The alumni of India’s prestigious chain of engineering colleges, the government-run Indian Institute of Technology(IIT), are among the CEOs of global firms and hold top positions in various domains. However, the same IITans comprise less than 1 per cent of the workforce at the Indian space agency ISRO.
“Our(country’s) best talents are supposed to be engineers from IITs. But, they are not joining ISRO. If we go and try to recruit from IIT, no one joins,” ISRO Chief Dr. S. Somanath said in a recent television interview. He also mentioned that the space agency was not getting the best of talent and that IITans comprise less than 1 per cent of those working at ISRO.
Following the Chandrayaan-3 mission, it was widely talked about that a vast majority of the scientists and technocrats who worked on the mission were those who had graduated from lesser-known engineering colleges.
On the Chandrayaan-3 success, Parliamentarian from Thiruvananthapuram Dr. Shashi Tharoor said in the Lok Sabha, “If IITans went to Silicon Valley, CETans (alumni of College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram) took us to the moon.” He was referring to the contributions of the alumni of unsung engineering colleges in various parts of India, and how such people worked on the Chandrayaan-3 mission.
“We must proudly salute these alumni of unsung engineering colleges… they serve the public sector with dedication and are the backbone of national enterprises like ISRO”, Dr Tharoor said in parliament. Many of his colleagues echoed the sentiment and listed out the scientists who hailed from lesser-known academia in their respective constituencies.
Referring to the exceptional cases of IITans joining ISRO, Dr. S. Somanath said, “Few passionate IITans who think space is important, such people join.” Sharing an example of an ISRO team that went to recruit talent from an IIT, Dr Somanath mentioned that 60 per cent of students left the hall after seeing the highest pay that they could earn at the Indian Government-run space agency. “The career ambitions of those joining IITs are different,” he said in the interview.
While he said that ISRO was not attracting the best talent, the space agency Chief admitted that the organisation has adequate talent to carry out the work they are performing. However, he also referred to the diversity and vast availability of scientific talent in India.
Indians who get an opportunity to write the IIT entrance (and get in) go there. Thousands and lakhs of such people who have that kind of competency are not getting this opportunity. I am one of them – when I was a student, I never had an opportunity to write an IIT entrance exam or go to an IIT,” he said smiling.
“But (my having not gone to IIT) doesn’t mean that I was naive or not knowledgeable,” he said in the interview.
A vast majority of the scientific talent at ISRO earn their engineering degrees from lesser-known academia. However, as they rise up the ranks within ISRO, they have opportunities to pursue academic courses and PhDs at top-tier Government-run institutions such as the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru and the IITs.
Notably, the Director of ISRO’s lead centre Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre(VSSC), Dr. S. Unnikrishnan Nair, completed his PhD from IIT Madras’ Mechanical Engineering Department. So did Dr. Veeramuthuvel, Project Director of Chandrayaan-3. At present, Dr S Somanath, Chairman of ISRO, is also pursuing a PhD from the same Department at IIT Madras.
According to the Office of Alumni and Corporate Relations at IIT Madras, 12 alumni of the institute contributed towards Chandrayaan-3 and more than 140 of them serve ISRO. Recently, the Institute conferred its highest recognition ‘The Distinguished Alumnus Award’ to twelve ISRO scientists and technocrats who had completed their respective courses there. To their credit, the IITs directly contribute to the space programme by performing theoretical studies, and lab analyses, providing scientific payloads for space missions and studying the scientific data obtained from the sensors.
At the IITs, high-quality engineering courses are offered at a reasonable fee structure, all thanks to the Indian taxpayer. However, one is left wondering why the IITans don’t opt in large numbers for a career at ISRO and similar government-run organisations. Perhaps, a significantly better pay structure and career growth opportunities for the science talent at ISRO and related organisations could help attract the best talent.
It is a well-established fact that ISRO scientists earn only a fraction of their counterparts in the Western world and when compared to those in certain private sector jobs in India. Perhaps, an unfavourable view of government work culture, bureaucracy, gradual growth prospects and other factors are dampening the spirits of IITans, who may wish to join the government-run science and technology organisations.
“At the IITs, almost everyone gets placed through campus recruitment even before graduating. Therefore, it’s very rare for anyone from IITs to apply for ISRO’s Central Recruitment Board (ICRB), which is its primary mode of recruitment and requires candidates to take an exam followed by interviews. This is one of the main reasons why very few IITans end up joining ISRO,” reasons Pawan K Chandana, an IITian, who also worked with ISRO and now runs Skyroot Aerospace, the firm which launched India’s first privately-built sub-orbital rocket.
During his final months at IIT Kharagpur, ISRO was among the recruiters who had come to campus. Pawan and three others from his batch were the only selected candidates. Looking back at this, he recalls, “ISRO has limits on the number of individuals that can be hired from campus, unlike the large numbers hired through ICRB. There is also a pursuit of higher salaries in the IIT culture, resulting in only a few individuals with a real passion for space choosing to join ISRO,” he adds.
It is not just ISRO that has very few IITans on board, even IIT-Madras incubated launch vehicle firm Agnikul Cosmos has a minuscule number of IIT B.Tech grads. “At the time of campus placements, IIT B.Tech grads are in their early twenties and salary packages are a top priority. The best B. Tech grads often go abroad for their masters and don’t sit for placements. In our own firm, of the 200 personnel we have, there are only a couple of IIT B.Tech grads and a handful of IIT M.Tech grads. Also, those getting into aerospace must not just be good engineers, it is imperative to accept delayed gratification,” Srinath Ravichandran, who runs Agnikul Cosmos told WION.
He also mentions that those working on rocketry must be able to work on a problem for years and have the determination to stay through and solve it. Generally, the top paymasters are the ones who get the first slots at IIT recruitments. Therefore, when ISRO does recruit directly from campus, they may not get the first slots, he feels.
Irrespective of which college a person went to, a B.Tech graduate (in their early 20s) joining ISRO would enter with the grade Scientist/Engineer-SC. He/she would be tasked with both engineering and research opportunities. While joining ISRO under this cadre, an individual earns approximately Rs 80,000 per month (around $1000) in hand. They also get the benefit of health insurance coverage for the family and ISRO performance-related bonuses. Depending on the work location, even accommodation is provided and meals are available at very subsidised rates. These perks are not calculated as part of the cost to the company.
Expectedly, IITs and their public outreach machinery go into overdrive during the placement season, adequately hyped up by the media. It is the top package of Rs 25 million (approx $3,00,000) and the likes that make headlines and give false impressions that most of the IITans earn big fat salaries. However, reports compiled based on placement and pay package data have pegged the average pay for B.Tech graduates from most IITs as between Rs. 10 lakh and Rs. 20 lakh. Only a few end up with annual pay packages above Rs 5 million ($60,000).
Therefore, in purely monetary terms, ISRO could well be an option for a fair number of IITans. That’s why, there must also be efforts from ISRO’s end to better understand the factors behind the minuscule number of IITans within their ranks. IITs could also survey their students to unravel what their students think about joining ISRO.