The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Sunday rejected reports and speculation that it was being privatised or that its role was being reduced, calling the assertions “completely baseless and incorrect”.
“ISRO will neither be privatised nor will its importance be diminished,” the space agency said, asserting that it would continue to remain India’s principal institution for advanced space research and technology development, national and strategic missions, space science and exploration.
The clarification came after nine ISRO employee associations sought clarity over reports that some of the space agency’s core functions could be shifted to the private sector, raising concerns over the policy, its implementation and its implications for the existing workforce.
ISRO said the ongoing space-sector reforms were aimed at expanding India’s space ecosystem, with the private sector taking up the production and scaling of mature technologies while the agency focused on advanced research and next-generation missions.
“What is changing is not the importance of ISRO, but the scale and structure of India’s space ecosystem,” it said.
The agency said mature launch vehicles, routine satellites and other established systems could increasingly be produced by industry or public sector undertakings through competitive processes. This, it said, would allow ISRO to devote more scientific manpower and resources to frontier research, advanced technologies, human spaceflight, next-generation launch systems and deep-space and planetary missions.
The employee associations had raised concerns following remarks attributed to IN-SPACe chairman Pawan Goenka that ISRO could eventually stop manufacturing launch vehicles, with private companies or PSUs taking up production.
Goenka, in posts on X on Sunday, also said the reforms were not aimed at diminishing ISRO, which would remain “the bedrock of the Indian space sector”.
“The reforms since 2020 are about expanding India's overall space ecosystem. The idea is to let industry increasingly manufacture and scale mature launch vehicles, satellites and other systems,” he said.
ISRO said the reforms, initiated in 2020 and institutionalised through the Indian Space Policy 2023, were intended to create a larger and globally competitive space ecosystem, with industry, start-ups and academia participating across the space value chain.
The agency said its focus would increasingly be on major national missions, including establishing the Bharatiya Antariksh Station by 2035 and undertaking an Indian crewed mission to the Moon by 2040.
(With inputs from PTI)
