India's space sector wants the government to spend more on space-based services, slash taxes to spur growth of start-ups and introduce a production-linked incentive scheme for them in the Union Budget. The sector has put forward its demand ahead of the Union Budget for 2025-26 on February 1. The Indian space economy is valued at 8.4 billion dollars and the private sector has just about started making a mark by building satellites and launch systems eyeing a manifold increase over the next decade. "Probably something like a production-linked incentive scheme for the space sector would be helpful from a budget standpoint. A lot of infrastructure development needs to be done for space as well. So, if it can be incentivised for companies to set local manufacturing, that would be great," Pixxel Space co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Awais Ahmed told PTI. The Indian Space Association (ISpA) Director General Lt Gen A K Bhatt (retd) demanded import exemptions, lower GST, and tax ...