AWS comes forward to help India chart its new space journey

NEW DELHI: As the Indian government embarks on a new space exploration journey by wooing the private sector with liberal policies, Amazon Web Services (AWS) which is the Cloud arm of Amazon, has come forward to help the country transform its space sector and tap into the multi-billion-dollar opportunity.

AWS this year announced a new business segment called 'Aerospace and Satellite Solutions', dedicated to accelerating innovation in the global aerospace and satellite industry.

For Teresa Carlson, Vice President for Public Sector and Regulated Industries, AWS, the new vertical will bring AWS services and solutions to the space enterprise and India is on their priority list as the country opens up the space sector for the private players and startups.

"We have so many lessons learnt from our startups in the agriculture sector in India and we can apply the same learnings and key best practices with the startups in the field of space, and really lead them," Carlson told IANS during a virtual interview.

"We'll be listening to ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) and our partners in India in terms of what we can provide them but from everything we know, they need humongous data storage and to make sense of huge space datasets, they need edge computing and have to work on their virtual mission operations just like NASA is doing," she elaborated.

Several young startups such as Agnikul, Pixxel, Bellatrix Aerospace and Vesta Space have raised funds and joined the fray.

The Department of Space this month signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) with Chennai-based small rocket company Agnikul to access the facilities and technical expertise available in ISRO centres.

The new AWS space business segment, according to Carlson, would help India reimagine space system architectures, transform space enterprises, launch new services that process space data on Earth and in orbit and provide secure, scalable and cost-efficient cloud solutions to support government missions and companies.

On May 16, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that Indian private sector will be a co-traveller in India's space sector journey and a level-playing field will be provided for them in satellites, launches, and space-based services.

According to Sitharaman, the private sector will be allowed to use the facilities of ISRO and other relevant assets to improve their capacities.

On the other hand, ISRO chief K. Sivan had said many startup companies have expressed interest in the space sector while big corporates are yet to come to the front. (IANS)

Also Read: Nirmala Sitharaman reviews implementation of Aatma Nirbhar Bharat package with secys

Also Watch: Illegal Timber Mill Busted: Crackdown on Hatsingmari Forest Officials