Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman S Somanath has said he would be ‘happy to see more IITians’ join the national space agency.

“My task is not only to identify people and leaders who will be able to execute the tasks, especially youngsters who will able to design those things in the coming 25 years. That's why I am excited to come IIT,” Somanath said recently at an event in Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Bombay.

The ISRO chairman continued: “In fact, I had given a talk at IIT-Madras. Though possibly you would have heard heard my speaking about IITs and their contribution to the space programme, I won't be getting into that domain at all today. But I hope there will be...I would be happy to see more IITians joining the space programme, and contributing towards nation-building.”

During his 54-minute-long address, Somanath also outlined ISRO's upcoming projects, including the human space flight mission Gaganyaan, and more.

“While all of you are excited about the space now, after Chandrayaan-3, I'm excited more about the possibilities that are there in front of us in the future,” he remarked.

In an October 2023 interview, Somanath noted how engineers do not join ISRO due to the pay structure there.

“Our best talents are supposed to be engineers from IITs. But, if we go and try to recruit from there, no one joins,” the space agency chief lamented

He recalled an experience when his team went to an IIT campus to recruit engineers, but ‘60% of candidates walked out’ the moment the salary structure was shown in the presentation.

“The students there saw the highest pay that they could ever get in the ISRO. That was it,” Somanath recalled.

(With inputs from agencies)