New Delhi: Two days after the Indian Space Research Organisation’s Staff Association wrote to the space agency’s chairperson, V Narayanan, expressing concerns over the organisation’s privatisation plans, the members clarified that they are not against private players entering the space industry. They added that they simply want ISRO to clearly communicate its future direction to its employees.
An office bearer of the ISRO Staff Association told ThePrint on 6 September that members simply want to know that if the government is now planning on outsourcing tasks such as rocket building and technology development to private companies, what would ISRO’s role be in the coming years.
“Tell us clearly, what would ISRO’s role be in the coming years? Would there be job cuts? Do you plan to close down centres? We need to be involved in these conversations,” the office bearer said on the condition of anonymity.
On 4 September, the Staff Association sent a five-page letter to Narayanan, who is also the secretary of the government’s Department of Space, requesting clarity on recent statements regarding the privatisation of various activities that were earlier handled by ISRO.
The letter quoted IN-SPACe chairperson Pawan Goenka’s latest comments on how, going forward, ISRO will not make or manufacture any launch vehicles. That will all be done by the private sector or PSU, he said.
“These statements have received wide national publicity. They have not, however, been accompanied by any corresponding official communication from the Department of Space to its employees explaining the approved policy, its legal and administrative basis, its phasing, or its consequences for the existing workforce and for future public recruitment,” the letter read.
The letter has been signed by nine representatives of various ISRO employee associations linked to major centres including the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Satish Dhawan Space Centre, and the UR Rao Satellite Centre.
Loss of jobs in ISRO?
ISRO scientists and administrative staff told ThePrint that there has been no official communication regarding the space agency’s plans to transfer launch vehicle design and manufacturing to the private sector.
An office bearer of the VSSC said that if the private sector were to take over launch vehicle manufacturing and design, at least 50 per cent of the workforce is expected to lose their jobs.
“ISRO was built as a national scientific institution with public funds, public purpose and a public workforce. Launch-vehicle design, realisation, integration, testing and launch operations are not merely ‘manufacturing contracts’. They are the core competence, institutional memory and strategic capability of the organisation,” the letter read.
The letter added, “A progressive withdrawal of ISRO from launch-vehicle and satellite realisation will tamper with experiments after research, shrink in-house work, freeze or reduce sanctioned strength, and close promotion and skill development avenues in technical, scientific, administrative, stores, purchase, quality, safety and industrial cadres.”
The association clarified that the employees were not completely hostile towards privatisation of space activities, but there needs to be an integration that ensures the relevance of its existing staff and centres is not lost.
“This aggressive push for privatisation will be a death sentence not just for hundreds of employees but also for your space industry, which has been carefully constructed by scientists like us for decades,” the VSSC official said.
(Edited by Insha Jalil Waziri)