Recent reports of nearly 120 scientists resigning from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) have rightly raised concerns. ISRO has been a symbol of India’s scientific aspirations and such an exodus cannot be dismissed as an ordinary episode of employee turnover.
Resignations have occurred over the years but the scale of recent departures confronts us with the question: of why some of India’s brighter scientific minds are electing to leave institutions millions dream of joining.
The phenomenon is not unique to ISRO. Similar stories have emerged from laboratories under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), premier autonomous institutes, and several government-funded research organisations. Often these departures are hard to notice as part of a larger pattern because they occur one scientist at a time — yet together they point to a deeper issue deserving of national attention.
Real main reason
The most obvious explanation is salary but it is not sufficient. Scientists who have spent decades building their expertise and reputation rarely leave only because another organisation is offering a bigger paycheck. Many of those that are resigning are also in the latter half of their careers, and generally unwilling to risk financial and professional stability. No; what they want is something even greater: professional dignity, freedom of thought, and the freedom to work on their topics of choice.
Several researchers — many of whom are unwilling to go on the record for fear of repercussions — in private speak characterise these institutions as places where bureaucratic power is increasing at the expense of that of science, and where it is becoming more risky to question authority. The tragedy is that while Indian science inherited world-class institutions, it also retained a colonial administrative mindset.
Research flourishes when ideas compete but suffers when people compete for proximity to power. Many of India’s laboratories continue to operate within rigid hierarchies that would appear strange in leading scientific institutions elsewhere in the world. Young scientists often learn quickly that survival depends less on asking bold scientific questions than on understanding invisible administrative boundaries. In some institutions, even simple acts of professional equality are viewed as breaches of etiquette. Respect, instead of being earned through scholarship and mentorship, is demanded through designation.
Inside Antariksh Bhavan, the ISRO headquarters in Bengaluru. ISRO has been a symbol of India’s scientific aspirations and the recent exodus of scientists cannot be dismissed as an ordinary episode of employee turnover.
| Photo Credit:
V. Sreenivasa Murthy/The Hindu
A class system
In order to be creative, for example, a doctoral student should be able to challenge a senior scientist’s hypothesis without fearing that their long-term career will be adversely affected. A young investigator should feel confident enough to question established ideas. The world’s best research environments are the best because they allow just such interactions.
Attend an international scientific conference in Europe or the Americas and you will often witness something remarkably ordinary: Nobel laureates standing in the same cafeteria queue as graduate students, and young scholars openly questioning senior scientists during presentations. They are respectful — and the seniors know that — but that respect flows from intellectual contributions rather than via ceremonial protocols.
However, many Indian scientific gatherings continue to have a bureaucratic rather than academic culture. Distinguished speakers receive VIP badges, exclusive dining arrangements, and special hospitality while students and junior participants are treated as an entirely different class. Such symbolism is not harmless: it reinforces a hierarchy that has little place in science. Science has never progressed because someone occupied a larger office or enjoyed a separate lunch. Let us foster the many little interactions; they could make a big difference.
Speaking up
Equally worryingly, scientists rarely speak openly about unhealthy workplace cultures because the ecosystem is remarkably small. Today’s reviewer may become tomorrow’s selection committee member. Today’s director may influence tomorrow’s funding decision. Occasionally, some disturbing information emerges, including allegations of harassment, vindictive administrative actions, and attempts to publicly discredit accomplished scientists. Whether every allegation withstands scrutiny is for due process to determine — but the recurring perception is immediately damaging.
As a result, many talented researchers are now moving to private research organisations, emerging deep-tech companies, universities abroad, and/or international collaborations where scientific autonomy has more room than administrative strictures. India’s growing innovation ecosystem benefits from this movement to some extent but it is not a zero-sum: our national laboratories lose institutional memory and experienced mentors.
India is spending a historically unprecedented, but otherwise still insufficient, amount of money on scientific research. Excellent skills are now needed for new research missions, including those involving semiconductors, quantum technologies, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and spaceflight. But whereas buildings can be built in a few months and, with adequate funds, sophisticated instruments can be bought, building an environment that holds great scientists is a very long process, often taking decades.
Conscious effort
Today, India must increase administrative transparency in scientific institutions, and install robust systems to redress grievances concerning workplace harassment and mentoring-based leadership training to ensure a leadership free from command.
In parallel, we need a conscious effort to break free of the colonial bureaucracy that remains in the daily life of institutions. Respect should not disappear from scientific workplaces but it differs fundamentally from unquestioning deference.
India has repeatedly demonstrated that its scientists possess extraordinary capability. Our achievements in space exploration, vaccines, supercomputing, mathematics, biotechnology, and engineering stand as testimony to that talent. The challenge today is not producing brilliant scientists — our universities and institutions have figured that out. The challenge is to ensure those scientists can still flourish after they enter India’s laboratories.
If we fail to reform workplace culture, the next generation may simply leave our public institutions. That will be an immeasurable loss. Science has always advanced through ideas that challenged power — not by power that silenced people or ideas.
Dr. Biju Dharmapalan is Dean, Academic Affairs, Garden City University, Bengaluru, and an adjunct faculty member at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru. bijudharmapalan@gmail.com
Published – August 03, 2026 09:00 am IST