Former ISRO Chief S Somanath has highlighted that Indian rockets are in significant global demand, but India faces a pressing shortage of manufacturing capacity to meet this demand. He explained that while the demand is high, the critical limitation lies in the country’s industrial capability to manufacture rockets in the required volumes.

Rockets and spacecraft are often custom-built and not standard off-the-shelf products, limiting the scalability of manufacturing due to the specialised infrastructure needed. Even ISRO, with its vast experience, relies on external Indian firms like Godrej for manufacturing some components, but these firms cannot assemble entire rocket engines independently, resulting in final assembly often returning to ISRO. This exposes a structural industrial gap where adequate manufacturing ecosystems for aerospace hardware are still developing.

Somanath emphasised the lack of skilled manpower not only in design but in crucial manufacturing domains such as tooling, thermal design, materials, and processes. He stressed that India needs concentrated tooling and manufacturing hubs similar to setups seen in countries like China, where all players and institutions collaborate closely to support aerospace manufacturing innovation and scale. 

The current industrial base is incomplete, with assembly happening but deeper component-level manufacturing yet to be established extensively in India. This infrastructure bottleneck risks slowing India’s ability to capitalise on the rapidly expanding global commercial space market, especially as private Indian firms like Agnikul and Pixxel push into international launch and satellite services.

The panel discussion also included insights from other experts like Sudhir Mishra, former CEO and MD of Brahmos Aerospace, who highlighted the advanced technologies developed domestically, but manufacturing scale-up remains a challenge.

Karnataka’s Commissioner for Industries, Gunjan Krishna, noted that while many multinationals have started component manufacturing in India, a full ecosystem conducive to mass production is still under development.

Recent reforms allowing private sector participation and increased foreign direct investment (FDI) in defence and space sectors are recognised as positive steps, but translating them into large-scale manufacturing requires focused ecosystem building, skilled workforce development, and risk-sharing by larger industrial houses.

The consensus is that India's rockets possess strong global appeal and technical excellence, but the bottleneck is manufacturing capacity and industrial ecosystem maturity.

To meet growing global demand and foster a competitive commercial space economy, India must expand its high-tech aerospace manufacturing capabilities, develop concentrated tooling hubs, nurture specialised human resources, and deepen component-level production domestically.

Agencies