'Isro’s role won’t diminish': Agency allays concerns over privatisation
ISRO said private-sector participation would enable the agency to focus on the next generation of India’s space programme while industry matures technologies.
Two days after nine associations representing thousands of Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) employees sought clarity on the privatisation of the space sector, IN-SPACe chairman Pawan Goenka and Isro on Sunday said the space agency’s role would not diminish.
Isro said neither it would be privatised nor its importance diminished. (@ISRO/Representational)
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Goenka said there had been “some misleading narrative” in the media about Isro’s future role. “Let me say it unequivocally: ISRO’s role is by no means diminishing. It will remain the bedrock of Indian space sector. The reforms since 2020 are about expanding India’s overall space ecosystem,” he said in a post on X.
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The employees’ associations had written to the Department of Space secretary and Isro chairman V Narayanan seeking clarity after Goenka said that “eventually, ISRO will not make any launch vehicles and will not manufacture any launch vehicles. That will all be done by the private sector or PSU.”
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The employees’ associations had written to the Department of Space secretary and Isro chairman V Narayanan seeking clarity after Goenka said that “eventually, ISRO will not make any launch vehicles and will not manufacture any launch vehicles. That will all be done by the private sector or PSU.”
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The associations sought clarity on whether Goenka’s statement represented government policy, besides asking about the transfer of Isro’s manufacturing and operational functions, the agency’s future role and the impact on serving employees and future generations.
Isro, in a separate post on X on Sunday, said neither it would be privatised nor its importance diminished.
The agency said private-sector participation would enable the agency to focus on the next generation of India’s space programme while industry scales mature technologies.
Isro said its “role will progressively strengthen in areas where its scientific expertise matters most: frontier R&D, advanced technologies, human spaceflight, next-generation launch systems, deep-space and planetary missions and strategic national capabilities.”
“Meanwhile, 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,” said Isro.
Snehal Fernandes is senior associate editor, who joined HT in 2006. She heads the Mumbai edition’s city reporting team that writes on civic and urban governance, transport and infrastructure, health, and education. She is also the National Science Editor. With a career spanning more than two decades, her expertise lies in writing on science and technology, space, environment, sustainable development, climate change, and nuclear energy. Her work consistently breaks down, and without oversimplyfying, science and research developments into an easy read for a broad audience. In 2009, she was among the very first journalist to report on the opposition to the Jaitapur nuclear power plant in Ratnagiri (Konkan) following the Indo- US civil nuclear agreement and consistently followed it with multiple stories from ground zero; wrote about the introduction and subsequent halt to the cultivation of genetically modified (BT) brinjal, and has interviewed Nobel laureates and award winning scientists. In 2012, she was awarded ‘The Press Club Award for Excellence in Journalism’ (Political category) for reports on the mining scam in Goa. Prior to HT, she wrote on education and transport at the Indian Express. She graduated in sociology from St Xavier's College, and firmly believes in the phrase by Karl Marx that ‘Religion is the opium of the people’. When she is not keeping a tab on the going-ons in Mumbai and the scientific world, you'll find her reading world news, or watching crime/espionage series or political dramas. She can repeatedly watch Kill Bill with the same interest as Planet of the Apes and Spiderman. For someone who was not remotely interested in dogs or cats, she loves every bit of her time with her two-year-old Indie cat Bunny.
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