What is the need for a Space Activities bill, 2017 in India? Discuss the significant provisions of the bill and its limitations. (200 words)
Refer – Live mint
Enrich the answer from other sources, if the question demands.
IAS Parliament 7 years
KEY POINTS
Need for a space bill
· Over a period, with the logical evolution of space activities in India, the demands for space systems, applications and services for national needs and beyond have been rapidly growing.
· ISRO is mainly a R&D-focused organisation; it has created the technological foundation for rockets, satellites and ground usage.
· However, to realise such a large number of space systems, private partnerships have been sought.
· This scenario encourages the participation of Indian industry and service providers at much higher levels in all round space activities.
· Commercial opportunities in space activities and services, nationally and internationally demand higher order of participations by private sector agencies.
· This situation demands for a necessary legal environment for orderly performance and growth of space sector.
· Thus there is a need for national space legislation for supporting the overall growth of the space activities in India.
· This would encourage enhanced participation of non-governmental/private sector agencies in space activities in India, in compliance with international treaty obligations, which is becoming very relevant today.
Important provisions and its limitations
· Its main objective seems to be the governance of ‘Commercial Space Activities’.
· Definition - The definition of “Space activity” affects the scope of the entities that will come under the ambit of the Bill.
· The use of ‘space object’ pulls every space-based application into its ambit.
· This even includes every piece of hardware that carries a GPS/GNSS receiver (e.g. smartphones, tablets, child trackers, etc.).
· So nobody in the industry will benefit in case licenses are needed for them to even use a GPS/GNSS chip tomorrow in their product.
· Licensing – A non-transferable licence shall be provided by the Central Government to any person carrying out commercial space activity.
· The licensing requirement stated within the Bill makes it harder for entrepreneurs to kick-off their products/services.
· Blanket licensing requirements at the beginning of the tunnel for startups and SMEs will make it harder for them to even start their development work.
· Therefore, licensing may be placed as a requirement just before the release of the product/service into the market or at the time of its export.
· Assigning a nodal body – The Bill has not specified any department or body within the Government of India to take ownership of regulating space activities.
· Since ISRO is managed by the DoS, an independent body should be created or nominated to administer space activities.
· This is to ensure no conflict of interest arises between state and non-governmental/private actors.
· Dealing with liability – Liabilities are very different for upstream activities – such as spacecraft operations and launch/in-orbit operations – against the use of space-based products/services on the ground, such as data security for remote sensing products, communication handsets, etc.
· Penalties – The draft Bill provides for penalties in case of:
a) unauthorised commercial space activity
b) furnishing false information or documents
c) causing environmental damage
d) entry into prohibited areas
e) disclosure of restricted information
· Pollution to the environment of outer space including celestial bodies needs to be defined well.
· It is not clear if this is in line with the space debris ‘code of conduct’, according to the Inter-Agency Debris Mitigation Committee guidelines, or other best practices in handling interplanetary missions.
