Premium

Opinion Express View: ISRO’s latest success, an example to follow

That India’s space agency is among only a handful of countries to dock two satellites in space is no longer surprising.

ISRO’s success needs to be learnt from, replicated and spread widely.

January 17, 2025 07:07 AM IST First published on: Jan 17, 2025 at 07:04 AM IST

The Indian Space Research Organisation has added another feather to its cap with the Spadex mission, successfully docking two satellites in space. Docking is a critical capability without which India’s future space projects, including the setting up of a permanent station in space or landing of human beings on the Moon, would not be possible. The immediate utilisation of this capability would be required in the Chandrayaan-4 mission which is supposed to bring back samples from the Moon.

The fact that the ISRO is only the third or fourth space agency in the world to accomplish a certain feat is no longer a reason for surprise. In the last few years, it has firmly established itself as one of the leading space agencies of the world. From here on, it would be its failure that is unanticipated, not its success. Thanks to the spate of capabilities acquired and demonstrated by the agency in the last few years, India is comfortably placed in the top bracket of countries in terms of at least one of the technologies expected to reshape the global order in coming decades. Artificial Intelligence, quantum systems, clean energy are some of the other technologies that are likely to decide a country’s fate and well-being in the immediate future. Unlike space, however, the gap between India’s capabilities and the front-runners in these technology domains is significantly large.

Scientists often attribute the success of the space and nuclear establishments in the country to the relative freedom that the ISRO and the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) have enjoyed in deciding their plans and programmes, recruitment and expenditure. The political class has generally approved of, and backed, the decisions taken by the scientific community. Of course, there are other factors contributing to their success, but as India makes efforts to close the gap on critical and emerging technologies, several scientists talk about recreating the ISRO and DAE models for other key scientific groups or departments. Building ISRO or DAE-like institutions for other key sectors in science might be easier said than done, but it might be worth the while to evaluate the main factors behind their success and assess whether some of these principles can be applied in other areas. The critical technology sectors which are likely to emerge as the key drivers of the Indian economy and form the backbone of its strategic self-reliance need support, nurturing and some special liberties. ISRO’s success needs to be learnt from, replicated and spread widely.