With the launch of the country’s first-ever imaging satellite, India’s national space agency ISRO has crossed a significant milestone that validates its all-round growth and technological prowess.
This defining moment, however, comes at a crucial juncture as it paves the way for the private sector to play a larger role in the lucrative yet strategic space domain.
The 2,367-kilogram Earth Observation Satellite, EOS-05, is said to be the heaviest single satellite launched by its Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV). Perched in the geosynchronous orbit at an altitude of about 36,000 km, acting as a veritable “eye in the sky”, it will monitor the Indian subcontinent, including its strategic assets, remote border regions, and severe weather events.
EOS-05 will be a game-changer as it gives India technological sovereignty and strategic autonomy by reducing reliance on foreign information and intelligence feeds. The real significance of deploying EOS-05 lies in the critical gaps it fills both in weather monitoring, especially extreme weather events, and defence-related tracking and surveillance of remote border areas, maritime activity, and strategic assets. Firstly, EOS-05 provides continuous, near real-time, high-quality visual coverage that will prove invaluable in proactive disaster management planning during sudden cloudbursts, severe cyclones, forest fires, and flooding, which are becoming more frequent due to climate change. Moreover, it can also be used for development-related applications such as natural resource mapping, precision agricultural planning, land usage monitoring, and ongoing environmental tracking across the entire country.
The latest launch brings special cheer for another reason as well, as it comes in the wake of a couple of launch vehicle failures in 2025 and 2026. The success will surely boost the morale of ISRO and its scientists, especially in the context of mounting uncertainty arising from the swift privatisation of the space sector and its impact on ISRO.
Even as the nation gained autonomy in one aspect, it faced a setback this year in the related area of positioning, navigation, and timing services due to an atomic clock glitch in one of four required satellites. India must now expedite the process of launching replacement navigational satellites to resolve this technical issue.
While there is bipartisan support for and celebration of ISRO’s achievements, political wrangling between the government and the Opposition over the strategy and pace of privatisation persists. Science Minister Dr Jitendra Singh hailed it as “Another giant leap for India in Space”. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge also lavished praise, but flagged serious concerns over the “radical reconfiguration” of ISRO by the Narendra Modi government. Recently, it was announced that manufacturing rockets would be handed over to private players, besides transferring over a total of 100 indigenous space technologies to the private sector.
The Opposition party has been an initiator, original votary, and implementor of liberalisation, privatisation, and globalisation since 1991, but remains opposed to what it calls the risk of strangulating and emasculating ISRO. It considers the attrition of highly valuable, experienced talent at ISRO and their movement to lucrative private space firms as a sign of institutional distress. The government justified its decision on the grounds that it was necessary for market expansion and to cater to growing demand. The government’s privatisation drive needs to be more calibrated, moving in tandem with private sector capabilities, while more investments are pumped into ISRO so that it can focus on advanced research and technology development.