Indian Air Force Group Captain Prashanth Balakrishnan Nair, who is part of India’s Gaganyaan mission, on Friday said the country’s interplanetary missions have a crucial role not just for the country but for the entire world.
Mr. Nair was speaking at the Huddle Global 2025 start-up festival organised at Kovalam by the Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM).
He, according to a KSUM release, said the rest of the world will look up to India to represent them when space powers rewrite the rules for outer space.
Addressing the audience, he pointed out that Indians already contribute about 30% of the work in the sector, as most leading space research centres like NASA employ hundreds of Indian-origin professionals. “India has to ensure that we develop our own entity in space instead of doing the work for others. Upcoming projects like the Gaganyaan and Chandrayaan missions will prove India’s capabilities to the rest of the world,” he is quoted as having said in the release.
Mr. Nair pointed out that there are many areas in space missions themselves that Indian enterprises and start-ups can contribute to. He urged the audience to look for human-centric development even in space.
“Even now, all manned space missions rely on toilet systems developed by Russians, and they have a monopoly. NASA experts have spent a lot of time trying to find a replacement but still have not been able to come up with a proper alternative,” he said suggesting that such technological developments that address problems faced by humans, even in space, should be the hallmark of Indian start-ups.
Mr. Nair advised all start-up founders to acquire multi-disciplinary skills so that they can understand what each team member is trying to do.
He applauded the successes of Indian space scientists, pointing out that in developed countries it is a coalition of well-resourced private sector and government that has worked together to find breakthroughs, while India has done it with limited financial clout and by relying on the excellence of our space experts.
“Start-ups and enterprises have a key role to play in helping India become a global space power,” he said.
Published – December 13, 2025 12:18 am IST
