Great Scientists of India (Bharat )


Scientists of India have played a major and Important role in the development of India. In the short span of its post-independence history India has achieved several great scientific achievements. Indian scientists have proved their mettle in the face of international sanctions and have made India one of the scientific powerhouses of the world. Here is a brief profile of famous Indian scientists.

Homi Bhabha


Homi Bhabha, whose full name was Homi Jehnagir Bhabha, was a famous Indian atomic scientist. In Independent India, Homi Jehnagir Bhabha, with the support of Jawaharlal Nehru, laid the foundation of a scientific establishment and was responsible for the creation of two premier institutions, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and Bhabha Atomic Research Centre.

C.V. Raman

C.V. Raman is one of the most renowned scientists produced by India. His full name was Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman. For his pioneering work on scattering of light, C.V. Raman won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1930.


Jagdish Chandra Bose

Jagdish Chandra Bose was born on November 30, 1858 in Mymensingh (now in Bangladesh). His father Bhagabanchandra Bose was a Deputy Magistrate. Jagadish Chandra Bose had his early education in village school in Bengal medium.

Meghnad Saha

Meghnad Saha was born on October 6, 1893 in Sheoratali, a village in the District of Dacca, now in Bangladesh. He was the fifth child of his parents, Sri Jagannath Saha and Smt. Bhubaneshwari Devi. His father was a grocer in the village. Meghnad Saha had his early schooling in the primary school of the village.

M. Visvesvaraya

Sir M. Visvesvaraya was born on September 15, 1860 in Muddenahalli village in the Kolar district of the erstwhile princely state of Mysore (present day Karnataka). His father Srinivasa Sastry was a Sanskrit scholar and Ayurvedic practitioner. His mother Venkachamma was a religious lady. He lost his father when he was only 15 years old.

APJ Abdul Kalam

Apart from being a notable scientist and engineer, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam served as the 11th President of India from the period 2002 to 2007. He is a man of vision, who is always full of ideas aimed at the development of the country and is also often also referred to as the Missile Man of India.


Satyendra Nath Bose

Satyendra Nath Bose was an outstanding Indian physicist. He is known for his work in Quantum Physics. He is famous for "Bose-Einstein Theory" and a kind of particle in atom has been named after his name as Boson.

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar was one of the greatest scientists of the 20th century. He did commendable work in astrophysics, physics and applied mathematics. Chandrasekhar was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983.

Vikram Sarabhai

Vikram Sarabhai was one of the greatest scientists of India. He is considered as the Father of the Indian space program. Apart from being a scientist, he was a rare combination of an innovator, industrialist and visionary.

Anil Kakodkar

Dr Anil Kakodkar is a very distinguished nuclear scientist of India. He is presently the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission of India (AECI) as well as the Secretary to the Government of India, Department of Atomic Energy.

Birbal Sahni

Birbal Sahni was a renowned paleobotanist of India, who studied the fossils of the Indian subcontinent. Also a great geologist, Sahni is credited for establishing the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany at Lucknow in the state of Uttar Pradesh. Born on 14 November in the year 1891 at Behra in the Saharanpur District of West Punjab, Birbal was the third son of Ishwar Devi and Prof.

Har Gobind Khorana

Har Gobind Khorana is an American molecular biologist born on 9 January 1922 to an Indian Punjabi couple. For his work on the interpretation of the genetic code and its function in protein synthesis, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in the year 1968.

Srinivasa Ramanujan

Srinivasa Ramanujan was a mathematician par excellence. He is widely believed to be the greatest mathematician of the 20th Century. Srinivasa Ramanujan made significant contribution to the analytical theory of numbers and worked on elliptic functions, continued fractions, and infinite series.

Dr. Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar

Dr Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar was a distinguished Indian scientist. He was born on 21 February 1894 at Shahpur, which is located in Pakistan in present times. His father passed away sometime after the birth of Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar. As such, he spent his childhood days with his maternal grandfather who was an engineer and it was here that he developed an interest in science and engineering.

Quotes by King of Martyrs - Bhagat Singh

At the age of Twenty Three , if anyone was smiling just before he was being hanged to death, it was Shaheed-E-Azam Bhagat Singh. Bhagat Singh was one of the most prominent faces of Indian freedom struggle. He was a revolutionary ahead of his times. He gave up his life for the ideal of a free and better India! Despite great popular pressure and numerous appeals by political leaders of India, Bhagat Singh and his associates were hanged in the early hours of 23 March 1931. Their bodies were cremated on the bank of the Sutluj in Ferozepur. Bhagat Singh was just 23 at that time. Old timers say that in many places, not a single hearth fire burned that day. He has rightfully been given the title of Shaheed-e-Azam   (King of Martyrs)

Quotes by Bhagat Singh 

Let me announced with all the strength at my command, that I am not a terrorist and I never was, expected perhaps in the beginning of my revolutionary career. And I am convinced that we cannot gain anything through those methods. One can easily judge it from the history of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association. All our activities were directed towards an aim, i.e., identifying ourselves with the great movement as its military wing. If anybody has misunderstood me, let him amend his ideas. I do not mean that bombs and pistols are useless, rather the contrary. But I mean to say that mere bomb-throwing is not only useless but sometimes harmful. The military department of the party should always keep ready all the war-material it can command for any emergency. It should back the political work of the party. It cannot and should not work independently.

~ Bhagat Singh

We humbly claim to be no more than serious students of the history and conditions of our country and her aspirations. We despise hypocrisy.

- Bhagat Singh

Man acts only when he is sure of the justness of his action, as we threw the bomb in the Legislative Assembly.

- Bhagat Singh

We wanted to point out that according to the verdict of your court we had waged war and we’re therefore war prisoners. And we claim to be treated as such, i.e., we claim to be shot dead instead of to be hanged. It rests with you to prove that you really meant what your court has said.We request and hope that you will very kindly order the military department to send its detachment to perform our execution.

- Bhagat Singh

Do you mean to imply that had we not entered the field, no revolutionary work would have taken place at all? If this be your contention, then you are mistaken, though it is right that we also proved helpful to an extent in changing the environment. But, then, we are only a product of the need of our times.

- Bhagat Singh

I emphasise that I am full of ambition and hope and of full charm of life. But I can renounce all at the time of need, and that is the real sacrifice.

- Bhagat Singh

…by crushing individuals, they cannot kill ideas.

- Bhagat Singh

What hope should I entertain? I know that will be the end when the rope is tightened round my neck and the rafters move from under my feet. To use more precise religious terminology, that will be the moment of utter annihilation. My soul will come to nothing. If I take the courage to take the matter in the light of ?Reward?, I see that a short life of struggle with no such magnificent end shall itself be my ?Reward.? That is all. Without any selfish motive of getting any reward here or in the hereafter, quite disinterestedly have I devoted my life to the cause of freedom. I could not act otherwise.

- Bhagat Singh

We become pitiable and ridiculous when we imbibe an unreasoned mysticism in our life without any natural or substantial basis. People like us, who are proud to be revolutionary in every sense, should always be prepared to bear all the difficulties, anxieties, pain and suffering which we invite upon ourselves by the struggles initiated by us and for which we call ourselves revolutionary.

- Bhagat Singh

Love always elevates the character of man. It never lowers him, provided love be love.

- Bhagat Singh

Force when aggressively applied is “violence” and is, therefore, morally unjustifiable, but when it is used in the furtherance of a legitimate cause, it has its moral justification. The elimination of force at all costs in Utopian..

- Bhagat Singh Quotes

The sanctity of law can be maintained only so long as it is the expression of the will of the people.

- Bhagat Singh

If, as you believe there is an Almighty, Omnipresent, Omniscient God, who created the earth or universe, please let me know, first of all, as to why he created this world. This world which is full of woe and grief, and countless miseries, where not even one person lives in peace….Where is God? What is He doing? Is He getting a diseased pleasure out of it? A Nero! A Genghis Khan! Down with Him!

- Bhagat Singh

The dirty alliance between religious preachers and possessors of power brought the boon of prisons, gallows, knouts and above all such theories for the mankind.

- Bhagat Singh Quotes

Society must fight against this belief in God as it fought against idol worship and other narrow conceptions of religion. In this way man will try to stand on his feet. Being realistic, he will have to throw his faith aside and face all adversaries with courage and valour. That is exactly my state of mind.

- Bhagat Singh

It is necessary for every person who stands for progress to criticise every tenet of old beliefs. Item by item he has to challenge the efficacy of old faith. He has to analyse and understand all the details. If after rigorous reasoning, one is led to believe in any theory of philosophy, his faith is appreciated. His reasoning may be mistaken and even fallacious. But there is chance that he will be corrected because Reason is the guiding principle of his life. But belief, I should say blind belief is disastrous. It deprives a man of his understanding power and makes him reactionary.

- Bhagat Singh Quotes

…as I reject the old time beliefs, it is not a matter of countering belief with belief, rather I can challenge the efficacy of old beliefs with sound arguments. We believe in nature and that human progress depends on the domination of man over nature. There is no conscious power behind it. This is our philosophy.

- Bhagat Singh

For us, compromise never means surrender, but a step forward and some rest. That is all and nothing else.

- Bhagat Singh

There are certain people in the labour movement who enlist some absurd ideas about the economic liberty of the peasants and workers without political freedom. They are demagogues or muddle-headed people. Such ideas are unimaginable and preposterous. We mean the economic liberty of the masses, and for that very purpose we are striving to win the political power. No doubt in the beginning, we shall have to fight for little economic demands and privileges of these classes. But these struggles are the best means for educating them for a final struggles are the best means for educating them for a final struggle to conquer political power.

- Bhagat Singh

Inquilab Zindabad !

‘Revolution’ does not necessarily involve sanguinary strife nor is there any place in it for individual vendetta. It is not the cult of the bomb and the pistol. By ‘Revolution’ we mean that the present order of things, which is based on manifest injustice, must change.

- Bhagat Singh

Revolution is an inalienable right of mankind. Freedom is an imperishable birth right of all. Labour is the real sustainer of society. The sovereignty of the ultimate destiny of the workers.

- Bhagat Singh

The revolutionaries must always keep in mind that they are striving for a complete revolution.

~ Bhagat Singh

Merciless criticism and independent thinking are the two necessary traits of revolutionary thinking.

- Bhagat Singh

We have already very many such leaders who spare some evening hours for delivering speeches. They are useless. We require ? to use the term so dear to Lenin ? the “professional revolutionaries”. The whole-time workers who have no other ambitions or life-work except the revolution.

- Bhagat Singh

Crush your individuality first. Shake off the dreams of personal comfort. Then start to work. Inch by inch you shall have to proceed. It needs courage, perseverance and very strong determination. No difficulties and no hardships shall discourage you. No failure and betrayals shall dishearten you. No travails (!) imposed upon you shall snuff out the revolutionary will in you. Through the ordeal of sufferings and sacrifice you shall come out victorious. And these individual victories shall be the valuable assets of the revolution.

- Bhagat Singh

Let us declare that the state of war does exist and shall exist so long as the Indian toiling masses and the natural resources are being exploited by a handful of parasites. They may be purely British Capitalist or mixed British and Indian or even purely Indian. They may be carrying on their insidious exploitation through mixed or even on purely Indian bureaucratic apparatus. All these things make no difference. “…..The war neither began with us nor is it going to end with our lives.”

- Bhagat Singh

I love My INDIA

I Love My India
East or West , India is the Best
INDIA IS GREAT 
MERA BHARAT MAHAN

Indian Culture and sacrifice 


The thing that I love most about being Indian is living in a cultured society. I can speak my language very well without faltering.I love Indian foods, our dresses and beautiful places. I always respect and love people who sacrifice their lives and who are still struggling for the sake of India. In future, I would like to have a job in India rather than go abroad. 


India all the way

The best thing about being an Indian is that you belong to the most colorful and beautiful country in the whole world. Every state, every city in India has a different history to tell. I also like the variety of seasons, the food, clothes and the rich culture. Indians are the most intelligent of all. An Indian will serve India in every possible way. 


To be an Indian is a honor. I'm proud to be an Indian because I am in a country where people from different castes co-exist. We manage to live together, celebrate each other's festival and respect each other. We speak many languages. There is no place like India.


India is a country with a rich culture and heritage  .There's such a variety of food, dances and heritage sites, India is a great country. I am proud to be an Indian because I belong to a land full of warm people, great food, cool places and the Himalayas. There is no place like India in the whole world.

Brothers one and all

In which country will you find a Muslim president, a Sikh prime minister, a Christian ruling party leader and a Hindu vice-president ruling our nation? Isn't that proof enough to show brotherhood & Love exists in My India ? What more reason can one state to say that I'm proud to be Indian


Variety is the spice in India

I love my India because we have such a rich culture, different customs, costumes, languages and spicy food! India is the true example for the phrase variety is the spice of life.

Love still exists in INDIA

Being an Indian makes you different firstly. I love to be an Indian because love and affection still exists in India. The country still has tradition , values and culture.

India Forum

Facts About India

Proud to be Indian
Interesting Facts about India to Make you Feel Proud to be an Indian.

  • India is the world's largest, oldest, continuous civilization.
  • India never invaded any country in her last 10000 years of history।
  • India is the world's largest democracy
  • Varanasi, also known as Benares, was called "the ancient city" when Lord Buddha visited it in 500 B।C.E, and is the oldest, continuously inhabited city in the world today.
  • India invented the Number System 
  • Zero was invented by Aryabhatta.
  • Sanskrit is the mother of all the European languages. Sanskrit is the most suitable language for computer software - a report in Forbes magazine, July 1987
  • Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to humans। Charaka, the father of medicine consolidated Ayurveda 2500 years ago. Today Ayurveda is fast regaining its rightful place in our civilization.
  • Although modern images of India often show poverty and lack of development, India was the richest country on earth until the time of British invasion in the early 17th Century। Christopher Columbus was attracted by India's wealth.
  • The art of Navigation was born in the river Sindhu 6000 years ago। The very word Navigation is derived from the Sanskrit word NAVGATIH. The word navy is also derived from Sanskrit 'Nou'.
  • Bhaskaracharya calculated the time taken by the earth to orbit the sun hundreds of years before the astronomer Smart। Time taken by earth to orbit the sun: (5th century) 365.258756484 days.
  • The value of pi was first calculated by Budhayana, and he explained the concept of what is known as the Pythagorean Theorem। He discovered this in the 6th century long before the European mathematicians.
  • Algebra, trigonometry and calculus came from India। Quadratic equations were by Sridharacharya in the 11th century. The largest numbers the Greeks and the Romans used were 106 whereas Hindus used numbers as big as 10**53(10 to the power of 53) with specific names as early as 5000 BCE during the Vedic period. Even today, the largest used number is Tera 10**12(10 to the power of 12).
  • IEEE has proved what has been a century old suspicion in the world scientific community that the pioneer of wireless communication was Prof. Jagdish Bose and not Marconi।
  • The earliest reservoir and dam for irrigation was built in Saurashtra
  • According to Saka King Rudradaman I of 150 CE a beautiful lake called Sudarshana was constructed on the hills of Raivataka during Chandragupta Maurya's time।
  • Chess (Shataranja or AshtaPada) was invented in India।
  • Sushruta is the father of surgery. 2600 years ago he and health scientists of his time conducted complicated surgeries like cesareans, cataract, artificial limbs, fractures, urinary stones and even plastic surgery and brain surgery. Usage of anesthesia was well known in ancient India. Over 125 surgical equipment were used। Deep knowledge of anatomy, physiology, etiology, embryology, digestion, metabolism, genetics and immunity is also found in many texts.
  • When many cultures were only nomadic forest dwellers over 5000 years ago, Indians established Harappan culture in Sindhu Valley (Indus Valley Civilization)।
  • The four religions born in India, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism, are followed by 25% of the world's population।
  • The place value system, the decimal system was developed in India in 100 BC।
  • India is one of the few countries in the World, which gained independence without violence.
  • India has the second largest pool of Scientists and Engineers in the World।
  • India is the largest English speaking nation in the world
  • India is the only country other than US and Japan, to have built a super computer indigenous. 
  •  
    MERA BHARAT MAHAN

India Forums

Proud to be Indian


Indian Discussion Forums for Indians who love India and want to speak up ! Please do Join us at  http://www.proud2bindian.in for all the latest news , World affairs and discussions related to India.

Join to Tell the world Why are you Proud to be Indian  and share your patriotic feelings with more than one billion Indians.

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JAI HIND !

Proud to be Indian - Let's Make India Proud

An individual India   can not bring a Big change but together we Proud Indians   can make a big difference. The pace at which we Indians are moving ahead is slow. It would take two generations before India would be known as the Greatest Nation of the world..






The main Goals are:
  • End corruption in India  
  • At least 90% literacy rate nation wide.
  • Better infrastructure in India
  • Solve Health Issues   and Better health facilities in India
  • Equality

Few Indians Say : Impossible !

"we are daily witnessing the phenomenon of the impossible of yesterday becoming the possible of today " - M.k Gandhi


We Indians have achieved a lot and I am proud of it. But we Indians can do much more than this :
  • The largest democratic country
  • Indian Economy   is One of the largest economies
  • One of the most culturally diverse countries
  • Indian Growth rate of over 9 % and India rising
  • Indian Military Might,one of the wold's strongest
  • World renowned Indian Technical and Management universities-IIT,IIM
  • Indian Self sufficiency in agriculture and in certain industrial sectors
  • Indian Open economy,helps in trade with other countries
  • Abundant resources,natural and Human resources
  • India Travel   Tourism : Some of the top few Famous destinations ,Tourist Places are in India
  • Indian Growth in the industrial sector
  • Freedom for the press in India , Free Indian Media
  • Indian Space program (ISRO) , Defence Research and Development and Nuclear Technology


But Communal violence destroys the unity among Indians mainly caused by political reasons  are
Hurdles before the growth of Indian Economy  .There are many Indians who are not proud of India   and complain about it...There is no point migrating to other countries and being proud of that country..

Now is the time for you to be Proud Indians   and make a difference. Help India in any way possible. India Your knowledge ,Your skill ,Your time your Ideas are all helpful in Developing India and making India a Great Nation. We Need You, India needs you..The problems you cant' ignore it..you can't discard it but you can change it.

You are India,The way you react is how India will react. For those who gave their lives for our Freedom or independence...for those who died protecting our Mother India....for  you.. For our future generation..for ourselves.Today is the day..make the right choice..I have made mine ..now its your turn..strive for a better India..be a proud Indian   and Join us !

Garv se Kaho Mai INDIAN Hoon.
MERA BHARAT MAHAN   !!


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By the Indians..
To the Indians....

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Nobel laureates of india

Nobel prize is considered to be the most Prestigious prize in the world. It is awarded annually to people or institutions for Outstanding contributions in a variety of fields for the upliftment of the society. The prize is named after Alfred Nobel, who in his will directed that the interest of the funds be set aside and used to give one annual prize in each of the five fields of
 
PHYSICS   CHEMISTRY    PHYSIOLOGY   MEDICINE   LITERATURE 


The most effective work in the interest of International Peace.The prizes were first presented in 1901. The sixth prize-The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences- was instituted by National Bank of Sweden and was first awarded in 1969. Here is a collection of all the Indians who have won Nobel prizes.

NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS


  • Name
  • Field
  • Literature
  • Physics
  • Medicine
  • International Peace
  • Physics
  • Economic Sciences

United States Offers India Thorium Based Nuclear Reactors


While India is still debating how to make the Indo-US nuclear deal work, an American company, anxious to enter the Indian market, has offered to build commercial nuclear power reactors in the country.

These reactors will rely entirely on India's thorium resources -- except at the start - and thereby remove the objections of critics.

The California-based Dauvergne Brothers Inc (DBI) says its novel type of thorium breeder reactor is fuelled with fissile material like uranium only once when it is started. It runs for its full operational life on Uranium-233 (or U-233) bred in its core from thorium.

Thorium, which India has in plenty, cannot be directly burned in a reactor. It has to be converted into fissile U-233. India's own thorium utilisation strategy hinges on reprocessing -- a contentious issue between India and the US. The DBI claims its design is tailor-made for the Indian situation.

According to the company, its reactor 'starts up using conventional uranium-based nuclear fuels, and incrementally converts to an all-thorium fuel cycle over a period of 10 years, using India's abundant supply of thorium ores to maintain energy independence'.

It said that computer simulations of the DBI thorium breeder reactor show that a single load of 25 percent uranium oxide fuel and 75 percent thorium oxide will keep the reactor running for a decade.

'In that time enough U-233 will be bred in the thorium oxide fuel to increase the output power of the DBI reactor core by 50 percent adding only fresh thorium oxide as fuel.' After that, no uranium ores are needed.

Conventional breeder reactor designs -- including the one contemplated by Indian scientists -- require chemical reprocessing to retrieve bred fuel from used uranium fuel rods or from irradiated thorium' blankets'.

The DBI reactor, according to the company, uses a different strategy.

After approximately 10 years of operation, much of the activated thorium fuel would be transferred without any reprocessing into a second-generation DBI reactor core with higher power output than the first.

'Fresh thorium breeder bundles will be added to perpetuate the cycle.'

This fuel plan relies on a robust, low-neutron absorbing, radiation-resistant, proprietary fuel encapsulation system developed by DBI, the company said.

Unlike the zirconium fuel cladding of most breeder reactors, the DBI fuel capsules are derived from industrially available material, much less expensive than nuclear-grade zirconium alloys.

While the modular core design offers scalability, several other features of the DBI thorium reactor programme could prevent weapons proliferation, the company claims.

For instance, it says the start up fuel could be a proliferation-resistant fuel, such as the denatured plutonium/thorium fuel recently developed by Thorium Power Inc, another US company.

'International agreements between India and uranium-source nations to use proliferation-resistant fuels in the DBI Reactor Programme, subject to IAEA monitoring, could sever the link between civilian and military nuclear programmes in India, without adversely affecting India's ability to scale up the DBI Reactor Programme using native thorium in future generations,' the company said.

Indian Army Chief warned China



Indian Army Chief General J.J. Singh warned China against any misadventures the Communist Regime may attempt on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) that separates the two Asian giants.

"I can assure you that a 1962-like situation will not be repeated. We are fully prepared to defend our borders," Singh said during a media interaction at Fort William, the Army's Eastern Command headquarters here in Kolkata (formerly known as Calcutta).

Necessary infrastructure was being developed in Arunachal Pradesh which borders China. Roads have been built upto Walong and would be constructed right up to Dichu located along the border, he said. Asked about reports of incursions by the Chinese into the the Fish Tail-II area between Dichu and Madan Ridge in Arunachal Pradesh, he said the matter had been amicably settled at the local level.

"There is no cause for concern about Madan Ridge. Flag meetings are held at the local level and the issue has been settled without tension," Singh said. Both India and China were handling the boundary issue with maturity, he said, adding, "the National Security Agency on our side and its Chinese counterpart have taken the right approach in settling the boundary issue."

Pointing out that a Sino-Indian joint military exercise was slated next month, he said it would help the two countries learn from each other's experiences.

Source : http://www.india-defence.com/reports-3552

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Sunita Williams Ready To Associate With Indian Space Missions


Friday 28th of September 2007

American astronaut of Indian origin Sunita Williams said here Friday that she is ready to associate with Indian space missions to moon and beyond.

'I will definitely participate in missions India is planning to space and moon later. I would like to be part of them when they are launched in international partnership,' Sunita told reporters at the 58th International Astronautical Congress (IAC) on the concluding day.

The 42-year-old space woman also expressed her willingness to assist the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in its proposed manned mission with the wealth of experience she gained orbiting the earth from the International Space Station (ISS) for over six months this year.

'Though I am presently working with the US military as a naval officer and am an astronaut with the US space programme, I will consider it a privilege and honour to offer my expertise and share what I have learnt in such scientific and exploratory missions,' Sunita asserted.

Even though she would love to go back to space again and again, Sunita said she would rather allow others to go, as there were more folks out there waiting for a chance like her.

'Having been up there once, I would like to see others go. And when India launches its manned mission, I don't want to snatch the opportunity to be the first person (woman or man) to go into space or to the moon.

'If more people go to space, are able to work in this sphere and see how our planet looks like, with a 3-D (three dimension) effect of the darkness of space, we will have a lot more people coming back, relaying the different sections on the earth and making people understand that we are really a borderless world and can live together peacefully,' Sunita said.

Recounting her experiences on board the ISS and their domino effect on her outlook, Sunita said though such missions were challenging and dangerous, they were worth the risk, as they gave an opportunity to push the human spirit on the space frontier and understand the benefits of the experiments conducted in outer space.

'Space exploration involves the cutting-edge of science and technology and the spirit of human endeavour. By taking up space journeys, we are pushing the edge of science and technology, which has spin-off applications. Such missions make people think out of box.

'Earth is two-dimensional (2-D) when viewed from here, but is three-dimensional when seen from space. Going into space is absolutely necessary and is the right thing to do,' Sunita said.

Asked whether space colonies would emerge for the survival of human race and to sustain life on earth, she said such a possibility might arise if the world is burdened with more people and the resources deplete.

'I don't have the magic crystal ball to predict whether and when human colonies would come up though eminent physicist Stephen Hawking hinted about them in his book (The Brief of History Time).

'I think we need to look into the mirror and understand what we are doing to earth and whether we can sustain our planet by adding people at the current rate. We need to, however, do the space exploration to have the ground work so that we can sustain the human race and allow life to continue,' Sunita added.

Ram Setu must not be touched

Ques 1 : Is the Ram Sethu an underwater bridge connecting India and Sri Lanka ?

Answer : Yes. It connects to Sri Lanka at a place called Talaimannar (not Jaffna - Yazhpaanam) The bridge is to the north of the port of Tuticorin. This means large ships between Chennai and Tuticorin (within the same state of TN) have to circumnavigate Sri Lanka. Small ships have no problem, see :



Ques 2. Is the Ram Sethu unbroken ?
Is there no gap, say in between where we can dredge ?

Ans : No, there is no gap. Remember, you can only dredge in Indian territorial waters.

Ques 3: Arent you being crazy, Mr ? You say you support the Sethusamudram project, you also say the bridge must not be touched, you also say no natural gaps exist in the bridge. How is it possible ?

Ans : First, a geography lesson.


The Indian mainland ends at a place called Mandapam on the rocky waters of the Palk Strait. Proceeding in a south easterly direction over the Palk Strait for 2.5 kilometers you will reach the island of Rameswaram ( http://www.mapsofindia.com/maps/tamilnadu/districts/ramanathapuram.htm ) famous for its Ramanathaswamy temple. The 2.5 km Palk Strait is bridged by both rail and road via the Pamban bridge ( http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2003/11/21/stories/2003112101991700.htm ) This bridge already has a span in it that allows limited ships of moderate draft to pass through.

Once inside Rameswaram island you can proceed further in a south easterly direction for about 30 kms over a sandy causeway to a place called Danushkodi. The name Danushkodi refers to Rama’s bow. It was from here that Rama’s army constructed the bridge to Talaimannar according to Hindu faith.

The Ram Sethu bridge starts immediately from the head-end of Danushkodi and until it terminates at the other end in Talaimannar, it is unbroken in its entire stretch for the next 48 kms. There are no natural gaps which can be taken advantage of.

So, the Ram Sethu is not from India to Talaimannar, but from Danushkodi to Talaimannar. You can build the Sethusamudram canal without touching the Ram Sethu via the Palk Strait route



(see blue line in the map above)

There are other very serious objections to the proposed alignment via the Ram Sethu. They range from economics (toll cost of navigating channel vs circumnavigating SL), logistics (international vessels will anyway take a wide sweep around SL on the high seas), tonnage (large vessels such as oil tankers cannot pass), maintenance (shifting sand banks will threaten any canal). The most important being the ecological impact, the millions of cubic metres of dredged sand and broken coral will have to be dumped in Indian territorial waters only. These will seriously threaten the rich fishing industry in that belt

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Geological questions :

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India is thinking of Space-based laser weapons Durga and Kali.



The Brahmos cruise missile programme was perhaps the most hush-hush of India's missile projects. The long-range missile programme Surya is heard of at least through official denials. The reusable missile launcher-cum-hyperplane Avatar, the most ambitious of all projects, is openly talked about. Questions are asked at least in aerospace circles about the 'forgotten' Durga and Kali, though replies are rarely given. Agni-III is a matter of logical conjecture and extension of Agni-II.


(The defence minister had claimed last November "India has the capability to design and develop an ICBM having a range of more than 5,000 km. However, in consonance with the threat perception, no ICBM development project has been undertaken.")


But Brahmos is altogether a new name, though there has been talk about a cruise missile programme for some time. The success of Lakshya and Nishant is said to have given the Aeronautical Development Establishment the expertise to work on the cruise missile. However, till recently ADE authorities were claiming that they were engaged only in 'concept studies', and far from developing or even planning a cruise missile.


The 280 km-range missile, presently configured as an anti-ship weapon, is one of the few supersonic cruise missiles in the world. Ballistic missiles fly in a ballistic trajectory, much like a bullet. Their longer-range versions have to go up into the heavens and face problems when they re-enter the atmosphere. The enemy can also trace their launchers by calculating the ballistic trajectory and destroy them.

A cruise missile, on the other hand, is like an unmanned plane, flying at low altitude. Before launch it is fed information about the terrain over which it has to fly and the missile flies either by comparing the fed-in data with the camera pictures it takes or by constantly identifying its location with the help of global positioning systems.


Over sea, a cruise missile has a definite advantage over a ballistic one. The enemy ship out at sea can hide behind the earth's curvature against a ballistic missile, which flies straight. On the contrary, a cruise missile can fly long ranges parallel to the surface and, if needed, a few meters above it. Brahmos's supersonic speed gives the enemy very little reaction time. The Indo-Russian Brahmos is learnt to be the starting point of an ambitious cruise missile programme. Studies have been going on for the last three years at the National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) on the cost-effectiveness of a hypersonic missile (which fly at five or more times the speed of sound). Parallel studies in the US and Europe have concluded that the future belongs to hypersonic missiles. The US is already developing the F-16 into a hypersonic fighter.

Studies in India, not only at NAL but DRDL (the DRDO's missile lab), IIT Mumbai and ADE, are learnt to be running parallel to and not behind the Euro-American ventures. The hyperplane Avatar, the most ambitious of all, is already reaching the end of the conceptual stage and entering the planning stage. The kerosene-fuelled scramjet-powered vehicle is claimed to be much cheaper than the design concepts worked in the US, Germany, the UK and Japan.


The idea is to develop a vehicle that can take off from conventional airfields, collect air in the atmosphere on the way up, liquefy it, separate oxygen and store it on board for subsequent flight beyond the atmosphere. In fact, Air Commodore R. Gopalaswami, former chairman and managing director of Bharat Dynamics, India's missile factory, had once claimed that it could be developed even into a commercial transporter. Incidentally, it was Gopalaswami who suggested the name Avatar.

Avatar is primarily intended as a reusable missile launcher, one that can launch missiles, land back and is loaded again for more missions. The vehicle will be designed to permit at least a hundred re-entries into the atmosphere. The vehicle could also act as a satellite launcher at a hundredth of the present cost of launching satellites. A miniature Avatar, which is also being conceived, would be hardly bigger than a MiG-25 or an F-16.


Meanwhile, there is also talk of developing Nishant into a cruise missile. The present vehicle, an unmanned battlefield surveillance vehicle that can carry a payload of 45 kilos, completing test phase at ADE, is powered by a German Alvisar-801 engine. Nishant's cruise missile potential had been pointed out three years ago by Air Marshal Bharat Kumar in a United Services Institution (USI) research paper: "Nishant holds a lot of promise and provides us a take-off vehicle for potential UCAVs (uninhabited combat aerial vehicles) applications as well as (a) cruise missile programme."

With the limited production of the 200-km Agni-II having already begun, the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme is almost at the end of its fiery run. Indeed, a few of the short-range tactical missiles like Nag, Trishul, Akash, the naval Prithvi (otherwise called Dhanush) and Astra are yet to be fully developed or tested, but it is only a matter of time before they are. Space-based laser weapons are another frontier technology that the military brass is thinking of. Recently the chiefs of staff committee ordered a feasibility study on them.(Incidentally, the Air Force is already demanding that India set up an aerospace command.) The DRDO, however, had anticipated this and already begun research.

One system that has been talked of in a USI paper by Dr V. Siddhartha, officer on special duty in the secretariat of the scientific adviser to the defence minister, is Durga or directionally unrestricted ray-gun array. Though no details on this are available, it is said to be an Indian version of the US's Star Wars project in which in-coming missiles can be shot down, or burnt down, by laser guns based in space. Still less known is Kali or kinetic attack loitering interceptor, a more advanced version of Durga.

However, all video-game gadgetry presupposes matching advances in space technology, both in launch vehicles and military reconnaissance satellites. Without capable launch vehicles, none of these can be lifted into space. With the recent success of the geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle, the ISRO has acquired heavy-lift capability. Work has already begun on a hypersonic launch vehicle, which would be the forerunner to Avatar.


The more recent of the IRS series satellites are said to have limited military reconnaissance capability. The recent military exercises in the Rajasthan desert did make extensive use of IRS pictures, but military demands higher resolution pictures. According to Dr Siddhartha's paper, Satish Dhawan [former ISRO chairman] had talked in 1996 of a national early warning and response system (NEWARS), a space-sensor and communications-based integrated space-ground system meant exclusively for peaceful purposes. Siddhartha superposed on Dhawan's techno-scenario diagram a series of operational military reconnaissance satellites named Sanjaya.

Cruise missiles may be the currency of power today. But the currency of future would be Avatar, Durga and Kali.

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