The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is the national space agency of India, an institution that serves as the principal research and development arm of the Department of Space (DoS), which is overseen by the Prime Minister. ISRO was formally established on August 15, 1969, superseding its predecessor, the Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR), which was set up in 1962 under the guidance of Dr. Vikram Sarabhai. The core problem it was created to solve was harnessing space technology for national development, as Sarabhai believed it could address real problems faced by a developing nation.
ISRO's mechanism involves the design and development of launch vehicles like the PSLV and GSLV, and satellites for various applications. Its key functions include establishing major space systems such as the Indian National Satellite (INSAT) system for telecommunication and meteorology, and the Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellites for resource monitoring. ISRO also conducts deep-space exploration missions, including three missions to the Moon and one to Mars.
ISRO is closely connected to the Department of Space (DoS), under which it operates, and the Space Commission. The agency's commercial activities are managed by NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), which was incorporated on March 6, 2019, and its regulatory interface with private entities is handled by the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (IN-SPACe), formed following the space sector reforms in 2020.
Recently, ISRO has undergone a structural change, codified under the Indian Space Policy 2023, which mandates a transition of routine manufacturing of operational systems to private industry. This shift, which is not a privatization of ISRO, allows the agency to focus exclusively on frontier research, deep-space missions, human spaceflight, and strategic national security payloads. The core institutional structure of ISRO as a government organization under the DoS remains the same.