Increasing rates of ISRO scientists leaving their posts and joining start ups

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Leading to formation of strict policies against voluntary retirements and resignations.

The Department of Space (DoS) of India, had reported on the 14th of July that there has been a significant increase in the rate of scientists and technical personnel that had opted for voluntary retirement and resignation from the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) causing significant human capital and knowledge loss for the organization.

Although no real number of people to resign had been provided by the organization; an estimate of around 100-120 personnel had been said to do the same. The Department of Space has also mentioned that the Grade ‘A’ personnel should under any conditions not be allowed to voluntarily resign and leave their stations without proper proceedings and permission from the department itself. They also said that any person be it scientist, engineer or technical personnel will have to get the allowance from their specific department head and then their request for resignation will be processed by the Department of Space. This strict rule is contradictory to the 2020 rule that allowed voluntary retirement and resignation to employees. The need for this strict law had been brought into action due to the recent instances of employees leaving their posts after working for a period of time and then joining private independent start ups which is causing a significant set back to the future missions/projects and also loss of information valuable to ISRO. An example of this can be seen in the resignation of Victory Joseph T, who had worked for a bit of time and then later joining a private start-up.

The most member resigning have been located from 2 projects centers named: UR Rao Satellite Centre (URSC) and Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC). This has caused significant loss to the information and human capital of the national space projects leading to the profit being slow in their processing and also causing private companies and start ups to develop and achieve their goals. India currently has around 400+ space start ups that generate revenue in millions.

This situation of scientists and employees leaving their posts for monetary benefits is causing great loss to the National space organizations leading to the strict formation of this new policy that restricts resignation of higher grade personnel, protecting valuable assets of the nation.