India’s space policy overhaul aims to transition ISRO from manufacturing to frontier science and strategic technologies, fostering a burgeoning private sector while safeguarding critical capabilities.
Jairam Ramesh’s accusation that the Modi government is “strangulating and emasculating” the Indian Space Research Organisation captures the political heat around India’s space reforms, but it overstates the case. What is under way is not the sale of ISRO itself, but a deliberate shift in which the agency moves further towards frontier research, deep-space science, human spaceflight and strategic technologies while industry takes on more of the routine production and commercial work.
According to the policy framework set out in 2020 and formalised in the Indian Space Policy 2023, non-government firms can now operate across much of the space value chain, including satellite manufacture, launch systems, ground infrastructure and data services. The arrangement gives NewSpace India Limited responsibility for commercial activity, IN-SPACe the task of authorising and encouraging private participation, and the Department of Space overall oversight. The key distinction is between privatisation and industrialisation: ISRO remains the national agency, even if it no longer makes every mature system itself.
That distinction has become more concrete with statements from IN-SPACe chairman Pawan Goenka, who has said ISRO will eventually stop manufacturing launch vehicles. The change is already visible in the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle programme, which has been moved to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited for end-to-end production. The wider ambition is to build a larger domestic space economy, with the government aiming to lift the sector from about $8.4 billion to roughly $44 billion by 2033.
The reform, however, carries real risks if it is handled too quickly. Space programmes depend on tacit knowledge built through testing, failures, quality control and mission operations, and that expertise is not automatically transferred with a technology package. If ISRO loses design authority, systems engineering skill, testing depth and mission-assurance capability, industry may not be ready to fill the gap. That is why reports of departures by experienced personnel from key centres such as the UR Rao Satellite Centre and the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre have drawn attention, even though resignations alone do not prove a hollowing-out of the agency.
India’s private space sector is expanding fast, with companies such as Skyroot Aerospace, Agnikul Cosmos, Pixxel, Dhruva Space, Bellatrix Aerospace and Digantara building launch, satellite and tracking capabilities. The government has also backed the ecosystem through seed funding, technology-adoption support and access to test facilities. Yet the model will work only if the state remains an anchor customer, keeps critical launch and satellite infrastructure under public control where needed, and sets clear rules on technology transfer, liability, safety and regulatory oversight. In that sense, the challenge is less about whether ISRO survives than whether it remains strong enough to guide the system it helped create.
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