India, July 23 -- Lowering launch costs through high-payload capabilities, indigenous production of critical space-grade components, and unlocking the downstream satellite data economy will be crucial for India to emerge as the world's third-largest space economy, a senior DoT official said on Wednesday.

Department of Telecom, Member (Services), Deb Kumar Chakrabarti emphasised the need for structural reforms, policy changes and greater innovation in the space segment as India moves ahead on its global ambitions in the sector. Citing a slew of government initiatives that have made the space sector attractive for companies, he said a proposed PLI with a corpus of around '600 crores "is coming up very soon".

On the policy front, the offic...