Lalit Shastri

After the grand and historic landing on Moon by Chandrayaan-3 Mission, India has become the first country to have landed on the South Pole of Moon. This is a huge leap in the sphere of space exploration and every space scientist, past and present, who has contributed to India’s space programme deserves every praise and salute.

In the backdrop of this success is the saga of a great journey of grit, determination and innovation by so many great scientists; and also transformation of leadership deficit into resolute leadership that has helped India’s space programme.

Looking back, one finds there are also gaping gaps that we should not turn a blind eye to in the present euphoria. It’s high time, ISRO that’s now a name to reckon with across the globe is formally instutionalised into a great institution. To know more on this count – just read on:

An application was filed on 13 May 2020 under the Right to information Act seeking the following information (The reply came 2- months later, i.e. well after the thirty day deadline under the RTI Act):

Date, month and year of the formation of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Also the copies of government of India orders for the following:

  1. Setting up Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Reply – ISRO was formed on 15″ August 1969.
  2. Rules and guidelines for the selection and appointment of Chairman Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Reply – Secretary DoS holds the position of Chairman ISRO (this is all in terms of rules and statutory position).

All the appointment orders of Chairman ISRO issued by the Government of India since the setting up of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Reply – Secretary DoS holds the position of Chairman ISRO. Orders are spread across various files and some of the orders are very old. Compilation of such records will disproportionally divert the resources of Public.

When an appeal was filed against this shoddy reply, the First Appellate Authority – a Jt Secretary with DoS, gave the following Reply:

“It is observed that the appellant had sought information w.r.t setting up of ISRO and details w.r.t. appointment of various Chairman of ISRO. The contents of the application, reply furnished by CPIO ISRO HQ and the appeal have been examined, and

I am of the opinion that the reply furnished by the CPIO on 28.07.2020 is in order, and I uphold the same. The appeal is decided accordingly.

My conclusion – ISRO is notional and there is no organisation set up by the Government of India by this name nor is there any order to make the Secretary DoS the ex-officio Chairman of ISRO. It is a fact that no one is ever appointed directly with ISRO. Every scientist ‘supposed to be working with ISRO‘ is in fact appointed for different units set up under the Department of Space. DOS Centres were created and their manpower allocation has been done by GOI office orders, after due ratification by Ministry of Finance.

All Directors of DOS centres report to Secretary, DOS. Hence, as per GOI norms, they are to be selected by a search committee from a set of applicants both from inside and outside DOS. As per GOI norms, these selections are to be ratified by Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC).

Therefore, prima facie, it appears that the vested interests have created the myth of ISRO and Chairman ISRO to subvert the GOI requirement of ACC approval for appointment of Directors of DOS Centres like Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Space Applications Centre (SAC), U R Rao Satellite Centre (URSC), National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), and Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC).

The mythical ISRO Chairman is expected to be reporting to Secretary DOS and hence ISRO Chairman’s appointment should be approved by the ACC. By another myth, Secretary DOS holds concurrent position of Chairman, ISRO and hence requirement of selection of Chairman, ISRO is assumed to be met.

Another lie that has been spread is that the Centre Directors report to Chairman, ISRO and they meet under the aegis of ISRO Council, a body without any locus standii. Hence, as they (Centre Directors) are kept two levels below Secretary DOS, their appointments are not to be ratified by ACC. In the process, they are at the mercy of a “fictitious ISRO Chairman”.

This irregularity was allowed to be proliferated since Satish Dhawan’s tenure as Secretary DoS. Hence, all appointments of DOS Centre Directors are illegal as they flout GOI norms. In fact transfer between centres is also illegal as they also need to be ratified by GOI.

Because of this apparent falsehood, there is rampant flouting of GOI norms.

Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR) was set up by Dr. Vikram Sarabhai in 1962 to carry forward the Indian Space Programme. This Committee was set up by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) under the Department of Atomic Energy. Dr. Homi Bhabha, was instrumental in creation of this committee.

“ISRO” website, on its page titled “Department of Space and ISRO HQ” states: “Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) was established in August 1969″ (ISRO has failed to produce any government of India order to validate this point). Their website goes on to state: “The Government of India constituted the Space Commission and established the Department of Space (DOS) in June 1972 and brought ISRO under DOS in September 1972.” It also says that the Secretariat of DOS and ISRO Headquarters are located at Antariksh Bhavan in Bangalore.

It should be noted that regardless of the pointer (by ISRO website) that ISRO was established in 1969, one has gathered that there is no speaking order by the government of India regarding the setting up of ISRO as an organisation. Question also arises, how could INCOSPAR, a Committee set up by AEC, be converted into an organisation under a separate department without a GoI order or the approval the Union Finance Ministry.
Actually, it is not INCOSPAR but actually the mother organization is Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, now an autonomous body under DoS, that was set up by the Sarabhai Trust. Much of the original recruitment was done under it. There is strangely no order constituting ISRO. There is only a Space Comission and a Dept of Space. It is one of the endearing mysteries and no one can unravel it.