Antrix Corporation, the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), will have a new chairman. A process to restructure Antrix Corp. has now started in the wake of the controversial two-satellite deal it had struck with a private firm.
The Space Commission, at a meeting, formed a search committee to identify a chairman and managing director (CMD) for Antrix. The secretary, Department of Space, is also the chairman of the Space Commission, Isro and Antrix Corporation. Curre-ntly, K. Radhakrishnan holds the posts. After the new appointment, Mr Radhakrishnan would no longer hold the top post in Antrix. Antrix would continue to have a technocrat as its head, but, for the first time since its creation in 1992, the person would not be the Isro chief.
Mr Radhakrishnan said the decision to have a CMD for Antrix was taken considering its business expansion plans and a newly-conferred “mini-ratna” status. How-ever, he maintained there was no complete restructuring of Isro’s commercial arm.
A three-member search committee is expected to suggest three names for the newly created post. Till now Antrix had a managing director, K. Sridhara Murthy, who retired in September last year. An executive director has been appointed to look into the day-to-day affairs of Antrix till the new incumbent takes charge.
The Space Commission was also apprised of the action taken in connection with termination of Antrix’s two satellite deals with Devas Multimedia, which media reports claimed could have caused a loss of `2 lakh crore to the exchequer.
Mr Radhakrishnan said Isro had circulated a detailed note on the deal with Devas which was under the consideration of the Cabinet Committee on Security. Antrix stands to pay penalties on two counts if the deal is cancelled, first on the delay in delivery of the satellite, and the second the annual payment for the life of the satellite.
Mr Radhakrishnan said the contract needed to be annulled given the requirement of S-band spectrum for strategic purposes. He said the demand of the strategic sector for the scarce spectrum had increased five-fold in the last five years. The Space Commission, at its meeting in July last year, had recommended annulment of the contract with Devas under which the private firm, floated by ex-Isro officials, was to get on lease 90 per cent of the S-band transponders on two satellites — GSAT 6 and GSAT 6A — for its novel Digital Broadcast Audio Service.
Antrix had signed the contract in January 2005 and had got the sanction of the Space Commission and the Union Cabinet for the two satellites without informing them that bulk capacity would be leased to Devas Multimedia.
In December 2009, Isro ordered a review of the deal and, subsequently, the Space Commission recommended its annulment on July 2, 2010. The commission had also suggested restructuring Antrix and a report on the matter had been submitted to Isro.