'Leave ISRO ALONE!'

'I don't think the government will sacrifice such a fine institution for monetary gains.'

It all started with a comment by Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) Chairman Dr Pawan Kumar Goenka.

ISRO, Dr Goenka said, would eventually stop manufacturing launch vehicles, and the production would be taken over by the private sector or the PSUs.

Angered by the comment, nine employee associations, representing thousands of staff at ISRO asked for a written clarification from ISRO Chairman Dr V Narayanan.

Even though Dr Narayanan addressed the employees soon after, they were not happy as they felt he did not answer the questions raised by the employees.

"You cannot undermine ISRO. Without ISRO, they cannot have the remote sensing launches or the satellite communication launches," retired ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair tells Rediff's Shobha Warrier in the concluding part of a two-part interview.

• PART 1: SENSATIONAL! Who In Delhi Stopped The GSLV Launch?

These days, you meet a lot of entrepreneurs with dreams of becoming space entrepreneurs. What is your opinion of them?

I think if even one company breaks even in the next five years, I will give them a gold medal right away!

They are being misguided. That's what I would say.

Space is a huge industry, and there are already big players in the field. Unless you bring in an innovative idea or an innovative application, you cannot make money.

I think four or five of them are concentrating on rockets and propulsion.

Some of them are making subsystem components and other things. So, it is not a big game.

I think that ecosystem has to grow.

When the number of missions for ISRO or the nation increases, you require more and more launch vehicles and satellites. Creating a supply chain for that is a good idea as the components and subsystems have to be produced in large numbers.

Once they fructify in the Indian context, they can compete in the international market also.

Of course, they have to concentrate on the application side. That is where the big money lies; developing new application technology.

Do you see any idea that is interesting, out of all the space enterprises we have today?

I think they are all repeating what ISRO has already done.

Look at the recent satellite launch which is nothing but what we (ISRO) had demonstrated 50 years back.

What is the fun in reinventing the wheel?

You mean they start with what ISRO had done decades ago when they should start from where ISRO is today?

Yes. For example, ISRO has plans to develop large booster reusable launch vehicles and space station and things like that.

They should tie up with ISRO in that direction. They should take on from where ISRO is today. They should build up further on that.

Every entrepreneur in the space field dreams of becoming another Elon Musk....

It is a good idea! But Elon Musk had $5 billion dollars from NASA. Will the Indian government give that kind of money to any of the startups?

Do you feel the current confusion resulting out of the news of privatising undermines what ISRO is doing?

You cannot undermine ISRO. Without ISRO, they cannot have the remote sensing launches or the satellite communication launches.

Industry has to depend on ISRO for at least several more years until some startup comes and makes a huge rocket. Right now, there is no competition to ISRO, and ISRO is not worried about that at all.

What I'm worried is, the startups are not told about the intricacies of space technology, its potential, and where the real niche areas are. There is no clear understanding on this among these start-ups.

This has to be debated. There has to be a national level debate on where the energy of the start-ups should be focused.

ISRO had launched more than 200 foreign satellites, and the income from that is hardly $400 million which is not really great.

It is in the field of application that you can make money, like in the communication area, remote sensing area, using remote sensing data for various services like agriculture, disaster management, infrastructure development, etc. These are the real niche areas.

There are reports that there is a shortage of engineers at ISRO and senior, experienced people are moving to the private sector...

It is not true. In fact, ISRO has increased the number of launches by bringing in industry more and more.

Without increasing manpower, you cannot do all these. It is not only the current missions, but ISRO is carrying out the research and development of Gaganyaan, the mission to Venus, the next mission to Moon, and so on.

All these activities are going on parallelly.

In an organisation of 15,000 strong, 150 people leaving is nothing.

Even in the IT industry, I understand there is more than 10 per cent attrition rate. Here, it is not even 1 per cent. So, where is the question of some people leaving affecting the ISRO's programmes?

IMAGE: Dr Madhavan Nair. Photograph: Kind courtesy Dr Madhavan Nair

So, you are not worried about ISRO's future?

ISRO is moving in the right direction, and ISRO should be left to perform as it was doing in the past.

You should leave ISRO to perform as usual instead of creating unnecessary controversies.

'In every field, the Chinese have overtaken NASA'

If you look at America and NASA, the criticism against a businessman like Elon Musk is that he is in a way trying to destroy NASA.....

I think NASA is already destroyed. It has become a contract signing agency rather than a development agency. Because of the so-called industrial policy, NASA has lost all its strength.

At one time, it was the world's biggest technical storehouse and innovation centre. Today, it is nothing but a secretariat office. It just writes contracts. Even for writing contracts, they engage consultants rather than doing it themselves.

So, we cannot follow the NASA example.

Look at the Chinese, they are going it in a strong way.

They have got a Chinese space agency, which is doing everything. They have got a fleet of satellites, they have got a navigation system, they have got a space station, they have got larger rockets as comparable to what NASA is having or even better.

In every field, the Chinese have overtaken NASA.

'If we follow the NASA route, ISRO will be finished'

Do you think ISRO will go the NASA way?

If we follow the NASA route, ISRO will be finished.

Elon Musk is the biggest operator in the world. But what he has done? He floated a company with $300 million. Then he got contract from NASA for $5 billion for developing the rockets.

It is the public fund, which is being made use of by Elon Musk.

Out of that, he made a huge profit. And he reinvested the profit in various other fields like automobiles, communication, social media and so on.

And he has become the number one billionaire in the world. He is a smart operator, and the smart operation was done at the cost of public money and American public.

Do you want India to follow that model?

That is the worry many people have now. What do you think?

I don't think there is any move at the government level in that direction.

I don't think the government will sacrifice such a fine institution for monetary gains.

Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff