Financial
Times: Madhavan Nair, former head of the Indian Space
Research Organisation (ISRO), has been banned from government
employment because of allegations that he was involved in the
underpriced leasing of space spectrum to the private sector,
write James Fontanella-Khan and James Lamont for the
Financial Times. Nair, who supervised 25 space
missions during his tenure from 2003 to 2009, earned
international recognition for his efforts to put India's space
program on a par with those of China and Japan. Since 2009,
when he retired from ISRO, he has served as president of the
Paris-based International Academy of Astronautics. Regarding
the allegations, Nair claimed he was not given any opportunity
to defend himself, and one space expert suggested that they
were politically motivated. No criminal charges have been
filed.
