India,despite being a leading space-faring nation,and operating one of the six largest space programmes in the world,has developed little in terms of expressly documented national space policy over its 58-year history of space activity-besides two standalone policy documents primarily designed to address some operational policy issues pertaining to satellite communication services and use of remote sensing data.However,the Indian space programme,given its phenomenal technological advancements and operational maturity achieved over the decades,clearly exhibits evidence of having been continually and consistently guided,since its very inception,by a cohesive and consistent policy so far as its directional and strategic policy aspects are concerned.In other words,there does exist an apparent undeclared policy embedded in the Indian space establishment that has continued to inform and guide its strategic decisions and actions.The objective of the present case-study is to systematically describe the evolution of the national space policy of India,predominantly as implicit policy,as reflected by the key decisions and actions of the Indian national space establishment since beginning of the Indian space programme.This analysis strives to identify the directional and the strategic elements of policy as reflected by the decisions and actions of the space establishment,and the socio-economic,technological,political and institutional factors that have influenced such policies.
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