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The Space Commission on Saturday decided to restructure Antrix Corporation in the wake of an ongoing investigation over signing a deal with Bangalore-based Devas Multimedia Pvt Ltd.
A search committee has been set up to identify a Chairman-cum-Managing Director for Antrix. Until now the Secretary, Department of Space, headed Antrix. While Antrix would continue to have a technocrat as its head, for the first time, since its creation in 1992, the person would not be the ISRO chief.
Probing procedures
Dr K. Radhakrishnan, Secretary, Department of Space, said the decision to have a separate head for Antrix was taken considering its expanding business and a newly conferred ‘mini-ratna' status. An executive director has been appointed to look into the day-to-day affairs of Antrix till the new incumbent takes charge.
The Government has also set up a two-man panel to probe the procedures adopted by Antrix while signing the agreement with Devas, a start-up company floated by former ISRO officials.
The panel is expected to submit its report by March 9, Dr Radhakrishnan said. The probe will fix responsibilities after investigating the process and suggest measures to ensure that such things do not happen in the future.
Antrix, the commercial arm of ISRO, had entered into an agreement with Devas in 2005 for leasing out capacity on two satellites. The deal was done without any competitive bidding. The deal got into rough weather when the Space Commission in 2010 decided to scrap it.
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