ISRO seeks to ease concerns over India’s space privatization push

India's space agency ISRO said it would remain the country's leading space institution after its staff association raised concerns about plans to transfer certain activities to private and state-run companies.

India is one of the world's leading spacefaring nations.

The Indian Space Research Organisation has sent a spacecraft to Mars, landed near the moon's south pole and developed its own launch vehicles. It is also preparing for the country's first crewed spaceflight.

"ISRO will continue to remain India's principal institution for advanced space research and technology development, national and strategic missions, space science and exploration, and critical and frontier space capabilities," the agency said in a post on X on Sunday.

It added that the organisation would "neither be privatised nor will its importance be diminished".

The statement followed a Sept. 4 staff association letter, reported by media and also reviewed by Reuters, in which some ISRO employees sought clarity from ISRO Chairman V. Narayanan over reports that manufacturing and operational responsibilities currently handled by the agency is transferred to companies.

Staff also sought clarity on recent statements about privatising some ISRO activities, saying there had been no formal communication from the Department of Space, which oversees the agency.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has sought to expand private-sector participation in India's space industry since opening the sector to private companies in 2020. Industry has increasingly taken on rocket manufacturing and other activities previously dominated by ISRO.

A consortium led by state-run Hindustan Aeronautics and Larsen & Toubro is producing ISRO's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, while the government has transferred technology for the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle to HAL as part of that push.

"ISRO's role is by no means diminishing. It will remain the bedrock of Indian space sector," said Pawan Goenka, chairman of space regulator IN-SPACe, which also helps in building private industry engagement in the space sector.

"The reforms since 2020 are about expanding India's overall space ecosystem," Goenka said.

-Reporting by Nivedita Bhattacharjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Michael Perry/Reuters