Opinion Falling to earth

From such morale-boosting highs,it has been quite a fall for ISRO. In 2010,two consecutive GSLV rocket launches turned out to be duds. Then,a couple of weeks ago,the government’s Department of Space banned four prominent former ISRO scientists,including its former chairman,accused of wrongdoing in a deal,from holding any government-related posts. The confidence at India’s space research organisation could not have plummeted any lower.

For decades Bangalore-based ISRO was a symbol of India’s self-reliance and its pride for the first-rate indigenous technology development. Support for India’s space programme transcended partisan politics and governments of every hue backed it through the decades. ISRO was not just another science organisation but a passionate mission where exceptional,motivated scientists converged and worked on innovations in sparse working conditions and with shoestring budgets.

ISRO was an organisation known not just for its high-calibre talent but also exceptional leadership. It is amongst a handful of global organisations that built and launched satellites,and at prices that make its competitors weep. But recently,a series of setbacks beg the bigger question: is ISRO in the doldrums because of India’s lack of articulation and formalisation of a space policy?

The controversy which has divided India’s scientific community is the government’s ban on the four space scientists including former ISRO chief G. Madhavan Nair in the face of a controversial deal. ISRO’s commercial arm Antrix Corporation signed a deal to lease transponder capacity on the valuable S-band spectrum for 12 years to a private company called Devas Multimedia for $300 million. That agreement was signed in 2005 but was cancelled by the government a few years later before it became operational.

Much mudslinging has followed. ISRO’s image has not taken such a beating since the “spy scandal” in the mid-’90s when two senior scientists,including Nambi Narayanan,were accused of leaking vital defence data from rocket and satellite launches to two Maldivian women,allegedly spies. Narayanan was jailed for 50 days and it was years before the charges were dismissed by both the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Supreme Court.

The ruckus over the Devas deal and the overall rut at ISRO hide the bigger picture: a lack of vision in India’s space policy,and an absence of coherence about national and commercial interests. As it launches multiple telecommunication and observation satellites,its moon mission and further planetary explorations,the space policy needs to span multiple dimensions.

From India’s scientific quest in the final frontier are emerging new technologies that are strategic to the country. A clear space policy can articulate the department and ISRO’s services for civilian use (satellite-aided communications,educational programmes,meteorology,and resources survey). A well-articulated policy can steer the space programme to become an economic growth driver,and even an instrument for international relations.

India’s space programme continues to provide special economic opportunities that need to be reviewed and put in the policy context of overall national interest. ISRO’s evolution will come when it works not only as a government organisation but also to one that has commercial interests.

Sridhara Murthy,one of the four scientists banned by the government for the Devas deal (which one estimate put at a

Rs 200,000 crore loss),is a bitter man following the blow-up. The former head of Antrix Corporation,who drives himself around in a second-hand Ford car,told this column that he had retired in September 2010 after 35 years of service at ISRO. “I’m a simple man,I dedicated my entire career to ISRO. It is painful to be judged and branded this way.”

There is no public sign yet of the government report that is to lay bare the secret details leading up to the scientists’ ban. Madhavan Nair,one of the four banned scientists,told a television channel that the space agency “has gone to the dogs”. ISRO insiders say that the agency is weighed down by big egos of scientists past and present,and that the controversy is the result of an internal affray. Despite all this sullying,the ISRO still has many strengths. Whether it can launch itself from the current setbacks is to be seen.

saritha.rai@expressindia.com