ISRO And the Unsung Gold Mines of Kerala

This is not meant to belittle the prestigious IITs, which have earned a solid reputation on a worldwide scale. Our national attention has been diverted from the “second tier” of engineering colleges in “Tier Two” towns and cities across India, which are thought of as islands of greatness amid a sea of mediocrity. Yes, there are some subpar engineering institutions in the nation, and the AICTE orders the closure of a handful of them each year. But reputable universities like TKM and CET, despite their lack of national recognition, continue to produce a variety of engineers despite the odds, sometimes without recognition or appreciation from those outside of their immediate catchment area.

Since their founding, CET and TKM have consistently been among the top choices for any aspiring engineering student from Kerala, although they hardly ever draw applicants from beyond the state. However, they provide a practical choice for high-quality education in small-town India, and they are responsible for producing the core members of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), including its director.

India joined an exclusive group of countries with Chandrayaan-3’s successful soft landing on the moon; only four other countries (the US, the Soviet Union, and China) have accomplished the feat. Three days after a Russian attempt crashed dreadfully onto the moon’s surface, ISRO’s accomplishment received widespread acclaim and was hailed by eminent foreign media outlets as a watershed moment for the nation’s space exploration and a significant boost to India’s profile and position as a leading spacefaring nation. To India’s credit, all was accomplished on a meagre budget of just Rs 615 crore, which is not only a tiny portion of what the US spent but also just about a third of what China spent on its own moon trip.

This wasn’t simply about “frugal innovation,” a subject in which India has grudgingly received praise from the rest of the world. The scientists at the space agency have achieved this historic feat while earning wages that are one-fifth of those of their peers in the industrialised world, as former ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair noted. Nair stated that one of the factors contributing to ISRO scientists’ ability to come up with affordable options for space exploration may be their low pay. Nair said that no ISRO scientist is a millionaire; they lead quite typical life in low circumstances. They are fervent and committed to their cause instead of being overly concerned about the money. We rose to greater heights in this way,” Nair remarked.

In a cutthroat global job market, graduates from the IITs frequently seek for and win the highest-paying, handsomely compensated professions. Graduates from institutions like TKM and ISRO are happy to pass government exams for public-sector companies like ISRO, HAL, BHEL, and others, which have since become the strong foundation of India’s efforts to achieve excellence and industrial self-sufficiency. Innovation is ingrained in the culture of these organisations because they must develop their own answers rather than relying on pricey materials imported from the West. When compared to other countries’ space missions, our engineers were able to significantly cut their expenses because to the technology that was primarily developed at ISRO.

S Somanath, the head of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), studied mechanical engineering at TKM College of Engineering in Kollam from 1980 to 1985. There, he developed an early interest in propulsion and persuaded his professor to offer a course in the topic that had not previously been offered at TKM. He was hired for the space programme at the time the PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) project was beginning, which in turn catapulted him into ISRO.

Somanath obtained a master’s degree in aerospace engineering, dynamics, and control from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), the nation’s top centre for scientific research, over ten years after joining ISRO. He is now a specialist in the system engineering of launch vehicles and, according to the space agency, helped develop the PSLV and GSLV Mk-III (a heavy-lift launch vehicle) from ISRO’s propulsion stages to separation systems, vehicle integration, and integration procedures.