New Delhi: India scripted history on Wednesday, with the successful soft landing of Chandrayaan-3 and also became the first nation to land its spacecraft on Moon’s South pole, the region marked by large number of pits & trenches.
The global community showered praise on India’s Moon exploration potential and also lauded the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)’s accomplishments in the putting the Lander & Rover successfully on the lunar surface.
However, the flip side of Chandrayaan’s spectacular success that is being debated about is the low salary & wages of ISRO scientists and all those working in the space exploration programs.
What pay cheque of ISRO scientists looks like
As per reports, the scientists working either in ISRO or DRDO are paid much-less in comparison to their global counterparts. Also, the low budget allocation for space missions remains the reason behind low-cost solutions for space exploration.
According to details available, ISRO scientists, engineers, researchers & other staff are paid meagerly in respect to their global counterparts.
For an instance, an ISRO scientist engineer draws a gross salary of just Rs 84,360/- out of which Rs 12,000 goes away in taxes & deductions, as is show in the table below.
Top earning employees of ISRO include scientists in different grades, whose pay scales range from thousands to Rs 1-2 lakh/monthly, a shockingly low pay package as compared to other sectors including PSUs & private sector.
A Scientist/Engineer in L-10 draws between Rs 56 K to Rs 1.77 lakh while Scientist/Engineer in L-11 draws between Rs 67K to 2.08 lakh. These are highest pay package in ISRO and therefore, one can judge how country’s leading scientists are paid, as compared to CEOs of tech or management firms.
‘1/5th of what world scientists paid’
Even former ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair raised concern about low remuneration of the scientists working at India’s premiere space research organization.
Speaking to a news channel, Nair said that less remuneration never remained an obstacle in India’s lunar exploration program and ISRO scientists have proved this yet again.
“ISRO scientists have accomplished this historic success by getting a salary one-fifth of their counterparts in the developed world,” Nair said.
Nair further revealed that ISRO scientists live a very normal life but they are highly passionate about their missions. And, this is what has brought a difference.
“No ISRO scientists are millionaires. They are not really bothered about the money but are passionate and dedicated to their mission. That is how we achieved greater heights,” Nair said.
Chandrayaan-3 budget lower than big-budget movies
The total cost of Chandrayaan-3 stood at Rs 615 crore which is just minuscule as compared to space missions by developed countries. Luna 25, the Russian spacecraft which collapsed before landing on Moon was done at an estimated cost of Rs 2,000 crore.
One can simply understand from the fact that the budget of movies like Adipurush, Barbie & Oppenheimer was higher than India’s moon mission.
Criticism & admiration aside, Chandrayaan-3 has firmly put India in a select league of nations. It has come as a stepping stone and set the stage for India’s further planetary explorations.