ISRO Chief Radhakrishnan says 'nothing personal' against predecessor Nair

Seattle Bulletin (ANI) Monday 6th February, 2012

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chief K Radhakrishnan on Monday said that he had nothing personal against his predecessor, G Madhavan Nair, who has been indicted along with three other scientists on the Antrix-Devas deal.

Talking to reporters here, Radhakrishnan said that the full report had already been put up in the public domain and stated that there was no need for more clarification.

"See, whatever we wanted to say on the subject, we have put on the website. There is a full report, recommendations in the second report and there is a four-page statement. We don't want to add anything more, there is nothing personal," he added.

However, Nair claimed that the report had inconsistencies and accused his successor of conspiring against him.

The ISRO committee report has indicted Nair and three other senior scientists, and has barred them from holding any government posts, for acts of commission in Antrix-Devas deal.

The report, prepared by a committee headed by Pratyush Sinha, former Chief Vigilance Commissioner, said Antrix-Devas deal lacked in transparency and recommended that action needs to be taken against Madhavan Nair, A Bhaskaranarayana, KR Sridhara Murthi and K N Shankara-all of whom have retired.

The Pratyush Sinha committee, set up on May 31 last year, said choosing Devas for the deal "seemed to have lacked in transparency and due diligence".

The report said the terms of Antrix-Devas contract "were heavily loaded in favour of Devas". It pointed out that terms of the agreement entail that while in the case of the failure of the satellite, the risk was entirely that of Department of Space, the success of the satellite would commit the latter to substantial expenditure".

The report also noted that no clearance was obtained from the legal cells of the Department of Space and the Finance Ministry for Antrix-Devas deal, as is mandatory for any international agreement by any department of Indian government.

The report also said GSAT capacity was earmarked for Devas without consulting INSAT Corporation Committee (ICC), which recommends use of satellite capacities by non-government users authorized to provide telecom services, which is a "clear violation of the government policy".

The committee report said "there is evidence to suggest that the Antrix-Devas agreement was not disclosed to Technical Advisory Group (TAG) at the time of considering the experimental trials". (ANI)