ISRO's Exodus: Space Crisis, Staff Crisis

ISRO is losing people faster than it can hire them. Around 100 scientists and engineers have resigned or taken voluntary retirement recently, with the bulk of the exits from URSC, ISRO's satellite hub, and VSSC, its rocket-making centre. More worryingly, the agency's on-roll strength is now lower than it was in 2001-02, even as its workload has multiplied with Gaganyaan, Chandrayaan-4 and-5, and Venus and Mars missions on the table. TOI's Chethan Kumar, who broke both stories, joins Anirban Chowdhury to unpack what's really driving the attrition, why the private space boom is only part of the story, and what it means for India's space ambitions. You can follow Anirban Chowdhury on his social media: X and Linkedin Check out other interesting episodes like:ET Deep Dive: Swipe Left on Reality,India wants manufacturing at 25% of GDP — will AI in factories help?, Tanay Kothari Wants To Kill The Keyboard, From Doer to Director: The LinkedIn Playbook for the AI Agea, Semaglutide Goes Generic: Big Pharma’s Moat Breaks and much more. Catch the latest episode of ‘The Morning Brief’ on The Economic Times Online, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, JioSaavn, Amazon Music and Youtube. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.