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gives greater short-term visibility and therefore beer career progression for the staff. R&D requires patience and the use of brain power. Success is slow in coming and not guaranteed. Commercialization of capabilities It should be noted that ISRO is just a part of the Department of Space, which is the main body akin to NASA. However, because of its size and the nature of its growth, it is easy to confuse ISRO with DOS and use the acro- nyms interchangeably. DOS has two other units which are not a part of ISRO. ese include Antrix Corporation Limited, ACL, and NewSpace India Limited, NSIL. e laer should not be confused with NewSpace India, which represents an informal consor- tium of private Space entrepreneurs. ACL is dubbed as the commercial arm of ISRO and is engaged in providing Space products and services to international cus- tomers worldwide. It is really the commercial arm of DOS, but it uses all ISRO facilities and manpower to further its business. Started as a one-and-a-half person organization, housed in ISRO headquarters, it relies heavily on the Space organization without any benefit to it in terms of sharing profits or even funding research there. In short, ISRO is forced into PRESCRIPTION FOR ISRO Internal restructuring and discontinuation of all operational activities Comprehensive Space policy based on inputs by industry and user communities Focus on advanced launchers, payloads and ground systems for Earth-re- lated applications, Space Sciences and humans in Space programs Structural reforms and strengthening of research and exploration operational and commercial tasks through ACL, neglecting its mandated role of R&D, much to its detriment as explained above. NSIL was set up recently with the "pri- mary mandate of enabling Indian industries to scale up high-technology manufactur- ing and production base for Indian Space Program." Both ACL and NSIL are wholly owned Government of India entities under the administrative control of DOS. It seems that while ACL is to market ISRO products and services abroad, NSIL is to encourage industry to scale up to meet ISRO require- ments of high technology manufacturing. It is clear from the above information that the vision of DOS viz-a-viz private industry is one of managing contractors for ISRO requirements and not one of encouraging independent co-travelers. In order to realize the independent participation of private industry in Space activities, the government needs to look beyond ISRO-DOS. Structural reforms & strengthening of research and exploration To be able to bring the policy statement to reality requires a major overhaul of govern- ment led Space activities. Only then will the promises be realizable. e first need is of a Space policy, which is hanging fire for long. Such a policy is needed to encourage a vibrant space industry inde- pendent of ISRO-DOS. Such a policy must emerge from the Space industry and user com- munities, and not be driven by ISRO-DOS. One such dra by an organization, Takshashila Institution, needs to be considered seriously. Secondly, ISRO needs to be restruc- tured by removing all operational activities including their related facilities and services. All services should be with ACL. e huge facilities in ISRO funded by the government should be made into national Space tech- nology fabrication and testing assets which are open to both ISRO-DOS and Industry impartially. NSIL should be repurposed to manage these assets on behalf of the Govern- ment of India. ISRO should concentrate on advanced launchers, payloads and ground systems for Earth related applications, Space Sciences and Human in Space programs. While inter- action with ACL and NSIL will be necessary, it should be on strictly commercial terms as applicable to other co-travelers. Scalability of societal impact One of the very interesting ideas that has been posted recently is the possibility of independent industries to meet the needs of the defense forces independent of ISRO, which is essen- tially a civilian organization. It is also possible that private communications service providers could fund communications satellites using the MEO, as is happening in the rest of the world, maybe for 5G services for example. e same could apply for Remote Sensing constellations. e government should break away and do only those things that industry cannot do. ese include developing advanced technol- ogies and systems for healthcare, education, Space sciences and humans in Space. Leave the industry to find its own way and do their own thing guided by an enabling Space policy which should be reviewed and modified from time to time in consultation with all stakeholders. Prof. Arup Dasgupta Managing Editor arup@geospatialmedia.net www.geospatialworld.net | May-June 2020 22 IN PERSPECTIVE

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