New Delhi: The Indian Space Research Organisation clarified Sunday evening that speculations of its privatisation and reduced role were “baseless and incorrect”. The statement came after the ISRO Staff Association wrote to the space agency’s chairperson V Narayanan seeking clarity on its future direction.
“We wish to categorically state that ISRO will neither be privatised nor will its importance be diminished,” ISRO said in its statement. “ISRO will continue to remain India’s principal institution for advanced space research and technology development, national and strategic missions, space science and exploration, and critical and frontier space capabilities.
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 earlier handled by ISRO. The letter quoted IN-SPACe chairperson Pawan Goenka’s latest comments on how, going forward, ISRO will not manufacture any launch vehicles.
Goenka also issued a clarification reiterating ISRO’s line.
He said that IN-SPACe will facilitate and authorise greater non-government participation, while NSIL—the commercial arm of ISRO—will help commercialise mature capabilities. This, in no way, will diminish the role of ISRO, he clarified.
“The idea is to let industry increasingly manufacture and scale mature launch vehicles, satellites and other systems, while ISRO focuses on what it is uniquely placed to do: advanced R&D, scientific missions, strategic missions, new technologies, and infrastructure that is too complex for the private sector to develop on its own,” he said.
ISRO’s stand
In its statement, ISRO said that the space agency will only be moving toward bigger research and developmental activities, including spearheading India’s very own space station, the Bharat Antariksh Station, and more science-driven missions such as Chandrayaan-4, the Mars Orbiter Mission-2, and the Venus Mission in the coming years.
“It will continue developing cutting-edge technologies, including advanced payloads for communication, navigation and Earth observation, sensors, propulsion systems and other critical technologies,” the statement read.
ISRO added that mature and routinely manufactured systems can increasingly be scaled through industry.
“Production of mature launch vehicles, routine satellites and other established systems can increasingly be undertaken by industry or PSUs through appropriate competitive processes,” the statement said.
(Edited by Prasanna Bachchhav)
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