Australia signed an $18-million contract with Isro's commercial business unit, NewSpace India Limited (Nsil), to use its satellite launch services. Speaking with Mint on the sidelines of 2025 Indian Space Congress in New Delhi on Wednesday, Philip Green, high commissioner of Australia to India, said that space is an active area of collaboration between the two nations. 'We actively leverage the strength that each of us have in our nations to collaborate in various fields, including technology. In space, Australia is a global innovation leader—we bring this to India and tap its massive engineering talent pool with private firms that are highly skilled in niche areas. In turn, this helps both the geographies prosper and grow—Australia, leveraging this, is seeing its space economy already grow at 10% per annum," he said. 'With a strategic partner such as India, we can collaborate across the line and the ecosystem, and do so more intensively. That's where the India-Australia space collaborations are at the moment," Green said. ORF's Giri calls this a 'natural evolution". 'The US has moved on from manufacturing a long time ago, and Europe's markets are too expensive to manufacture at scale," he said. 'With the current geopolitical balances at play, India's biggest strength lies in leveraging this position to emerge as a default choice for global satellite manufacturing." Giri expects these contracts to help India's private space firms reinforce their reputation in the global market. 'With space and surveillance being seen as key areas of engineering and innovation, India is in a strong position to leverage its relations globally—and help private firms expand globally as critical infrastructure providers."
Mint
17-05-2025
- Business
- Mint
The week in charts: Sensex cheer, tariff truce, satellite scheme
The end of the conflict between India and Pakistan and a trade deal between the US and China propelled the Indian stock markets to put up their best single-day performance in four years. Meanwhile, the government plans to expedite the implementation of its satellite surveillance programme in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attacks. Sensex roars India and Pakistan reached an understanding on 10 May to end the conflict after four days of cross-border military strikes following the terrorist attacks in Pahalgam. This development, along with the US-China trade deal of lower tariffs for 90 days, triggered the biggest rally in Indian equities on Monday in over four years. The Sensex climbed 3.7% to 82,429.90, marking its best gains since 1 February 2021. Markets have held on to the most of gains through the week, with the Sensex closing at 82,530.74 on Thursday. Tariff truce The US and China this week announced a 90-day tariff truce, bringing a temporary pause to a bruising trade war. Beginning 14 May, the US agreed to lower its tariffs on Chinese goods from 145% to 30% (10% baseline plus fentanyl-specific 20% levy), while China agreed to reduce its tariffs on US goods from 125% to 10%. Analysts are hopeful that the temporary reprieve could provide a window for further negotiations. The US runs the highest trade deficit with China despite a notable decline in recent years. Satellite power $3 billion: That is the amount allocated towards the Space-based Surveillance-3 (SBS-3) scheme, whose execution the government plans to expedite in the wake of the Pahalgam terrorist attacks. The Centre has directed three firms—Ananth Technologies, Centum Electronics, and Alpha Design Technologies—to shorten their satellite development timeline from four years to 12-18 months, targeting completion by the end of 2026 or earlier, Mint reported. A satellite by Ananth Technologies might even launch this year via ISRO's LVM3 or SpaceX. Under SBS-3, 52 surveillance satellites are being built. Price pullback India's retail inflation eased to a near six-year low of 3.2% in April, down from 3.3% in March. This marked the sixth consecutive monthly decline and third consecutive sub-4% print. However, core inflation, which excludes food, and fuel and light groups, remained above 4%, suggesting caution. Persistent price pressures were also evident in health and education costs, which continue to stay above 4%. Nevertheless, declining headline inflation has made it easier for the central bank to continue rate cuts in the coming months. Regional divide Car wholesales in eastern and southern states took a beating in 2024-25, while northern and western states continued to report growth, albeit at a slower pace. According to data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers Association (SIAM), the eastern region recorded a 4.2% year-on-year decline in passenger vehicle wholesales in FY25 as opposed to a 4.2% growth in the previous year, Mint reported. Southern states recorded a 3.5% decline as opposed to 6.6%. On the other hand, western and northern states saw 4.4% and 6.6% growth, respectively. Musical deal $500-600 million: That is the potential value of the deal that involves Harman US selling a controlling stake in its Indian unit, Mint reported. Harman US, the maker of JBL, Harman Kardon and Infinity audio products, is a subsidiary of South Korea's Samsung. The company has approached global private equity and buyout firms for the deal and appointed Deutsche Bank to manage the process. Harman India operates across four segments—Lifestyle, Connected Car, Professional, and its India Development Centre, which serves as its software development hub. Mid-tier surge Mid-cap IT firms hired more employees in FY25, outpacing the big four—Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, HCL Technologies, and Wipro, Mint reported. The top four added 9,442 employees, while their mid-tier rivals (with annual revenue of about $1-6 billion) collectively onboarded 25,794 employees. Among these, Coforge led with 8,771 new hires, surpassing TCS's hiring of 6,433. The top four are facing a slowdown due to their high exposure to the US and European markets for business, while the mid-sized firms are somewhat insulated from the external environment. Chart of the week: Results out! The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) announced the Class X and XII board examination results on 13 May. The overall pass percentage was better among Class X at 93.7% versus 88.4% among Class XII students. Girls continued to outshine boys. Follow our data stories on the'In Charts" and'Plain Facts" pages on the Mint website.
Mint
12-05-2025
- Business
- Mint
India fast-tracks $3-billion spy satellite scheme following Operation Sindoor
New Delhi: India is looking to give its satellite-based surveillance capabilities a rapid makeover, as the country navigates a tenuous ceasefire with neighbour Pakistan after the worst hostilities seen since a war between them in 1971. The Centre has tasked three private firms–Ananth Technologies, Centum Electronics, and Alpha Design Technologies–to compress their satellite development timeline from four years to 12-18 months, according to three people aware of the matter. The satellites are now targeted to be ready by end-2026 or earlier instead of end-2028, the three people said, requesting anonymity due to the matter's sensitivity. One of the satellites–under advanced stages of development by Ananth Technologies–may even be ready this year itself, one of the people cited above said. It would be launched either aboard Isro's heavy rocket, Launch Vehicle Mark-III (LVM3), or Elon Musk-backed SpaceX—depending on their respective mission schedules this year. Also read | Operation Sindoor: A doctrinal shift and an inflection point The soft orders to expedite the latest generation of surveillance satellites were issued from the ministry of defence (MoD) just before India commenced Operation Sindoor against Pakistan. The accelerated effort is part of the $3-billion Space-based Surveillance-3 (SBS-3) scheme, which was approved by the cabinet committee on security (CCS) last October with a net budgetary outlay of $3 billion subject to revisions. In this scheme, a total of 52 surveillance satellites are being built. While the three private companies are building 31 of these, the remaining will be built and deployed gradually by India's central space agency, Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro). 'It is a necessary move in light of such sensitive geopolitical interactions," one of the people cited above said, adding that the SBS-3 constellation will work as a crucial piece of infrastructure for India's national security, and is a prime example of the kind of large contracts that the Centre can offer private space firms. Emailed queries sent to the three companies, as well as the defence ministry—the nodal ministry that will access the satellites for national defence and security usage—did not receive responses till press time. Spy satellite builders The three private-sector companies—Hyderabad-based Ananth Technologies, and Bengaluru-based Centum Electronics and Alpha Design Technologies—are long-standing partners, suppliers and vendors of Isro, and have played key roles in previous surveillance satellites, as well as landmark Indian space missions such as the successful Chandrayaan-3. Ananth Technologies, led by former Isro veteran Subba Rao Pavuluri, was a key supplier of components to the Chandrayaan-3 mission. So, too, was Centum—led by its chairman, Apparao Mallavarapu. Ananth Technologies earned ₹270 crore in revenue in FY24. In the same fiscal year, Centum, which is publicly listed on the National Stock Exchange, reported ₹632 crore in revenue. In FY25 (nine months to December 2024), it reported revenue of ₹479 crore. The third company, Alpha Design, was wholly acquired by Adani Defence and Aerospace, which is a subsidiary of Adani Enterprises, in April 2019. Alpha Design has been one of Isro's key partners in building and deploying the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), which seeks to replace the global positioning system (GPS) in India with NavIC, an indigenous navigation standard. The company reported ₹536 crore in operating revenue in FY24, as per data from credit rating agency, Crisil. Also read | Operation Sindoor: India repulses drone attacks as conflict continues All three companies are rated highly by credit rating agencies Care Edge and Crisil, based on large pending orders driven by Isro and the ministry of defence (MoD), among others. For space firms, internal government contracts are key. In July 2024, former Isro chairman S. Somanath told Mint on the sidelines of a space conclave in New Delhi that the Centre, along with Isro and multiple agencies across ministries, is working to create awareness of the capabilities that private space firms bring to the table, and how they can be tapped for cutting-edge purposes such as secure communications, data analytics and more. Industry veterans, too, believe that private firms can play key roles. Chaitanya Giri, space fellow at global think-tank Observer Research Foundation (ORF), told Mint that private space firms will continue to be preferred in large-scale, sensitive projects such as SBS-3. 'Each of these private players are already suppliers to the central space agency, which makes the manufacturing and eventual deployment of satellites for various purposes a project right up their alley," Giri said. 'In the long run, more such government projects will see India start to drive revenue to the private space sector in the same model as the rest of the world—despite them wanting to showcase the Indian space sector as an open market." Also read | Operation Sindoor: Tensions spark worry over kharif sowing in border states
