India needs to launch the space act it keeps scrubbing

India needs a Space Act. It needed it yesterday!The country opened its space sector in 2020, created IN-SPACe to authorise and regulate their activities, and subsequently put in place the Indian Space Policy 2023 and a framework for non-governmental entities. The industry is growing under this framework, with a constellation of startups, private investment and an expanding list of authorised space activities.But the overarching legislation that gives this framework statutory backing is still missing. That gap is no longer a technicality. It raises basic questions about the powers of the regulator, the process by which authorisations are granted or withdrawn, the rights of companies facing regulatory action, liability when something goes wrong, insurance and financial guarantees, ownership and transfer of space assets, and how India discharges its international obligations when private entities conduct space activities.The absence of a law could have once been conceived as an inconvenience.