ISRO's Bureaucratic Outer Ring

I just published a series of stories on Wired News about the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) about the state of space research in India. While I was quite impressed with their advanced in satellite research and the indigenously designed launch vehicles, I am still amazed at the amount of bureaucracy that a foreign journalist has to go through to just get simple interviews with mid and low level scientists. In fact, it was much easier for me to secure an hour of time from the top-level executives than talk with the scientists who are actually developing the technology.

I spent most of my time under close watch in ISRO's administrative building watching press officers and bureaucrats shuffle huge volumes of papers from one desk to another. I made several requests to actually see some scientists tinkering with gadgets, but the press officer shook his head and said that I would have to secure a pass from the Home Ministry itself to get access to labs. Both he and I knew that contacting the Home Ministry would not only mean a firm no, but it would take a year and a half for them to process the paperwork.

Instead he offered to send his own photographer to shoot the labs and laughed at me saying that I just wanted to see the scientists because I was getting paid--as if the paltry sum Wired News pays for stories offsets the hassle I have to go through. Well, if you see the photos that eventually came from ISRO (after a month) you will notice that they really are not very good. All of the shots that I took were of an administrative building, which even a national geographic photographer would have trouble making look interesting.

A similar thing happened when I attended the satellite launch in Sriharikota. I arrived several hours early and came up to the main gate where dozens of Indian reporters were lined up for admission, but when it came my turn the same press officer just shook his head at me. "Sorry no foreigners," he said. Meanwhile two full busloads of school children streamed past me while I argued.

In the end, I came away with a good story anyway. I watched the launch from a nearby sand dune with local people and took some great photos of the rocket as it exploded above launch pad and rained fire and debris nearby. That story will show up in Wired Magazine in the next couple months.