Government, Opposition spar over future role of ISRO

The government and the Opposition sparred on Monday (August 24, 2026) over the future of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), with Congress general secretary (communication) Jairam Ramesh raising concerns over a reported privatisation push in the space sector, and Union Minister of State Science and Technology Jitendra Singh asserting that the country’s space programme was being “scaled up”, not scaled back.

Reports about ISRO’s future role had raised “legitimate concerns”, given the capabilities built by the organisation over six decades under scientists, including Vikram Sarabhai, Satish Dhawan, Brahm Prakash, U.R. Rao and A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Mr. Ramesh said.

ISRO’s role in rocket development and manufacturing could be “severely limited”, he alleged, adding that a substantial part of its satellite-related assets could be transferred to private companies. He also questioned the reported plan to hand over the second spaceport being developed at Kulasekarapattinam in Tamil Nadu, for which ISRO is investing about ₹1,000 crore, to a private company.

There have been news reports in the past couple of days on ISRO's future role in our country's space programme. This has raised legitimate concerns given its capacities, capabilities, and competencies built up so methodically and painstakingly over the past six decades thanks to…

“The future of the historic Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh is itself anybody’s guess,” Mr. Ramesh said, questioning what he described as an attempt to “strangulate and emasculate” ISRO.

He acknowledged that space startups deserved encouragement, and said ISRO had long maintained productive partnerships with the private sector. He also claimed that 100-120 key ISRO professionals had left the organisation in recent months, “perhaps seeing the writing on the wall”.

Responding to Mr. Ramesh, Dr. Singh accused the Congress leader of being determined to “run down every Indian achievement”, and said the facts showed that India’s space programme was expanding through a wider ecosystem involving ISRO, industry, and space startups.

“ISRO is not being weakened. It is being enabled to concentrate increasingly on the frontier missions — Gaganyaan, Chandrayaan-4, the Bharatiya Antariksh Station, and future missions to the Moon, Venus and Mars,” the Minister said.

As India targets 50 launches a year, industry would have to emerge as the manufacturer at scale while ISRO focused on developing next-generation technologies and missions, Dr. Singh said. He described this as the “natural evolution” of the space programme.

Citing the expansion of private participation, he said India now has more than 440 space startups, and referred to the July 18 launch of Skyroot Aerospace’s Vikram-1, which he said was the first privately developed Indian rocket to reach orbit.

“That is not ISRO’s legacy being diluted. That is ISRO’s legacy bearing fruit,” Dr. Singh said.

The government was targeting a $44-billion space economy, requiring private rocket factories, satellite manufacturing facilities, and a deeper supply chain, alongside ISRO’s research and frontier missions, he said. The government’s model, he added, was “ISRO and industry together”, rather than ISRO versus industry.

Sriharikota would remain central to major programmes, including PSLV, LVM3 and human spaceflight, while Kulasekarapattinam would add capacity for the growing small-launch sector, he said.

Dr. Singh also cited the increase in foreign satellites launched by ISRO from 35 before 2014 to more than 430, and Chandrayaan-3’s successful landing near the Moon’s south polar region, to highlight what he described as the results of the government’s space strategy.