Kasturirangan: The bedrock of ISRO’s stellar success

My first encounter with Dr Kasturirangan was in the midst of a tense situation. ISRO had just begun work on the Bhaskara satellite under his leadership and to implement the project, he had recommended the recruitment of 114 personnel. At the time, Prof Satish Dhawan, then Chairman of ISRO, entrusted me with reviewing this proposal. After a careful analysis, our team concluded that only 79 recruits were necessary.

On hearing this, Kasturirangan’s reaction was, “Who prepared this report? Send him here.” And so, I went to meet him, fully expecting an interrogation.

It was not easy to convince him of my findings. But to his credit, he listened patiently as I laid out my reasoning in detail. He then re-examined the facts, conducted his own analysis and ultimately agreed with our assessment. The final number was revised to 79.

That incident reflected the spirit at ISRO, an organisation without rigid hierarchies of seniors and juniors and where dialogue trumped deference. It was a place where leadership meant guiding from the front and Kasturirangan embodied that quality. He was, at heart, a team leader in its truest sense.

Learning from failures
Under Kasturirangan’s chairmanship, ISRO entered a new phase of translating the growth achieved during the eras of Prof. Dhawan and Dr UR Rao into tangible results. Projects like the Indian Remote Sensing Satellite, the PSLV launch vehicle, and the INSAT communication series helped ISRO keep redefining its own milestones.

It was also during this golden period of Indian space science that Dr APJ Abdul Kalam rose to head the DRDO and Dr. Raja Ramanna led the Atomic Energy Commission. The three of them-- Kasturirangan, Kalam, and Ramanna, frequently met at Kalam’s office in Delhi to conceptualise and design new projects. Kasturirangan often invited me to these meetings in my capacity as a human resources expert.

All three men shared Tamil as their mother tongue and once the intense discussions on space and defense projects ended, the mood would lighten. The room would come alive with conversations on Tamil literature, from Thirukkural to snippets of poetry, witty exchanges and references to classic Tamil novels.

Adding to the ambiance was a spread of South Indian delicacies--ghee roast, vadas, curd rice etc. Those sessions were so engaging that time would slip by unnoticed. Though I was a junior officer --just as my name “Kutty” implied, I never once felt out of place in that company.

A relentless learner
Unlike Dhawan or Rao, Kasturirangan had little tolerance for failure. Whenever a project faltered, his immediate focus was to understand why. He would assign a team to conduct a thorough post-mortem, analysing every tiny misstep. Only after addressing each gap he would the next phase. That insistence on accountability and the process of systematic learning has become the foundation of the success that ISRO is enjoying now.

A leader who touched hearts
There was a time when ISRO faced a serious brain drain. With the IT industry booming, top talents were being absorbed straight from college campuses. Even some of the ISRO scientists were lured away with lucrative packages.

To counter this, Kasturirangan secured government approval to allow ISRO to participate in campus recruitment, while aligning strictly with the government norms. He also introduced more competitive salary structures. His policy was to nurture talents and hence made it a point to recognise and reward efficiency within the organisation.

Meticulous, even with MP funds
When he was elected to the Rajya Sabha, Kasturirangan was also serving as Director of the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) in Bengaluru. He asked me to take over as Dean and I worked with him there for four years.

He was meticulous even with the expenditure of his MP fund. He issued clear instructions that the funds should be used strictly for health and educational institutions and never made any compromises on that principle.