The Antrix-Devas controversy has dented ISRO’s image

GSAT-6 or INSAT-4E was conceived around 2004 as a pure-play infotainment satellite. Its multimedia applications were to be for popular use and driven by a private operator.

This is also the satellite that pushed the space establishment into its second biggest crisis and badly dented its pristine image in the wake of what has come to be called the Antrix-Devas S-band controversy.

With Thursday’s launch, people who worked on it earlier said they were relieved to finally see it up in space, overcoming the emotional and technology challenges in the last four years.

In 2011, GSAT-6 swung from being a commercial satellite to become the sole preserve of the armed forces, who have started requiring their own ‘birds’ to ‘see’ and ‘hear’ for them in Space.

GSAT-6 was the first satellite to propose to offer a significant portion of its S-band capacity to a private sector player, Devas Multimedia India Private Ltd. It was originally planned to be put in orbit around 2009-10.

A 2005 contract that allotted GSAT-6 and its replacement, GSAT-6A, to Devas pushed the ISRO and its business arm Antrix Corporation into their second biggest turmoil during 2010 and 2011.

When the controversy broke out in February 2011, ( The Hindu & The Hindu Business Line, February 7, 2011) the Prime Minister’s Office (which governs the Department of Space) cancelled the contract between Antrix and Devas. It also declared that the satellite would be used only for ‘strategic’ or defence applications.

The spacecraft may be up, but it is not closure yet as far as the ISRO is concerned. Devas has challenged the Government of India’s decision at the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague with a claim of $ 1 billion in damages for breach of the Bilateral Investment Protection & Promotion Agreement.

Within the country, investigations are going on by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate into alleged irregularities that Devas was arbitrarily given access to the S-band satellite without the then DoS officials doing due diligence or competitive bidding. Devas was a fledgling one-month-old company when the deal was signed to build GSAT-6 and GSAT-6A for it.

After the controversy, the ISRO clammed up and its team that was building the GSAT-6 underwent an overhaul, according to informed people. The project suffered for almost a year; its coverage area of its antenna was shrunk from the entire sub-continent to just national use. There was a struggle to get some components.

Those who have seen the GSAT-6 project from close quarters recalled, “Nothing took off until 2012. Later, it was re-engineered, its internal modules were changed; the project teams were overhauled. Project leaders and members either moved out or retired.”

“It is a very good satellite and all of us associated with it are happy that issues with the components were resolved and that it is up in space now,” one person said.