Curbing talent exodus: It’s deja vu for Indian Space Research Organisation
ISRO is currently facing a talent retention challenge similar to the mass exits seen in the 1990s due to the booming IT sector. Experts note that the agency's rigid recruitment processes struggle to compete with the private sector's rapid hiring models.
Why it matters
The brain drain of scientific talent to the private sector poses a significant risk to national space missions and long-term research capabilities.
As the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is in the news for issuing a memorandum aimed at deterring scientists and engineers attached to important missions from quitting, the space agency, in fact, is reliving a nightmare from the 1990s.
This is perhaps the second time in its history that ISRO is faced with the task of containing mass exits. The first instance was in the early 1990s, when the information technology (IT) boom and campus recruitments dealt a blow to ISRO which was then on an expansion mode.
“Nobody could anticipate it. It was a big crisis back then. Many senior hands left ISRO for the IT sector,” recalls E.K. Kutty, who retired in 2005 as Director (Programme Planning and Personnel Policy) from the ISRO headquarters in Bengaluru.
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