New Delhi: The Indian Space Research Organisation is witnessing a surge in resignations due to low pay, and the private sector offering better opportunities to scientists. This has prompted the Centre to tighten rules around exits and voluntary retirements, said scientists who quit the government space agency in recent months.
It is the Centre’s policy of opening India’s space sector to private players that is now haunting ISRO. Space scientists are now turning to the roughly 400 new space startups, which promise better opportunities and pay.
Taking note of a spate of resignations in ISRO over the last year, the Department of Space (DoS) on July 14 issued an office memorandum, directing centres including the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) and the UR Rao Satellite Centre (URSC) to not accept routine resignations from Group-A scientists.
This category of scientists and technical personnel includes senior professionals, who are an integral part of important missions like the upcoming human spaceflight Gaganyaan, the setting up of the Bharatiya Antariksh Station and the Chandrayaan-4 lunar return mission.
“Of late, it is noticed that there has been a spate of requests for voluntary retirement and resignation from Group ‘A’ Scientific/Technical personnel of ISRO including those associated with the prestigious Gaganyaan and other important missions/projects, severely impacting the implementation of projects of national importance,” read ISRO’s memorandum, seen by ThePrint.
The order added, “In view of this, it has been decided that voluntary retirement and resignation requests from Scientific and Technical personnel associated with the Gaganyaan and other important Mission/ Projects may not be accepted as a matter of routine.”
DoS officials that ThePrint spoke to said that the order essentially means that every request for an early retirement and resignation by a senior scientist or a core member of “critical future missions” will first have to be cleared by the corresponding centre’s directors and then passed on to the ministry for a final decision.
Officials said, however, that the directive does not mean a blanket ban on resignations across the space agency. It is applicable to certain significant centres, including the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, VSSC, URSC, ISRO Telemetry and the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC).
“We, of course, cannot stop people from leaving. But the ministry will review resignation requests of core scientists, who are leading important missions,” an ISRO official told ThePrint.
The official said that while an exact number is not known, around 120 personnel, including senior scientists, have left ISRO in the last 12 months.
The most significant among the recent resignations was senior scientist Victor Joseph earlier this year. He was the project director of Launch Vehicle Mk-3, which is slated to carry the Gaganyaan Mission to space in February this year. Since then, at least two senior scientists associated to the Gaganyaan Mission have quit, according to ministry sources.
Low pay better private opportunities
Scientists who have recently quit ISRO said that the recent opening up of the space sector for private players has come as an opportunity for many, particularly young scientists.
“Since the Indian Space Policy 2023, many space startups have started coming up and these provide better creative opportunities and pay packages. This is an incentive, especially for the younger lot,” said a scientist, who left ISRO in 2024 to join a private company.
ISRO data shows that attrition numbers started increasing with more private players entering the sector in the lead up to the space policy.
Between 2018 and 2022, 381 scientists resigned from across ISRO centres. Similarly, 38 scientists quit the space agency for better opportunities from 2023 to mid-2024.
Among all the ISRO centres, the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Thiruvananthapuram and the Space Applications Centre in Ahmedabad—both among the most coveted centres of ISRO—have recorded the highest attrition. Meanwhile, the UR Rao Space Centre in Bengaluru has the lowest resignations.
Between 2012 and 2017, 289 scientists quit ISRO from 25 of its centres.
The situation remained the same ever since 2017, with only a minor improvement in 2023 and 2024 after missions like Chandrayaan-3 and Aditya-L1—India’s first mission to study the sun—were launched.
Data show that in 2023, ISRO had a staff strength of 9,337 group A or tier-1 scientists, 2,303 group B scientists, and 1,141 group C scientists, apart from its administrative staff.
(Edited by Aakriti Handa)