ISRO Chairman V Narayanan has told staff that the space agency is not being privatised and will remain India’s principal public institution for advanced space research. At the same time, he stressed that the country’s space economy needs to expand and private companies must play a larger role.
The distinction is central to India’s space reforms. Public institutions can handle strategic missions and frontier research while private firms build launch services, satellites, downstream applications and manufacturing. IN-SPACe and NewSpace India Limited separate facilitation and commercial activity from ISRO’s core scientific role.