Chandrayaan Mission: Time for ISRO to Relaunch Antrix With New-age Focus

ISRO's commercial arm Antrix got into an international legal quagmire which continues to be a drag on its progress.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched India's third lunar exploration mission, Chandrayaan-3, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh's Sriharikota at 2.35 pm on Friday, 14 July 2023.

(Photo: PTI)

Failures can be a pain but they cannot stop the march forward. When the sky is the limit, literally, you need to brush off earthly scars as badges of honour.

I was present at Sriharikota in 2001 for what would have been an exciting launch of India's GSLV space rocket meant to launch heavy-duty satellites, a big step forward from the lighter launch PSLV variety. As we stood in keen expectation, nothing happened. I reported the failed take-off for an international news agency. ISRO made up for the lost chance soon enough.

Last week, as the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) Chandrayaan-3 rocket took off smoothly, making me see on TV a sight I missed 22 years ago, I looked back at the two decades that showed at least three blips in the track record, but what a fruitful journey into space this has been. From PSLV to GSLV and then on to a rocket that orbited the moon and then a rover that actually landed on Mars there's a lot that ISRO's slogging scientists can be proud of.

The Road to Chandrayaan-3

It was in 1963, sixty years ago, that India fired its first modest rocket from the then Trivandrum, one year after an official space research programme was launched. ISRO was born six years later as a development agency. The first Indian satellite, Aryabhatta, was launched in April 1975, even as Prime Minister Indira Gandhi faced unruly opposition protests leading to her controversial Emergency rule two months later.

The direction of the journey and milestones in the sky hide the hurdles on the way.

The facial innocence of the scientists matching eager schoolchildren sharply contrasts their capabilities that speak of engineering gravitas, a sight as enchanting as that of the cryogenic engines firing off giant rockets matched to mathematical precision.

ISRO successfully launched a lunar orbiter in 2008 with the Chandrayaan-1 mission, and in 2014, the Mars Orbiter Mission became probably the most prestigious feather in ISRO's cap to date. India became the world's first country to insert a spacecraft into the Martian orbit in its very first attempt.

However, in 2019, the Chandrayaan-2 mission lost contact with its Pragyan rover after it successfully hosted the Indian tricolour flag on the moon's surface. We wait with bated breath as this is being written to see whether Chandrayaan-3 would pick up from where its predecessor left off.

Antrix and Devas Multimedia

However, let's also count in a huge commercial setback amid scientific landmarks, involving ISRO's commercial arm, Antrix Corporation. Between the GSLV's startup failure in 2001 and Chandrayaan's lost rover in 2019, ISRO's commercial arm Antrix got into what can only be called an international legal quagmire, which continues to be a drag on its progress.

A corruption-scarred Antrix venture with Devas Multimedia resulted in an ugly dispute in which an international arbitration court awarded $562 million in damages to Devas. Earlier this year, the Delhi high court ruled in favour of Antrix against the arbitration award, citing a Supreme Court order on Devas as the ground.

In 2005, Antrix had signed a deal with Devas Multimedia under which it was to build and operate two satellites and use their transponder capacity while Devas was to provide multimedia services to mobile subscribers in India. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's UPA government terminated the contract in 2011 after evidence of corruption, resulting in an upset Devas going to the arbitral tribunal at the International Chamber of Commerce that asked Antrix to pay up $562 million to Devas with interest.

Antrix believes the ICC tribunal's damage award violates Indian laws and public policy principles. However, on record, as Antrix's auditors noted last year, pending litigation amounting to about Rs 6,400 crore continues to dog the commercial arm. The auditors noted, "a material uncertainty exists that may cast significant doubt on the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern."

The Devas deal was a messy one, and more important, stood in the way of opportunities for ISRO and Antrix. Antrix, once intended ambitiously as a global satellite launch venture that would do to space launches what India's IT services giants did to their global counterparts, has been muted in its ways though it has been profitably serving sectors like entertainment and telephony, besides various space and satellite ventures.

In the 2021-22 financial year, hit by Covid, the company's turnover slumped to about Rs 182 crore from Rs 654 crore in the previous year, but Antrix still reported a profit of Rs 25 crore, down from Rs 55 crore.

Given the number of billion-dollar science and tech startups bearing the "Unicorn" tag that mushroomed in India during Antrix's scandal-scarred years, it is disheartening to see ISRO's commercial arm stymied by a bureaucratic approach to its ambitions.

Governmental Support to Antrix

What Antrix deserves next is an inspired lift-off matching Chandrayaan-3. Just as Chandrayaan-2's setbacks did not deter ISRO's scientists, Antrix needs support from the Modi government for a fresh launch for its commercial arm.

What is perhaps needed are financial engineering and restructuring measures that would protect Antrix from bearing the burden of what only a few of its executives did in the past so that India can be a global development services player using satellite and space technology. As I see it, Antrix can be an Infosys or Wipro for countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America in doing anything and everything to do with satellites or rockets.

India has a wide array of companies in the education, financial and development sectors that can partner with Antrix.

While Western rocket ventures by tycoons like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Richard Branson focus on glamorous acts like space tourism, Antrix can be a counter-brand to show how ordinary people in the Global South can benefit from India's capabilities.

Maybe the government can ring-fence Antrix's core operations through a sovereign guarantee and/or use its growing international diplomatic clout to avoid legal bullying of an Indian company. Transparently and ethically formed joint ventures and private equity funding for special-purpose vehicles featuring Antrix are other options.

Whatever the detail, it is time for Antrix to find its mojo in the sky.

(The writer is a senior journalist and commentator who has worked for Reuters, Economic Times, Business Standard, and Hindustan Times. He can be reached on Twitter @madversity. This is an opinion article and the views expressed are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)