Who is the current Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) ?

Question

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — A, S. Somnath. A question that says 'current' is answered as on the date of the examination, and this paper — the 70th CCE re-examination — was sat on 4 January 2025. S. Somanath was Chairman of ISRO that day. He had assumed charge as Secretary, Department of Space and Chairman of the Space Commission on 14 January 2022, succeeding K. Sivan, and he handed over on 13 January 2025, when Dr V. Narayanan assumed charge on 14 January 2025. The margin is ten days: a candidate answering this question a fortnight later would have had a different correct answer, which is exactly why the exam date has to be part of how you read the stem. Somanath came to the chair from the directorship of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre at Thiruvananthapuram, and his three years cover the missions the paper's other questions also draw on — the Chandrayaan-3 soft landing near the lunar south pole on 23 August 2023, now marked each year as National Space Day, and the launch of Aditya-L1, India's first solar observatory, on 2 September 2023. The office itself is worth knowing precisely: the same person holds three posts together — Chairman of ISRO, Secretary of the Department of Space, and Chairman of the Space Commission — which is why appointment orders and ISRO's own press releases speak of 'assuming charge as Secretary, Department of Space' rather than of ISRO alone.

Why the other options are wrong — (b) The immediate predecessor, chairman from January 2018 to January 2022, so his name is only one step out of date — and that is the trap. His tenure covers Chandrayaan-2 in 2019, which is the mission most candidates associate with an ISRO chairman, so the wrong association sticks easily.  (c) Udupi Ramachandra Rao (1932–2017) chaired ISRO from 1984 to 1994, three decades before this paper, and had died eight years before it was set. His years cover the beginnings of the INSAT programme and the push that produced the PSLV, which is why he appears on such lists — but he cannot be 'current' by any reading.  (d) Chairman from 2003 to 2009, the period of Chandrayaan-1. Like option (c), a genuine former chairman offered to a candidate who recognises the name without holding the dates — the whole option set is a chronology test disguised as a current-affairs question.

Concept: ISRO was formed in 1969 out of INCOSPAR, the committee Vikram Sarabhai had chaired from 1962, and it works under the Department of Space, which reports directly to the Prime Minister. The head of the organisation wears three hats at once — Chairman of ISRO, Secretary of the Department of Space and Chairman of the Space Commission — so a single appointment order covers all three, and any question about 'the head of ISRO' is really a question about that combined office. The line of chairmen runs from Vikram Sarabhai through Satish Dhawan, who served the longest term at twelve years, U. R. Rao (1984–1994), K. Kasturirangan, G. Madhavan Nair (2003–2009), K. Radhakrishnan, A. S. Kiran Kumar, K. Sivan (2018–2022), S. Somanath (2022–2025) and V. Narayanan from 14 January 2025. Each name is attached to a programme, which is how examiners build option sets: Sarabhai to the founding, Dhawan to the SLV, Rao to INSAT and the PSLV push, Nair to Chandrayaan-1, Sivan to Chandrayaan-2, Somanath to Chandrayaan-3 and Aditya-L1.

State PCS 2025 Q108 — Current Affairs PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2025 Q108 — Current Affairs PYQ with Answer