BENGALURU, INDIA — It was reported in Reuters that India has successfully launched its first privately developed rocket, the Vikram-S, on Friday (18 Nov).
Until now, the state-run Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has had a monopoly on launching rockets in India but the country started to open up its space sector to private companies in 2020.
The 545-kg rocket, developed by an Indian startup company, Skyroot, took off from the Indian space agency’s launch site near Chennai and hit a peak altitude of 89.5 km before splashing down in the Bay of Bengal, about 5 minutes after launch.
The Karman line – set by an international aeronautics body as defining the boundary between the Earth’s atmosphere and space – is at 100 km altitude.
Skyroot was founded by Pawan Chandana and Bharath Daka. The company is said to be planning launches capable of delivering satellites starting next year. “Innovation and cost efficiency should be the two drivers for the industry.
Cost efficiency has already been achieved, and now we should look at cutting edge technology,” Chandana said.
“A small step for a start-up and a giant leap for the Indian space industry,” he added.
Founded in 2018, Skyroot is backed by Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC. It has raised 5.26 billion rupees (US$64.42 million) so far and employs about 200 people.
According to Straits Times, Skyroot is the “best-funded aerospace manufacturer in India”.
In September this year, the company successfully raised US$51 million of funding led by GIC. It was touted as the “largest funding round ever in the Indian private Space-Tech sector”.
With the investment, Mayank Rawat, Managing Director of GIC India Direct Investment Group who is based in Mumbai, would join Skyroot’s Board.
Investments By GIC
According to GIC, the Central Provident Fund (CPF) Board invests the CPF monies in the Special Singapore Government Securities (SSGS) issued by the government. GIC, along with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), then manages the proceeds from SSGS.
That is to say, the Singapore government borrows CPF monies from Singaporeans and Permanent Residents working in Singapore through the issuance of SSGS bonds and hands the monies over to GIC and MAS to manage.
“So while the CPF monies are not directly transferred to GIC for management, one of the sources of funds for the Government’s assets managed by GIC is the proceeds from SSGS,” said GIC on its website.
