Tag: India and the Second Space Age

  • Wrote a Chapter in a Space Book

    I am happy to announce that my chapter, “The second Space Age is here. Where is India’s place in it?” has been published in India and The Second Space Age, a new e-book released by The Hindu Group.


    For decades, India’s space program operated strictly under the Sarabhai doctrine, focusing on frugal engineering and immediate socio-economic utility. Today, however, we are navigating the complex transition from a state-led monopoly into a hybrid ecosystem. The book brilliantly captures the rockets, rivalries, and unfinished rules of this frontier, exploring everything from the nuances of dual-use technologies to the legal ambiguities of cross-border liabilities in orbit.

    In my chapter, I take a look at how India is engineering its position within this new global landscape. I unpack our strategy: the deliberate shift where ISRO transitions into a high-end R&D engine, handing over mature, operational technologies to a maturing private sector. I explore the geopolitical implications of India’s decision to sign the Artemis Accords. By choosing this commercially driven, decentralized framework over the China-led International Lunar Research Station (ILRS), India made a strategic choice. I don’t think we signed only an Accord; we pre-qualified our private startups to plug directly into a multi-billion-dollar global supply chain.

    The e-book is available for free to digital subscribers of The Hindu Group or can be purchased on Amazon. If you are interested in the strategic intersection of deep tech, global commerce, and national policy, I highly recommend checking out the entire collection. I would love to hear your thoughts on India’s trajectory in the comments!

    Thanks to Vasudevan Mukunth for the opportunity to write. I feel great to have contributed to a work with so many great space writers and thinkers.

    I also loved the cover!

  • Weekly Notes 15/2026

    If you create a Wikipedia page, you’ll see many red links. Red links represent topics that should have pages but are not created yet. Nowadays, Wikipedia mainly links to existing pages, and there are not many red links.

    This week’s Weekly Notes will have a lot of red links today but will get filled in as the week goes by.

    We completed three Ashtavinayaks in the circuit after Siddhivinayak, that I had written about last here. These were Ballaleshwar, Varadavinayak, and Chintamani. We have now completed 5 out of the 8 temples that makeup the Ashtavinayak circuit.

    Cover of the book, India and the Second Space Age. Courtesy: The Hindu

    I contributed one chapter to an ebook that was put together by The Hindu, called India and the Second Space Age. If you are a digital subscriber to The Hindu, you get this and many such wonderful ebooks for free. You can also buy it from them here or from Amazon.

    I donated a bunch of books to the public library in Pune. These were fiction and non-fiction books that were read by my family members including my son.

    Major news from this week include NASA’s Artemis II mission around the Moon generated some interest and not a lot. People were definitely worried about the war in West Asia. ISRO also did the Integrated Air Drop Test. India achieved an important milestone with the criticality of the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR).

    I asked, “How often can I write blog posts?” on social media. No one answered. So, I asked Gemini. Gemini said a post a week was professional and a post a day may make it look like you’re desperate for attention.

    Most blogs I follow have a lumpy posting schedule. Many posts around the time when they travel or when things happen and then several days of silence.

    As time has passed, I also notice this silence in their social media presence. I guess life happens during these periods of social media silence.

    I hope to write about these in the upcoming week while also celebrating Vishu, our New Year’s.