India's "Explosive" Growth In Space Sector Can Emerge As Counterweight To China: NYT

The US government would be more likely to approve any American company's sending military-grade technology through India than through China, the NYT report said.

Lauding India's ambitious space programme, The New York Times has said the country, currently witnessing an "explosive" growth in space-tech start-ups, is set to "transform the planet's connection to the final frontier" and can emerge as a "counterweight" to China.

"When it launched its first rocket in 1963, India was a poor country pursuing the world's most cutting-edge technology. That projectile, its nose cone wheeled to the launchpad by a bicycle, put a small payload 124 miles above the Earth. India was barely pretending to keep up with the US and the Soviet Union. In today's space race, India has found much surer footing," the leading US newspaper said.

The article titled 'The Surprising Striver in the World's Space Business' notes that India has become home to at least 140 registered space-tech start-ups, "comprising a local research field that stands to transform the planet's connection to the final frontier."

"The start-ups' growth has been explosive, leaping from five when the pandemic started. And they see a big market to serve," the paper said.