I think the real reason in difference in costs is that in India salaries are much lower and profits expected by 3rd party providers are much smaller.
So building and engineering is way cheaper. How about quality?
So building and engineering is way cheaper. How about quality?
Just yesterday Indian successfully launched PSLV to put 5 foreign satellites in orbit. It's 26th consecutive successful flight.
It is the most reliable and cost effective rocket in the world right now.
Salaries do play a part in bringing the cost down but that is not the only reason. ISRO functions like a very agile organisation with small teams focusing on specific targets with autonomy. Also, a lot of cost is saved in the testing phase as well.
(cost and payload numbers from Wikipedia) Cost per kg to GTO: PSLV $10,368 Falcon9v1.1 $11,649 Cost per kg to LEO: PSLV $4,615 Falcon9v1.1 $4,296
Otherwise you couldn't explain why the Soviets/Russians had such a remarkably reliable space program, even though they always had less resources than the US.
From what I understand, NASA tends to overload projects with thousands of requirements and features, which introduce additional points of failure, whereas the Russians focus more on the basics.
It seems like the Indians will also use the same strategy, and focus on the basics and reuse what they already have, which makes sense, considering their limited resources.