The Indian Space Programme as enunciated by its founding father Dr. Vikram Sarabhai is application driven. "Benefit to common man and society is the fundamental tenet around which the Indian Space Programme revolves today".

During the 70's and the 80's U R Rao Satellite Centre (URSC), the lead centre of ISRO was engaged in mastering the basic technologies and skills required for the specialized task of satellite building. Since the early 90's a host of contemporary and advanced communication, meteorological, remote sensing, navigation and space science were built and launched. The communication, meteorological, remote sensing and navigation satellites launched by URSC have continued to serve the key sectors of the Indian economy like communication, agriculture, water resources, urban planning, Land use, Fisheries, Oceanography, Weather forecasting, Disaster management, Search and Rescue and Navigation. The Space science missions like Chandrayaan-1, Mars Orbiter Mission and Astrosat have received World Wide acclaim and put India in the global map while at the same time inspiring the Gen next.