Raghava Murthy
Director EOS
ISRO
India

Biography
Murthy is the Project Director for Cartosat-1, IMS-1, Youthsat, SARAL and Director, EOS in the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). He joined ISRO in February 1980 and has over thirty years of experience in satellite technology consisting of designing and developing spacecraft from experimental, operational remote sensing, scientific to stellar missions and project based programme management. Murthy is also in charge for Nano and Pico Satellites design and development in Universities under ISRO’s guidance and support. Presently, he is responsible for planning of satellite programmes and missions to meet applications in all areas of Land, Oceans, Climate and atmosphere. Murthy has authored & presented over 20 papers and has also developed two spacecraft busses for 100kg class and 450kg class satellites taking on missions of future.

Abstract
Role of industry in Indian space programme

The Indian space programme has been growing stronger during the past four decades, attracting global attention for its rapid strides. Towards achieving shorter turnaround times for realizing the missions, ISRO, right from the beginning, has been encouraging the participation of industry. ISRO has the responsibility of promoting the development of space science, technology and applications for facilitating the development of the nation and in this process, ISRO has forged a strong relationship with a large number of industrial enterprises, both in public and private sector to implement its space projects. More than 500 small, medium and large scale industries participate in the programme in the form of hardware development, software and other services. Almost 60% of the launch vehicle cost flows to industries. In the recently developed applications, almost 100% of the ground segment equipments/ services for Tele-education and Tele-medicine have been farmed out to industries. So far, about 300 technologies have been transferred to industries for commercialization. Around 200 entrepreneurs/firms have been developed for executing the geospatial projects. With ISRO undertaking development of cutting edge technologies and interplanetary exploratory missions, there is a huge opportunity thrown open for industry to contribute in the realization of operational missions. It is important to note that this partnership with industries has enabled ISRO to meet the growing challenges of advanced technology, handling complex manufacturing jobs and increasing demand for space services without any significant increase in in-house manpower. This model helps ISRO’s manpower to concentrate on new developments and research.