Spacetech startup Piersight offered pre-placement offers to six IIST graduates after their six-month industry project. Every single one rejected the offers, choosing ISRO instead, despite the agency ending its mandatory hiring bond in 2024. This highlights the persistent challenge for private spacetech firms to attract talent, even as ISRO shifts its focus to frontier research.
How We Got Here
India's 2020 space-sector reforms aimed to realign ISRO towards deep research, allowing private players to handle commercial work. The space agency further loosened its grip in 2024 by dropping the bond that required IIST BTech graduates to join if offered a position.
The Numbers
- Private spacetech companies raised nearly Rs 2,000 crore in funding in 2025.
- The private sector now employs 8,000-9,000 people, approaching ISRO's current workforce of 14,637.
- Piersight CEO Gaurav Seth offered IIST interns a monthly stipend of Rs 25,000 to develop synthetic aperture radar systems.
- ISRO released its recruitment offers in April and May, directly clashing with the conclusion of Piersight's six-month project in June 2026.
What Happens Next
🇮🇳 Why This Matters for India
For deep-tech founders building space applications in Bangalore and Hyderabad, this talent preference for ISRO directly slows product development and delays critical project milestones.
The Take
ISRO's bond removal was window dressing; the agency's aspirational pull remains the true barrier for spacetech startups. Expect the government to fund private spacetech talent development, or watch top grads flock to government jobs until 2027.
Source:
The Ken ↗