India has carved out a reputation as a reliable low-cost option, relying in part on its famed skill of "jugaad" -- creating a cheap alternative solution.
Experts say much of its credibility stems from India's successful launch of the Mars orbiter, which gave it an edge over its rivals in the space race.
"India is proving to be a very viable option because of the cost and the reliability factor," said Ajay Lele, a senior fellow at the Delhi-based Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses.
"India has been doing these launches successfully and has established itself as a very reliable player."
Mathieu J Weiss, a liaison officer for France's CNES national space agency who is currently in India, said ISRO had pulled off a major feat. "It's a great technical challenge to launch so many satellites at once into orbit on the right trajectory so that they don't make contact with each other," he told AFP.
Weiss said India had become a major player in the space race by making itself so competitive with its low costs and by working with private companies which are space specialists. "India has become a space power in its own right in recent years," he added. Last June, India set a national record after it successfully launched a rocket carrying 20 satellites, including 13 from the US. The 50-year-old space agency plans to send four more rockets into space later this year ahead of its second lunar mission Chandrayaan-2 slated for 2018. Modi has often hailed India's budget space technology, quipping in 2014 that a rocket that launched four foreign satellites into orbit had cost less to make than Hollywood film "Gravity".
COURTESY: Arun Sankar (AFP)
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