Tag Archives: Vikram Sarabhai
Farce and friction over an Indian astronaut
When we met Mr [Morarji] Desai, he was totally relaxed even after the long journey from Delhi. Squatting on a carpet in the Kremlin and spinning his favourite charka, he received us very gracefully and congratulated us on the impressive … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds, Science
Tagged Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Bhaskara I satellite, Indian Space Programme, Morarji Desai, Satish Dhawan, UR Rao, Vikram Sarabhai
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Looking (only) for Nehru
I have a habit of watching one old Tamil film a day. Yesterday evening, I was watching a film released in 1987, called Ivargal Indiyargal (‘They Are Indians’). In a scene in the film, an office manager distributes sweets to … Continue reading
Posted in Science
Tagged Chandrayaan 3, Higgs boson, Indian Space Research Organisation, Ivargal Indiyargal, Jawaharlal Nehru, Satyendra Nath Bose, Vikram Sarabhai
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Review of a review: ‘Rocket Boys’ (2022)
Tanul Thakur has reviewed a series on SonyLIV called Rocket Boys for The Wire. I haven’t watched the show and don’t plan to, for want of time as well as because, reading Thakur’s review, I think I know enough about how the series depicts the … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Culture, Science
Tagged Department of Atomic Energy, Homi Jehangir Bhabha, ISRO, Rocket Boys, scientific superpower, Vikram Sarabhai
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A great discussion on the history of India’s tech.
On February 27, the Bangalore International Centre and Carnegie India hosted a panel discussion around Midnight Machines, the new book by Arun Mohan Sukumar that traces the interplay of technology and politics in independent India (read The Wire Science‘s review … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Science
Tagged appropriate technology, Arun Mohan Sukumar, brain drain, CSIR, Emergency, Five Year Plan, history of science, history of technology, Human Genome Project, Indian Institutes of Technology, ISRO, Jahnavi Phalkey, Jawaharlal Nehru, Midnights Machines, Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya, Morarji Desai, Nandan Nilekani, Planning Commission, solar cooker, UIDAI, Vikram Sarabhai
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Chandrayaan 2 and the Left
Since after September 7, when the Vikram lander of the Chandrayaan 2 mission failed to touchdown on the lunar surface, many writers and thinkers on the political left have been adopting a stance of the mission I find hard to … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds, Science
Tagged Chandrayaan, Chandrayaan 1, Chandrayaan 2, chandrayaan 2 landing, chandrayaan 2 rover, chandrayaan 2 rover name, chandrayaan 2 update, Chandrayaan-2 news, chandrayan, chandrayan 2, chandrayan 2 landing, ISRO, isro chandrayaan 2 moon landing, isro live, isro moon landing, live chandrayaan 2, Vikram Sarabhai
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Discovering Vikram Sarabhai
I just read through a collection of Vikram Sarabhai’s important speeches and papers compiled by members of the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad, to pick a suitable portion to excerpt on the occasion of Sarabhai’s birth centenary tomorrow. There was … Continue reading
Posted in Science
Tagged birth centenary, Homi Jehangir Bhabha, IIT Madras, Indian Space Research Organisation, ISRO, Jawaharlal Nehru, Physical Research Laboratory, Vikram Sarabhai
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An award that isn’t
ISRO just put out a call for a one-time space journalism award, named for Vikram Sarabhai, with a cash prize of Rs 5 lakh. Here’s the doc with all the details. Pay attention to (4), where it says submissions will … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm
Tagged Akshay Kumar, Indian Space Research Organisation, ISRO, Jaggi Vasudev, Mission Mangal, science journalism, space journalism, Vikram Sarabhai
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A useful book to have around
India’s Rise as a Space Power is a book by Prof. Udupi Ramachandra Rao, former Chairman, ISRO (1988-1994), that provides some useful historical context of the space research organization from a scientist’s perspective, not an administrator’s. Through it, Prof. Rao … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Indian Space Research Organization, INSAT, Satish Dhawan, space research, Udupi Ramachandra Rao, Vikram Sarabhai
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