The Hindu : Challenging times ahead

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 23, 2003

Opinion

Opinion - Editorials

Challenging times ahead

THERE IS A new man at the helm of the Indian Space Research Organisation. G. Madhavan Nair takes over an organisation that has earned itself a reputation for delivering on its promises. From small beginnings in the early 1960s launching imported scientific rockets for atmospheric studies, the Indian space programme has grown rapidly. This growth has been propelled by its founder Vikram Sarabhai's conviction that space technologies could help developing countries solve many basic problems. India's communication satellites, the Insats, make telephony from the far corners of this large country possible, broadcast TV signals, and relay weather data. More recently, these communication capabilities have been deployed for tele-medicine and to improve literacy and education. Indian satellites keep watch over weather systems and help track cyclones. The Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellites, many of which were launched by Indian rockets, provide data that are extensively used within the country and are increasingly being sold abroad as well. The low cost of IRS data has created a new industry in the country, which uses it for crop forecasting, environmental impact assessment, city mapping, land use planning and disaster management.

Mr. Nair, a veteran of the space programme almost from its inception, can justifiably take pride in all these achievements of the organisation he now heads. As with anyone taking on a large, ongoing enterprise, he will have to provide the leadership for reconciling the sometimes contradictory goals of giving continuity to ongoing programmes and preparing the organisation for change. There are already signs that ISRO cannot afford to rest on its laurels. In the lucrative and fast-growing communications field, a substantial part of India's space-based TV broadcasts and data communications is being provided by foreign satellites. If ISRO is unable to meet such demand or fails to market itself well, some of the world's leading satellite companies will only be too happy to carve themselves more of the Indian pie. As has already happened elsewhere in the world, the falling cost of fibre-optic cables is likely to become a major competitor to satellite-based communications. Although the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) is now available, the Insat satellites have grown in size and weight. The result is that many Indian communication satellites continue to be launched abroad at high cost.

Planning for the future is never an easy exercise in high-technology fields. It is even more difficult in space-related ventures where technology and hardware can take 10 years or more to develop. Some of the problems mentioned earlier perhaps ought to have been anticipated. Long term planning involves reconciling conflicting views and interests. In ISRO, there now seems to be a propensity for such decision-making to be centred on the chairman. In earlier years, ISRO itself showed it could harness the collective wisdom it possessed to anticipate events. Its early switch to a better chemical for making solid propellants is just one example of such foresight. Mr. Nair comes to his new job with a reputation for persuasive leadership. As project director, he saw the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) through its early flights. Although its first launch failed, the rocket has since become a reliable workhorse and can now launch a satellite one and a half times heavier than it was originally designed to carry. As the new chairman, it will be up to Mr. Nair to harness talent within and outside the organisation for charting a course that will enable ISRO to stand its ground in the years ahead.

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