It would be apt to strengthen the local engineering education system outside IITs and equip them with good financial and rigorous and serious intellectual resources and enhance confidence exponentially among students.
Published Mar 23, 2025 | 9:00 AM ⚊ Updated Mar 23, 2025 | 9:00 AM
K Kasturiranga, Satish Dhawan, G Madhavan Nair, UR Rao and S Somanath.
Synopsis: The Bengaluru-based space agency’s pioneers learned their basics at local engineering colleges, but catapulted Indian space research to a high pedestal, revered across the world.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has roughly 20,000 employees and less than 2.5 percent of its engineers, scientists and technologists are from the premier Indian Institute of Technology’s (IITs) and National Institute of Technology’s (NIT)s.
The remaining 97 percent are from local engineering colleges and universities that may have some reputation, but are certainly not as reputed, revered, and visible as the IITs. This is certainly not a matter of despair or disappointment, but one of remarkable hope, resilience, and inspiration.
This has an implication: no matter where you come from, if you have the drive, grit, conviction, motivation, some talent, and some luck of circumstance and people, you’ll make it in life and you may even make it big.
Undoubtedly, IITs conventionally speaking are a springboard for exponential success, though there are stories of many who couldn’t make it within the system, and fell by the wayside. There are also tales of some who made it not-so-big owing to the huge competition and population trying to get in.
While one should be aware of multiple sides to any story, it is also very crucial to recall and record stories of success to inspire and motivate oneself to do well – stories not only from IITs but also from local engineering colleges and institutions.
It is great if the ISRO leaders came from IITs (a few of them have, including V Narayanan, current ISRO chairman), but it is also fine if they didn’t.
What’s the evidence and inference? As many as 97 percent of ISRO’s scientific manpower coming from engineering colleges have catapulted ISRO to the world stage over the last 50 years and is now among the top five space powers globally.
ISRO is now an agency with its own highly successful satellite constellation and system in the world, the first space agency in the world to reach the Mars orbit in its very first attempt has launched a satellite around the sun, and among only five nations to execute an absolutely flawless moon landing via the Chandrayaan mission (although one of the missions crash-landed on the moon previously).
ISRO now has its navigational system like the GPS and is only the fourth agency in the world to achieve space docking and undocking technological capability (which happened recently in the SPADEX mission, where two satellites were set adrift in space and then brought together in a hug – or what we can call docking with each other, and then separated and undocked from each other).
The space research organisation is now preparing to send its astronauts on its launch vehicle (The Human Space Flight programme) and set up its own Space Station.
ISRO has also developed its own rockets and the cryogenic engine even if it took time (given sanctions against transfer of cryogenic technology technology and hesitancy from developed countries to part with the know-how).
While the evidence above reveals that ISRO’s manpower coming from regional engineering hubs has not stalled innovation, knowledge creation, adoption and comprehension, and development of cutting-edge space technology, it is also valuable to know the background of some of its greatest leaders and chairman. This gives us great insight into the immense possibilities that individuals from ordinary circumstances can create with their personal drive, convictions, and self-made intellect.
Take Satish Dhawan – the first chairman of ISRO. Dhawan graduated from Punjab Engineering College, in Chandigarh, and from Mughalpura Technical College in Lahore, Pakistan, undivided India, where he completed a Bachelor of Science in Physics and Mathematics, a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Master of Arts in English literature.
He turned into an exceptional mathematician and aerospace engineer and eventually came to be described as the father of experimental fluid dynamics research in India. In 1947, he completed a Master of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and an aeronautical engineering degree from the renowned California Institute of Technology followed by a double PhD in mathematics and aerospace engineering under the supervision of his advisor Hans W. Liepmann in 1951.
Dhawan’s journey began from Punjab Engineering College and touched Caltech, after which he returned to India and established the space programme along with Vikram Sarabhai and UR Rao.
Born in a poor family, Rao completed his secondary education at Christian High School, Udupi, and then Bellary, B.Sc. from Government Arts and Science College, Ananthapur, and M.Sc. from Banaras Hindu University and Ph.D. at Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, under the guidance of Vikram Sarabhai, before he went on to the colossal MIT, Cambridge, USA, for his post-doctoral with Bruno Rossi, NASA.
From Ananthapur, he came full circle to India to establish the space and satellite programme with Vikram Sarabhai and Satish Dhawan, and others.
Rao turned out to be one among the world’s top cosmic X- Ray scientists, heading right into the Satellite Hall of Fame, Washington D.C. Rao was the man who launched and taught the first courses at the world-renowned physics institution at Trieste, Italy.
Abdus Salam, the Pakistan space legend, famously said he would not launch and set up the institution at Trieste, if Rao would not come to teach the first courses.
K Kasturirangan, the brilliant and crisply articulate ISRO head, who did his schooling at Sree Rama Varma High School, graduated in science with honours from Ramnarain Ruia College, Mumbai, and obtained his Master of Science degree in physics from the University of Mumbai.
He did his Doctorate in experimental high energy astronomy in 1971, working at the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad. He has published more than 240 papers in the areas of astronomy, space science and applications.
The man from Mumbai was responsible for defining India’s most ambitious space based high-energy astronomy observatory, and made extensive and significant contributions to studies of cosmic X-ray and gamma ray sources and effect of cosmic X-rays in the lower atmosphere.
The ever affable, down-to-earth but incisive G Madhavan Nair, who graduated with a B.Tech. in Engineering from the College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram, of the University of Kerala with a specialisation in Electronics & Communication Engineering, apart from making contributions to rocket and satellite systems, was instrumental in launching India’s first moon mission, Chandrayaan-1, and the commencement of Indian Human Spaceflight Programme.
Meghnad Saha, the Indian astrophysicist, whose work was considered worthy of Nobel and set the base for Indian space experiments and systems, was a student at the Presidency College, Kolkata and Rajabazar Science College, Calcutta University.
Dr S Somanath, who was chairman of ISRO till recently, is a product of the TKM College of Engineering, Kollam, Kerala, and many of his colleagues graduated from the College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram (CET).
Later, Somanath went on to study at IISc. There are a few leaders from IIT and IISC like Dr. K Radhakrishnan – IIT Kharagpur (Ph.D), AS Kiran Kumar – IISc (M.Tech), and Dr. Sivan – IISc (M.E) & IIT Bombay (Ph.D).
The percentage of leaders from this background is minuscule – for a variety of reasons.
The perspective outlined above is not to suggest that IITs haven’t produced stars. They have, all over the place. NR Narayana Murthy, Nandan Nilekani, and Kris Gopalakrishnan in Bengaluru who changed the face of Indian tech capabilities, are from IITs. Bhavish Aggarwal who is crusading an Indian EV and AI initiative is from IIT, Prof Garud Iyengar spearheading the AI initiative at Columbia University from IIT Kanpur, Prof Raghuram Iyengar driving Marketing Research at Wharton Dr. Praveen, who moved away from IIT-Kanpur after a brief stint, to the US, has been working on engines and wings for frontline aerospace and aviation companies to enhance safety and performance of aircraft.
These are just some of many instances of what IITs have produced.
In the end, the lesson really is, all is not lost if students don’t make it to IIT. If you make it, great, if not, there are still opportunities if you have the drive and insight to put in the right effort and seek the right mentors.
The other lesson is crucial too – it is a practical issue – not all students can get into IITs – there aren’t that many seats and many may not be able to beat the competition.
It would be just apt then to strengthen the local engineering education system outside IITs and equip them with good financial and rigorous and serious intellectual resources and enhance confidence exponentially among students. This is feasible and this is the best bet for India and its students.
No wonder Shashi Tharoor famously said: “IITians went to Silicon Valley; CETians took us to the moon!” There is hope without a doubt.
(P Ramanujam is a science, space, and technology commentator. Edited by Majnu Babu).
