Top 7 Reasons Why Pakistan’s SUPARCO is not successful as India’s ISRO

[Thorough Pro]

SUPARCO was way ahead in it's time when ISRO was playing in tis knickers. It's the state priorities/funding that define the roles such institutions play, has nothing to do with capabilities or competence.

India’s ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) is the space agency of the Indian government headquartered in the city of Bengaluru. Its vision is to “harness space technology for national development, while pursuing space science research and planetary exploration”It was Established in 15th August 1969.

Pakistan SUPARCO (Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission ) is an executive and bureaucratic space agency of the Government of Pakistan, responsible for the nation’s public and civil space programme and for aeronautics and aerospace research.

Its mission statement and objective is to conduct peaceful research in space technology and promote the technology for socio-economic uplift of the country.It was Established in 16th Septmeber 1961.

1)Pakistan’s only Noble prize laureate ‘Dr. Abdus Salam’ was the brain behind SUPARCO. The only achievement that Pakistan can boast of is the successful launch of its first fully functional communication satellite, the Paksat-1R.This satellite, however, it was not indigenous built. China was behind Paksat-1R’s design, built, launch and even funding; only a few components were built in Pakistan.

2)India, on the other hand, has been able to launch over 180 satellites to date . It has even managed to launch its own unmanned lunar probe, the Chandrayaan-1, Mars mission . Now ISRO is planning to launch its solar mission.

3)ISRO is administered by the scientists themselves . It has been kept kept shielded from politics. On the other hand SUPARCO is run by the retired military gen of Pak army who has very little knowledge of the space science.

4)ISRO is backed by a government that knows its priorities and backs the agencies accordingly. Pakistan govt is too obsessed with other motives of theirs.

5)Indian government has always emphasis the need of studying science , its application to make the life of common man more comfortable and using the same as a tool for economic development. But this sector has always neglected by the Pak government as they think that spending money on science and technology is not worth it.

6)Religion has always been mixed with the state affairs as well as in education. This policy of the government has brought Pakistan on the back foot in every sector where education especially science is involved.

7)Corruption is the inseparable part of the Pak institutions. This has weakened the state’s institutions including SUPARCO

 

[Kompromat]

SUPARCO was just a front agency to acquire rocket technology to eventually build Ballistic Missiles. The intention behind the organization never was to explore space. SUPARCO is now on a death row.

 

[Zen0]

Because its not corrupt

 

[Mudassar Malik]

Yes some how i agree with your argument because due to lack of scientific research budget and irrelevant management are key reasons why Pakistan is behind in science & technology..

 

[MM_Haider]

The only reason SUPARCO is lagging behind is lack of interest of our incompetent PPP and PMLN lot.

• Both parties ledership has tunnel vision.
• They just do fire fighting or reactionary politics.
• They dont have vision of the future.
• lack of progress in space poses no immediate threat to Pakistan's ideology.
• Progress in space sciences is far cry when total higher education budget of country is less than what is pent on 1 KM of Lahore Metro Bus.

 

[Zen0]

Man most of these comments are like


"I could have won all the gold medals from the Olympics , but I'm not interested"

Lol seriously? The amount of tech transfer isro has given to the military is mind boggling

 

[Arsalan mehmud]

India’s ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) is the space agency of the Indian government headquartered in the city of Bengaluru. Its vision is to “harness space technology for national development, while pursuing space science research and planetary exploration”It was Established in 15th August 1969.

Pakistan SUPARCO (Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission ) is an executive and bureaucratic space agency of the Government of Pakistan, responsible for the nation’s public and civil space programme and for aeronautics and aerospace research.

Its mission statement and objective is to conduct peaceful research in space technology and promote the technology for socio-economic uplift of the country.It was Established in 16th Septmeber 1961.

1)Pakistan’s only Noble prize laureate ‘Dr. Abdus Salam’ was the brain behind SUPARCO. The only achievement that Pakistan can boast of is the successful launch of its first fully functional communication satellite, the Paksat-1R.This satellite, however, it was not indigenous built. China was behind Paksat-1R’s design, built, launch and even funding; only a few components were built in Pakistan.

2)India, on the other hand, has been able to launch over 180 satellites to date . It has even managed to launch its own unmanned lunar probe, the Chandrayaan-1, Mars mission . Now ISRO is planning to launch its solar mission.

3)ISRO is administered by the scientists themselves . It has been kept kept shielded from politics. On the other hand SUPARCO is run by the retired military gen of Pak army who has very little knowledge of the space science.

4)ISRO is backed by a government that knows its priorities and backs the agencies accordingly. Pakistan govt is too obsessed with other motives of theirs.

5)Indian government has always emphasis the need of studying science , its application to make the life of common man more comfortable and using the same as a tool for economic development. But this sector has always neglected by the Pak government as they think that spending money on science and technology is not worth it.

6)Religion has always been mixed with the state affairs as well as in education. This policy of the government has brought Pakistan on the back foot in every sector where education especially science is involved.

7)Corruption is the inseparable part of the Pak institutions. This has weakened the state’s institutions including SUPARCO

For me its four
1. Fund
2. Corruption
3. Lack of educational institute as compared to India
4. Easy access to technology

But soon because of recent development and growth.. we will definitely overcome these issue...

 

[ebrahym]

You mean there is lack of interest in space science and space exploration??

You don't need a lot of money to run a space agency. Ours is a good example. They started with very low budget during 1970's but were able to recruit scientists to expand their scope of development in all fields of space exploration.

yes i do mean we lack interest in this field
thats why musharraf rolled back SLV plans
space research is not practical for us
there are other fields which need immediate attention
like defence and commerce

Initial days of Independence Pakistan was relatively rich and has USA backing.
Even NK is marching in space research.

indeed everyone is marching in this field to serve there ego and claiming them technologically superior to the rest
but needs money we have better things to do with what we have
which unfortunately we are not doing
but you get the point

 

[Tiger Awan]

1)Pakistan’s only Noble prize laureate ‘Dr. Abdus Salam’ was the brain behind SUPARCO. The only achievement that Pakistan can boast of is the successful launch of its first fully functional communication satellite, the Paksat-1R.This satellite, however, it was not indigenous built. China was behind Paksat-1R’s design, built, launch and even funding; only a few components were built in Pakistan.

2)India, on the other hand, has been able to launch over 180 satellites to date . It has even managed to launch its own unmanned lunar probe, the Chandrayaan-1, Mars mission . Now ISRO is planning to launch its solar mission.

3)ISRO is administered by the scientists themselves . It has been kept kept shielded from politics. On the other hand SUPARCO is run by the retired military gen of Pak army who has very little knowledge of the space science.

Not true, only one general has become chairman. Rest were all civilians and had a good experience and know how of what they are doing

4)ISRO is backed by a government that knows its priorities and backs the agencies accordingly. Pakistan govt is too obsessed with other motives of theirs.

Agree. Pakistani govt has no interest but same can be said about the nation and even our military. I guess only time SUPARCO will get some funds is when military needs some satellites

5)Indian government has always emphasis the need of studying science , its application to make the life of common man more comfortable and using the same as a tool for economic development. But this sector has always neglected by the Pak government as they think that spending money on science and technology is not worth it.

6)Religion has always been mixed with the state affairs as well as in education. This policy of the government has brought Pakistan on the back foot in every sector where education especially science is involved.

7)Corruption is the inseparable part of the Pak institutions. This has weakened the state’s institutions including SUPARCO

These two along with 5th reason are more of a Rhetoric than actual reason

For me its four
1. Fund
2. Corruption
3. Lack of educational institute as compared to India
4. Easy access to technology

But soon because of recent development and growth.. we will definitely overcome these issue...

We do have an institute, its the funds part that is keeping us back

SUPARCO was just a front agency to acquire rocket technology to eventually build Ballistic Missiles. The intention behind the organization never was to explore space. SUPARCO is now on a death row.

Nopes, SUPARCO (under PAEC) launched its first rocket in 1962. We had no intention of building a Nuclear Deterrence then

 

[Kambojaric]

ISRO budget $1.4 billion
SUPARCO budget $65.7 million

There you have the biggest difference.

 

[Zen0]

ISRO budget $1.4 billion
SUPARCO budget $65.7 million

There you have the biggest difference.

Nigeria has launched nearly half a dozen satellites with just a budget of 93million $

 

[Jungibaaz]

If there's anything I wish we had as good as India, it would be to have half as much commitment to SUPARCO as you folks have with ISRO. There was an undeniable problem in direction and motivation. But to make up for the obvious lack of funding, inability to operate on that scale even if we wanted to, it is perhaps best to start off with more co-operation with China. That sort of co-operation would train and give experience to a generation of scientists and engineers that could then expand on our own efforts back home, while we try for ourselves on a smaller scale too.

 

[liall]

Lack of education, no skilled scientists and engineers.

I wouldnt say that. Lots of skilled Pakistanis in North America and Europe. May be if Pakistan could tap them by convincing them to go back like China has done and India is trying to do.

If there's anything I wish we had as good as India, it would be to have half as much commitment to SUPARCO as you folks have with ISRO. To make up for the obvious lack of funding, inability to operate on that scale even if we wanted to, it is perhaps best to start off with more co-operation with China. That sort of co-operation would train and give experience to a generation of scientists and engineers that could then expand on our own efforts back home, while we try for ourselves on a smaller scale too.

Even I want India to cooperate with China in space technologies on the lines of ESA. But with current geo political realities Asia wont be as good as Europe in space cooperation.

 

[Jungibaaz]

Even I want India to cooperate with China in space technologies on the lines of ESA. But with current geo political realities Asia wont be as good as Europe in space cooperation.

All of these agencies, NASA, ESA, ISRO, CNSA in an ideal world would have their priorities transcend geopolitics. And I would want as much co-operation as possible. However, there is one small upside to geopolitics, it's what got us to the moon, it was the space race that saw the US and the Soviet Union pump massive sums of money in to their space programmes.

 

[OmnISec]

It's simple. Strategic organizations are all on decline since employees have low morale. Low salary, zero accommodation and medical is considerably worse compared to military. To top that, a retired Lt. Col. is often sitting above a serving grade 19 officer.

Since the formation of SPD, there haven't been major breakthroughs by these organizations except for ballistic missiles which a fine lot of neutral sources say might not have been completely indigenously developed.

As for lack of scientists, we have more than a dozen thousand scientists and engineers in our strategic organizations some of whom are extraordinarily capable.