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July 22, 2026

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Why are scientists leaving India’s national space agency – and will tighter exit rules keep them there?

As India’s private spacetech sector takes off, competition for its most experienced scientists is raising questions about how the country can build a thriving commercial space industry without hollowing out the institution that helped make it possible.

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BENGALURU: The Indian government has moved to make it harder for some of its top space scientists to leave the country’s national space agency, after more than 100 scientists and technical staff resigned or took voluntary retirement from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in recent months.

Last week, the Department of Space tightened rules governing voluntary retirement and resignations by scientists working on critical missions such as Gaganyaan, India’s first human spaceflight programme. An internal memorandum dated Jul 14 cited a recent “spate” of exit requests that was delaying projects of national importance, according to news agency ANI.

ISRO Chairman V Narayanan told local media that departures were “part of every organisation” and that the move would ensure critical projects “don’t suffer all of a sudden”.

The tighter rules come as India’s private space sector enters a new phase of growth, with industry leaders saying competition for highly specialised talent is intensifying.

On Saturday (Jul 18), spacetech startup Skyroot Aerospace became the first private Indian company to successfully launch a privately developed rocket carrying satellites into orbit from Indian soil. The Hyderabad-based firm was founded by former ISRO scientists.

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(Third from left) V. Narayanan, ISRO Chairman, (extreme right) Pawan Goenka, IN-SPACe Chairman, (centre) Skyroot cofounders Pawan Chandana and Naga Daka, pose with a model of the Vikram-1 rocket following the successful launch of Skyroot Aerospace’s Vikram-1 rocket into orbit (Photo: REUTERS/Priyanshu Singh)

“The Indian spacetech industry has matured. There are now hundreds of space companies and these are no longer just looking for engineers. They need people who have managed complete space missions. For decades, that expertise has been built inside ISRO,” Abhishek Raju, former co-founder of Indian geospatial intelligence company SatSure, told CNA.

The developments have raised broader questions about whether tighter exit rules can retain critical expertise, and whether India can build a thriving private space industry without hollowing out the institution that helped make it possible.

THE EXPERTISE STARTUPS CAN’T BUILD OVERNIGHT

For decades, India’s space programme was almost entirely synonymous with ISRO, said Raju.

“With the recent reforms and post pandemic venture capital (influx), companies (in the spacetech industry) that had 20 or 25 people before the pandemic now employ 150 or 200,” said Raju, who is also shareholder and mentor to other space tech companies like Bellatrix.

Unlike software startups, space companies require expertise that often takes decades to acquire, from systems integration and propulsion to programme management and launch operations, experts said.

“The only legitimate source for us is ISRO,” Raju said. Scientists who have spent years at the agency bring not only deep technical expertise, but also experience managing complete space missions – skills that startups cannot quickly replicate, he added.

A security guard stands behind the logo of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) at its headquarters in Bengaluru, India, June 12, 2019. (Photo: Reuters/Francis Mascarenhas)

Sanjay Nekkanti, founder and CEO of Dhruva Space, a space engineering solution provider, said the industry’s reliance on former ISRO expertise is a natural consequence of how India’s strategic sectors have evolved.

“For decades, much of this expertise resided within ISRO, DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation), defence laboratories and public sector enterprises because these were the institutions entrusted with developing India’s strategic technologies,” he told CNA.

He added that retired ISRO scientists continue to mentor engineering teams and contribute to product development at Dhruva Space, alongside experts who have worked at NASA and the European Space Agency.

While there are no comprehensive figures tracking the movement of scientists from ISRO to private companies, Raju said startups have become increasingly attractive destinations for experienced talent. They offer not only competitive salaries, but also leadership roles, employee stock options and the opportunity to build technologies at a faster pace.

An Economic Times report in Mar 2025 said Indian spacetech startups were recruiting former ISRO scientists to strengthen leadership, commercialisation and global expansion.

“They’ll probably do more work in one year than what they would have done in five or seven years,” Raju said.

CAN TIGHTER EXIT RULES RETAIN TOP TALENT?

The tighter exit rules reflect growing concern over the loss of experienced scientists, but industry leaders argue that making it harder to leave will not, on its own, solve the problem.

Raju said the government’s concerns are understandable.

“The government has invested in creating this talent pool,” he said, noting that scientists working on flagship missions represent decades of specialised knowledge and experience.

This photograph taken on July 7, 2026 shows a Vikram-S rocket model at Skyroot Aerospace facility on the outskirts of Hyderabad. (Photo: Noah Seelam/AFP)

Losing senior personnel midway through critical projects could disrupt mission timelines and continuity, he added.

But Raju argued that restricting exits alone is unlikely to retain talent.

“When somebody has decided to leave, nobody can stop them,” said Raju.

He suggested measures such as longer transition periods for critical roles, consulting arrangements or allowing scientists to spend a few years in the private sector before returning to ISRO.

Such arrangements would allow expertise to circulate across the ecosystem while preserving institutional knowledge, Raju added.

Druva Space’s Nekkanti agreed that the solution lies in strengthening collaboration rather than limiting movement.

“The relationship between ISRO and industry is one of co-creation,” he said.

While ISRO continues to pioneer frontier technologies and national missions, private companies can industrialise those innovations, manufacture them at scale and bring them to commercial markets, he added.

LESSONS FOR INDIA

The debate over ISRO’s talent movement also raises a broader question: What should India’s long-term space ecosystem look like?

In mature space economies such as the United States and Europe, public space agencies increasingly work alongside commercial companies rather than carrying out every aspect of a mission themselves, said SatSure’s Raju.

The NASA logo is seen at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the United States, April 16, 2021. (Photo: Reuters /Joe Skipper)

“If you look at NASA, ESA (European Space Agency), that’s how it works,” he said, noting that India should move in the same direction.

Rather than treating private companies as suppliers, ISRO should increasingly see them as partners, he added.

That partnership model is already taking shape, according to industry leaders.

“The growth of India’s private space sector and the movement of talent across the ecosystem are natural outcomes of the sector’s expansion. This should not be viewed in binary terms,” said Shweta Rajpal Kohli, president and CEO of the Startup Policy Forum, an industry body working with startups, including spacetech firms, on public-policy matters.

She likened it to India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) – the country’s instant payments system – where public infrastructure laid the foundation, while private companies drove innovation.

“The objective should not be to view talent movement as a zero-sum issue, but to ensure that both parts of the ecosystem become stronger over time,” she said.