India restricts the ability of space agency employees to leave due to recent exodus
The effort of India’s government to defeat private enterprise
Turf war! In what will eventually be a useless and counter-productive dictatorial action, the Indian government has issued a directive restricting the ability of employees of its space agency ISRO from retiring or resigning, an action taken due to a recent exodus of between 100 and 120 engineers, scientists, and managers, many of whom left to take jobs in India’s nascent but growing private space sector.
In a memorandum issued on July 14, the Department of Space (DoS) directed major ISRO centres, including the UR Rao Satellite Centre (URSC) and the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), not to routinely approve resignation or voluntary retirement requests from Group ‘A’ scientific and technical personnel associated with the Gaganyaan mission and other “important missions/projects”. Instead, such requests will require scrutiny by the Department of Space before a final decision is taken.
…Under the new directive, all resignation and voluntary retirement requests from scientific and technical personnel, including those at and below the rank of scientist and engineer, must be forwarded to the Department of Space along with “clear recommendations” from the respective centre directors, who will no longer have the authority to routinely clear such requests.
Multiple news reports from India today cite a recent spat of resignations and retirements, with many of those exiting employees getting jobs in private industry, with the most notable that of former ISRO chairman S Somanath, who has taken a position on the board of directors of the rocket startup Agnikul, which hopes to launch its own reusable rocket at some point in the future.
The government claims it has taken this action to make sure it doesn’t lose critical ISRO employees needed for its Gaganyaan and space station government projects, both of which are facing delays and technical challenges.
This directive will likely fail, however, for two reasons, both of which might in the long run be beneficial to India. First, young people just out of college will see it and decide it is better to get jobs in the private sector right off the bat. Why work for someone who will try to turn you into a serf who can’t leave? Second, it will guarantee an even greater exodus over time, as ISRO employees who want to leave will now take aggressive action to get out, as soon as they can. In both cases, the directive will encourage people to work for private industry, not the government.
At the same time, this directive suggests the government and ISRO is now taking action to squelch that new private sector. This order will limit the commercial industry’s ability to hire experienced ISRO people, thus slowing its development.
Similar actions were taken by NASA in the 2000s and 2010s when the agency began its transition to the capitalism model. There was great resistance within the government to ceding power to the private sector, resistance that still exists and showed itself again during the Biden administration. That government effort in the U.S. however has largely failed, because the public has elected a government (Trump and the Republicans in Congress) that favors the private sector, and because the private sector is getting the job done.
How things will play out in India remains unknown. Its administrative state is much more powerful, and its cultural traditions are not grounded as much in private enterprise, as is the U.S.
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India is a fledgling space power…and this is comparable to non-compete clauses. I have seen small municipalities worry about training deputies and having them go right back to a steel mill when things pick up again.
In the U.S. working for Elon isn’t going to hurt Space Force. In the “Global South” (I hate that term) even a podunk airline can crater El-Supremo’s five-man Air Farce….though one could make the case that zoopark acquisitions with MiGs, Mirages, and F-4s cost them more over time.
Over here, airlines are happy with USAF funds training pilots so they don’t have to….so this is likely about economies of scale.
Now, is this a nice thing? By no means.
In China, they use space efforts to determine which political leaders can do the most with fixed funds–but that might hurt them down the road because that can kill in house capability… something even Jared is learning to acknowledge.
India is even more vulnerable–especially since tax funds likely go to training folks who could walk out the door and hop a jet overseas.
With any luck, this decision will be overturned….for the time being—if you take the king’s money, you march to the king’s drumbeat.
That sounds vaguely familiar. There was a news story or two a few weeks ago about the Canadian government imposing an “exit tax” on citizens who decide to move to another country.
I am unfamiliar with the rights of the individual in India. Can they force people to work against their will and a job they do not desire? (but of course, they are democracy, and the will of the many can in slave the few by a simple majority vote)
British born are serfs, citizen rights are only for nobility. (The king owns his children)
French constitution outlines the “rights of the many are Paramont over the rights of the individual”. (I had a coworker, 40 years ago, that the uniformed French Foreign Legion came marching into the building and proceeded to apprehend this person because he was “born in France” to a French Mother, and now had been drafted… He had to give up his French citizenship to avoid going to Angola)
In China, human rights is “not a right” but a condition based upon the will of the CCP party. All born there, or born to a Chinese national are considered “property of the people“ to be used and disposed of at the sole discretion of the people. (CCP) You cannot give up your Chinese Nationality when you come to United States, “a slave cannot declare it’s self free”. That’s why there a Chinese police departments throughout the country to regulate it’s citizens if they believe themselves to be free and not do the will mandated on all Chinese citizens, especially those allowed to travel… harsh repercussions for those not spying and collecting data for the party. if they refuse to comply, then they find new uses for the individual including organ donation. They can claim dual citizenship like John Boehner‘s wife, but China will always have 51% ownership! No exceptions.
Israel has conditions/demands on its dual citizens. Their are questions of loyalty in the house and senate over this debate. (another bill to stop funding of Israel was just introduced, we may hear something about it from the president speech tonight, along with the House passing of the “save America act” that was hidden in the defense bill)
Rumors of the world economy about to collapse will make all these issues seem trivial, agenda 2030? We are living in interesting times.