Good lord, I don't think there is such thing as "attrition" from ISRO, where do you go from ISRO? People don't work for ISRO if money is their #1 criteria, peop

Good lord, I don't think there is such thing as "attrition" from ISRO, where do you go from ISRO? People don't work for ISRO if money is their #1 criteria, people work for ISRO/DRDO etc if they want to serve their nation, it is much like the armed forces. From your comment, one can only say that you have 0 knowledge about India/culture and DRDO, you are entitled to have an opinion but please don't have opinions based on incorrect facts/assumptions. >Given all this, it's not clear how long ISRO will be able to hold on to its first mover advantage, with regards to cheap launches It isn't "first mover advantage". The term for it is being nimble. ISRO/DRDO run a lot like startups who have little funding, they have brilliant scientists who want to SERVE the nation, also there is no other org you'd work after you leave ISRO/DRDO, there is no Lockheed Martin equivalent in India! >DRDO is hardly an organization that needs fearing; apart from the above anecdotal data What data? It isn't just about DRDO, you don't need to "fear" India, don't you know that there have been so many terror attacks on Indian soil and India has never retaliated, only now have we done a surgical strike. So yeah, you never have to fear India at all. If you ignore the "invasion" of Goa when the Indian union was relatively new (and the Shri Vijaya Kingdom which extended to Malaysia) India never attacked another country and it won't, because now, the country faces much larger problems, and India never was territory hungry. >- The state has hardly had any real geopolitical goals (after Nehru-Indira Gandhi). Yes, it doesn't. Also, programming isn't as mainstream in India as it is in the US.