ISRO head,former chiefs differ on deal

The first public evidence of cracks in ISROs firmament came on February 8 when Radhakrishnan,at a press conference to explain the credentials of the deal,seemed to send out the message that it was not all to his liking especially its commercial aspects.

Radhakrishnan implied that ISRO chairmen who preceded him namely Kasturirangan 1994-2003 and Nair 2003-2009 should answer for certain aspects of the deal like the Deutche Telecom investment in Devas Multimedia and the failure to explicitly tell the space commission and the Union Cabinet that two satellites were being given exclusively to Devas.

While the deal when signed was in tune with ISRO policy to promote new and novel applications of space science with private partners,Dr Radhakrishnan said there was no explicit reference of Devas when ISRO went for approval of GSAT 6 and 6A to the space commission and the Cabinet.

On Deutche Telecom picking up 17 per cent stake in Devas Multimedia with an investment of Rs 323.25 crore in August 2008,he said: Dr Kasturirangan should answer it. They Deutche Telecom were not in the picture when the contract was signed on January 28,2005.

Radhakrishnans position stood in contrast to the views held by the previous two chairmen that the deal will allow use of new technology for development,that there was no anomaly of process since the usual course of action to lease ISRO transponders to private players where Cabinet and space commission approvals are not sought had all been adhered to in the Devas deal.

Kasturirangan has argued that there was value in the deal when negotiations began during his tenure in 2003 since DEVAS technology for digital multimedia broadcast services is a creation of a consortium of top designers of communication systems from around the world.

Nair,who oversaw the signing of the deal on January 28,2005 and much of its evolution,is of the view that the Space Commission and the government were made aware of the requirements under the deal as required orally at meetings but not explicitly in the written form.

There was no mandatory requirement for reporting such contracts to Cabinet. However,the Space Commission had been kept informed orally on progress of all ISRO activities from time to time. Devas contract is one of hundreds of activities reported in a year, he said.

The Antrix Devas deal,talks for which were first initiated in March 2003 with Forge Advisors a US based space business consultancy that later became Devas sailed through the tenures of Kasturirangan and Nair. It began experiencing turbulence shortly after Nair who had a more open approach to managing ISRO stepped down and Radhakrishnan who has brought a more reserved style became chairman in November 2009.

Both Radhakrishnan and Nair have laid store for their arguments on internal reports generated during their respective tenures. The former has relied on the B N Suresh Committee report to emphasise anomalies in the process of implementation of the deal while the latter relied on the K N Shankara report to argue that there was nothing amiss.

When contacted,Radhakrishnan declined to speak on the issue.

Retired,but still closely associated with ISRO

Given their vast experience,former chairmen of ISRO invariably find their knowledge and acumen ploughed back into ISRO in some form or the other. Three former chairmen of ISRO ,including K Kasturirangan and G Madhavan Nair,are still attached to ISRO in some way.

Dr Kasturirangan while he does not have an office at ISRO he is the head of a seven-member programme review and strategy committee appointed by current chairman K Radhakrishnan to look into i the future of the GSLV programme and assured launch for INSAT/GSAT series,INSAT-3D as well as Chandrayaan-2: ii realisation and operationalisation of indigenous Cryogenic Stage; and iii strategy for meeting the demands of communication transponders in the immediate future.

Madhavan Nair has an office at ISRO as a distinguished Vikram Sarabhai professor and heads 11-man expert Failure Analysis Committee set up by ISRO to i carry out an in-depth analysis of the flight data of GSLV-F06 and the data from the previous six flights of GSLV; ii establish reasons for the failure of GSLV-F06 flight; and iii recommend corrective actions on the GSLV vehicle including the remaining one Russian Cryogenic Stage.

Retired ISRO chairman Prof U R Rao has an office in ISRO as the chairman of the Physical Research Laboratory that is attached to the space agency.