June 11 (Reuters) - Indian space startup SatSure Analytics secured a 246 million rupee ($2.57 million) grant from the country's space regulator on Thursday, to develop AI models for Earth observation as part of a wider push towards building sovereign AI capabilities.
Governments worldwide are increasingly investing in domestic AI and geospatial intelligence systems to curb dependence on foreign technology, as satellite data becomes critical in areas such as climate management, disaster response and national security.
India has opened its space sector, historically led by the state-run Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), to private firms, and launched a 10-billion-rupee fund to help space startups scale up.
The Bengaluru-based SatSure said the grant will help support the development of large Earth observation models using satellites and drone data tailored to India to improve accuracy over global models, which could often struggle with local conditions.
The data collected will include monsoon patterns, agricultural landscapes and urban expansion, among others, and could be deployed in multiple sectors such as infrastructure and finance, the geospatial analytics firm added.
"Earth observation is moving from project-specific analytics to reusable intelligence infrastructure," SatSure's co-founder and chief technology officer, Rashmit Singh Sukhmani, said, adding that these models could help build decision-making systems that better reflect India's geography, climate dynamics, agricultural diversity and infrastructure requirements.
The funding also supports SatSure's participation in India's partnership programme to develop a commercial satellite constellation.
($1 = 95.7400 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Urvi Dugar in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)
